Trinity 21

God often gives signs. To Noah He gave the sign of the rainbow as a reminder of His promise never again to destroy life on the earth with water. To Abraham He gave the sign of circumcision as a reminder of His promise that in Abraham all the earth would be blessed. To Gideon God gave the sign of a fleece wet with dew while the ground was dry, and the next morning a dry fleece while the ground was wet with dew. And of course we have the great sign promised by God through the prophet Isaiah: "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.’"

Jesus is that Son born of the Virgin May and called Immanuel: God with us. And as the Son of God, Jesus gave signs and did miracles. So why did Jesus respond to Pharisees and Sadducees as He did?

These men had come to Jesus seeking a sign from heaven. But they do so not because they have a weak faith which they desire to get stronger. Rather, they ask for a sign out of doubt and rejection. They do not believe in Jesus. They just want to test Him, to make Him prove to them who He is and where He came from.

Jesus, of course, knows their plan. He knows that their desire is not for Him to prove who He is, but they want Him to fail. So Jesus begins by telling them they know how to read signs already. Don’t they know what red sky at night means? Or red sky at morning? To this day we have that saying, "Red sky at night, sailor’s delight; red sky in morning, sailors take warning." Jesus’ point is that just like they know how to read the signs in the sky, they can read the signs He has already given them. It is not as if the signs were not there. Jesus has given many signs. But He knows that signs are not going to convince His enemies. So He says there’s just one sign for them, the sign of Jonah.

The sign of Jonah was spoken of by Jesus earlier in St. Matthew’s Gospel. Matthew assumes that here in Chapter 16, we are already aware of what Jesus said in Chapter 12: "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus are the sign that these men must deal with. They will not get another. They will either believe Jesus or not. They will always find some reason to doubt His words and signs in their unbelief. So Jesus will not pander to their suspicion; He will not accommodate their skepticism. No, they must become aware of the truth: they stand in the presence of the God they pretend to worship, but in whom they do not put their trust. So the title Jesus gives them, "Hypocrites," is well-deserved. They pretend to believe, they pretend to worship, they go through the motions, they give a good show, but their hearts are far from God. Jesus knows this.

"A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign...." These words of Jesus would have struck deep against His enemies. They knew that Jesus was speaking the language of a prophet of the Old Testament. They would recognize here the charge against their ancestors from Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Micah, and others. Ezekiel explains for us what this adultery is about: "For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols, and even sacrificed their sons whom they bore to Me, passing them through the fire, to devour them" (Ez 23:37). The prophets often used the vocabulary of adultery for idolatry. The people of God were the bride, God was the groom. The bride has gone to those who are not her husband; the bride has committed spiritual adultery by following false gods. Jesus’ enemies know this. So they know exactly what Jesus means when He calls them an "adulterous generation." This is not about breaking the Sixth Commandment: "You shall not commit adultery." It is about breaking the First Commandment: "You shall have no other gods."

To deny Jesus, to doubt His Word and His miracles, is committing spiritual adultery. It is about fearing, loving, and trusting someone or something more than Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Son of Mary. To reject Jesus is to reject God, for He is the true God in the flesh and blood of us mortals.

To this day people continue to expect signs from God over and above the great signs He has given to His Church on earth. God has given us His Gospel, His Word as brought to us through the Holy Scriptures. For too many this word is not enough, and must be supplemented by our own experience or our own wants and desires. God’s clear Word is perverted and twisted, so that souls are not given the clear sign of the Virgin-born Son of God who is God with us, but a lie that directs them to look within themselves for true meaning. For too many the signs of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, outward things connected with the powerful and life-giving word of God, are mere actions performed by Christians to show their faith, instead of being the ways by which God works in us the forgiveness of our sins, as we are connected with Jesus’ sign of Jonah: His crucifixion and resurrection. "We are buried with Christ by Baptism into death, that just as He was raised from the dead, so also we should walk in newness of life." As we are given the body and blood of Jesus in communion "You proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes."

Our own generation is not exempt from Jesus’ charge of spiritual adultery. So our Lord must continue to have His Church on earth point to the cross, to the empty tomb, to water, to bread and wine, to pastors who are called to proclaim the Gospel. For in these simple ways, in these simple signs, God continues to give us what He knows we need, instead of what we determine is best for us.

May God help us so that we do not follow the adulterous generation as they deny and reject Jesus Christ and His saving Word. Rather, let us pay attention to His signs, to His Word. There only do we have the forgiveness of our sins, forgiveness even for this adultery, as we turn away from the gods of this generation, and abide with Jesus, our faithful and patient bridegroom. Amen.

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