Jesus is more than kings (Solomon) and prophets (Jonah)!

Luke 11:29-32

Now as the crowds were [increasingly] thronging Him, He began to say, “This present generation is a wicked one; it seeks and demands a sign (miracle), but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah [the prophet]. For [just] as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will also the Son of Man be [a sign] to this age and generation. The queen of the South will arise in the judgment with the people of this age and generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the [inhabited] earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and notice, here is more than Solomon. The men of Nineveh will appear as witnesses at the judgment with this generation and will condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, here is more than Jonah.

Food for thought!

Great number of people kept coming to Jesus, not to get Jesus but his miracles. Sounds familiar? Many people today go to Jesus not because of Jesus himself but in search of miracles of Jesus; many go to church not of Jesus but because of someone. This is what Jesus is condemning in the Gospel reading.

Not only Jesus, we too experience this phenomenon in our lives. There are people who seek us only when they're in need; they come to get what we have and never to give us what we need. This is what Jesus condemns. "This present generation is a wicked one; it seeks and demands a sign (miracle), but no sign shall be given to it." Jesus is saying that the people of his time came to him for his miracles. They forgot that miracles are everywhere.

God comes and lives in the ordinary. That is why the best way to serve the Lord is to do our ordinary and daily duties extraordinarily well. If we had the eyes of the queen of Sheba or of the people of Nineveh, we would see God all in all the ordinary. Yes, God is not only in the churches but everywhere, including in our offices, homes, streets and neighbourhood.

Long ago, the queen of the South came from the far away just to listen to Solomon because she saw in Solomon the hand of God. And later the prophet Jonah preached to the people of Nineveh, and because of his sermons, the people repented. In other words, the people were able to go beyond the man of God to the God of the man.

Jesus is saying that he is more than the king Solomon and the prophet Jonah. Jesus is more than kings and prophets. Jesus is God made visible. Jesus "is the image of the unseen God coming into existence before all living things; For by him all things were made, in heaven and on earth, things seen and things unseen, authorities, lords, rulers, and powers; all things were made by him and for him; He is before all things, and in him all things have being." (Col. 1:15-17). To him be praise and honour and glory, both now and forever. Amen.