“SIGN OF THE PROPHET JONAS”
Saint Luke 21: 25-36
Populus Zion: 6 December Anno Domini 2015
Father Jay Watson SSP
Cultists of all stripes, Protestant sectarians, and even some so-called “Lutherans,” all mis-exegete this morning’s Gospel text. The fantasies of Millennialists and huckster prognosticators are of the devil. No “both/and” on this text. You either believe All the Words of The Lord, most especially His clear and unambiguous teachings on His Second Advent, or you stand with the non-believing Sadducees, Pharisees, and Lawyers demanding He prove His claims like the gutter-criminal and liar they maintained He was.
“Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees, answered, saying ‘we would see a sign from thee,’ but He answered and said unto them, ‘an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the Prophet Jonas.’”
The sign is The Word and The Word is both the sign and the reality that the sign signifies. The sign of the Holy Cross + is Christ crucified for your sins; it is the sign of your Baptismal washing, regeneration, and incorporation; it IS Christ in you and you in Christ. You see it in a Crucifix!
The signs in the sun are not increased solar flares or possibilities of a collapsing star. The signs in the moon are not werewolf producing, Zionist fantasy “blood” harbingers, or collisions with earth. And most assuredly, the perplexity over the sea and waves roaring, along with goof-ball theories about ice-caps melting are but the insane ramblings of those who worship their own bellies and not the Blessed Trinity.
This is the day that The Lord hath made. This is the great Day of The Lord for IMMANUEL. He is here where two or three are gathered in + His Name. He tabernacles amongst His Baptized: “lo I Am with you always unto the end of the age.” The end of the age has come upon you. “I Am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.” [Rev. 22.13].
The sign of the Prophet Jonas is your salvation in these last dark and dangerous days. “But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law.” [Gal. 4.4-5a] It is finished said the God/Man at Calvary. The end of the age is here. The last times, the New Testament has arrived. The Apostle urges repentance and rigor: “…these things happened…for examples…written for [y]our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” [1 Cor. 10.11] Peter writes: “…there shall come in the last days scoffers…” [2 Pe. 3.3] They scoffed at the Son of Man while He was hanging on the tree and they still scoff this very day. These are the last days: behold the sign of Jonas. “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of The Lord’s House shall be established in the top of the mountains…and all nations shall flow unto it” writes Esaias [2.2] Saint Micah says the same thing.
This truth was shared with Peter at Pentecost: “…in the last days saith God I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh…and I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood and fire, and vapor of smoke.” [Acts 2. 17,19] [Rev. 3]
Don’t look to Hollywood movies about cataclysmic weather or astronomical disasters; believe The Word. Don’t rely on difficult Bible passages but cling to the clear Word and Light of Christ.
No sign but the sign + of the Prophet Jonas. The Sun, not a ball of gas, but The Son of The Father hanging from bleeding wrists shows what Grace and forgiveness, obedience and love really look like. The solar sphere darkened for three hours to better illumine the Light of Life even as He suffered and died. The moon and the stars are Christ’s evangelizing angels, pastors, and brethren, reflecting His Transfigured Glory of The Cross into the entire world. The earth’s tempestuous seas of trials and tribulations calmed to a sea of glass by His Peace even as the Sea of Galilee was stilled by His Peace: His Word—His Presence!
This present physical planet and universe, as it currently exists, will pass away—maybe before the service today concludes: “but of the times and seasons brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of The Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” [1 Thess. 5.1] And again Matthew records Christ: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My Words shall not pass away. But of that day and hour knoweth no man, not the angels of heaven.” [Mt. 24. 35-36] If Saint Gabriel does not know than neither do crack-pot televangelists…nor you.
He watches you. He prays always for you. He intercedes with His Body and Blood that counts you worthy to escape all the things that will come to pass. You have no signs save the sign of Jonas: “…for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” [Mt. 12. 40] This sign was and is a reality. This Christ gives little signs of Eternal realities—look to them and you have Him: Water +, Absolution of His Word +, and Body and Blood of His meal.
Signs? The Word (Holy Words of Scripture) is filled with them. The new birth of Abram and the miraculous births of Isaac, Joseph, Samson, Samuel and John the Baptist, are your + re-birth. The healings of Naaman, Hezekiah, the Shunammite and the widow of Zarephath’s sons, the 10 Lepers, the woman with a flow of blood, blind Bartimaeus and Lazarus from the tomb, are your healings. The mercy shown to lying Jacob, adultering David, cowardly Elias, traitorous Peter and murdering Paul…is His mercy to you: NOW!
An interesting pericope, striking imagery to be sure, and the very Word of God…but, “there shall be no sign, + but of the Prophet Jonas.”
“God, Who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the Prophets, hath in these LAST days spoken unto us by His Son.” [Heb. 1.1]
Come quickly Lord Jesus.
In the Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
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