GOSPEL POWER l JULY 18, 2022 -  MONDAY

16th Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel: Mt 12:38-42

 38Some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth. 41The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here! 42The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here!” 

The scribes and Pharisees are eyewitnesses to many of Jesus’ mighty deeds, but something keeps them suspicious. The sign they now seek is a heavenly certification that Jesus is truly from God, authorized to teach and act as he does. This demand for his divine credentials is prompted by the fact that Jesus projects an image of God that disturbs them and threatens their status quo. He intimately calls God “Father” and portrays him as compassionate, pro-poor, open to foreigners and a lover of sinners. Jesus calls this sign-seeking generation of scribes and Pharisees “evil and unfaithful,” for the images of God that he presents are all Scripture-based. They, as experts in Scripture, ought to be the first to recognize them. But, if these images of God scandalize them, how much more will the sign of Jonah in the belly of the fish, that speaks of God laying down his life for the sake of others. Jesus’ own death and rising in three days will be the only certification of his divine origin. 

Lord Jesus, grant us a faith that never looks for proofs and signs. Amen.