16TH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME – YEAR C, MONDAY

Theme: The Only Sign

By: Rev. Fr. Fredrick Kiwanuka

MATHEW 12:38-42

“The Jews.” Said Paul, “demand signs” (1Cor 1:22). It was characteristic of the Jews that they asked signs and wonders from those who claimed to be the messengers of God.

“Teacher, we want to see you work some signs”. A shallow question. The product of shallow minds. It was as if they said, “Prove your claims by doing something extraordinary.” – Something that would astound them and shock all history. They desired to see God in the abnormal; they forgot that we are never nearer to God, and God never shows himself to us so much and so continually as in the ordinary things of everyday.

What greater sign did the Pharisees need? Was not the very sign of their envy and hatred, their unbelief and their prejudice – was not this a sign that Jesus was a true prophet of God?

Jesus said that the only sign that would be given to this nation was the sign of Jonah the Prophet, a man who converted not his own people, but foreigners, sincere men who accepted faith when it was given to them. In this sign of Jonah, Jesus predicted two events: His own glorious resurrection, and the conversion of a new race, a new people, who would listen to him when his own people had closed their ears. These foreign people, accepting their saviour with joy, would be on hand to judge those chosen people who had rejected him.

In our daily lives, are we too asking Jesus for a sign? Jesus responds to us, “I am God’s sign.” Have you failed to recognise me? The Ninevites recognised God’s warning in Jonah: The Queen of Sheba recognised God’s Wisdom in Solomon. In me, there has come to you a greater wisdom than Solomon ever had, and a greater message than Jonah ever brought: Are you so blind that you cannot see the truth and so deaf that you cannot hear the warning?

Here is a tremendous truth – Jesus is God’s sign just as Jonah was God’s message to the Ninevites and Solomon God’s wisdom to the Queen of Sheba. The one real question in life is “What is our reaction when we are confronted with God in Jesus Christ? Is that reaction bleak hostility, as it was in the case of the Scribes and Pharisees? Or is it humble acceptance of God’s warning and God’s truth as it was in the case of the people of Nineveh, and of the Queen of Sheba?”

The all-important question is: “What do you think of the Christ in your life?”

@Christ the King Parish, Kampala