For Easter this year, we drew on the gospel of Matthew for the telling. For the remainder of the month of April, we are turning to the prophet Jonah. There was a time when many biblical references were generally understood in the Popular Culture. Nowadays, that popular knowledge has dwindled.
For example, I spoke of Ecclesiastes 3 a couple days ago. I felt it best to provide the specific references to the popular song drawn from those words. At one time, I might have assumed that people knew what I was talking about. I can’t anymore.
Jonah may be one of the few Biblical references that still hangs on in the Popular Culture. It may be. That is because it is pretty unique. Dude was swallowed whole by a fish, spat out by the same, and lived to tell the tale.
Jesus talks about Jonah. This comes to us in Matthew 12:
“38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, ‘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 for 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!” There is an Easter link between Jesus and Jonah, three days and three days. Want to know more? Jonah is a short, four chapter book in the Old Testament. One we will be looking at more closely through the rest of April. Come and see, come and listen.
Peace,
Pastor Peter
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