Matthew 12:37

“For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

For in the end our words will be what justify and condemn us. Not the careful words we prepare in order to justify ourselves (compare Luke 18:11 where the Pharisee thought that he was putting up a good case, and God was cringing), or to put on our tombstones. But the words that come out in the dark and secret places, and in the unguarded moment. The word that we speak when taken unawares. The word that really reveals what is truly in our hearts. The word spoken ‘off the record'. For a careful sifting of a man's words will always in the end show what he is. Thus we will be either accounted as in the right, or will be condemned on the basis of all that we have said.

‘By your words you will be justified.' This is not conflicting with Paul. No one was more dogmatic than Paul that a man was known by his fruits. ‘How shall we who are dead to sin, live any longer in it?' (Romans 6:2). Before the all searching eye of a righteous and holy God we must be justified through the blood of Christ (Romans 3:24), which has resulted in cleansing and forgiveness, but before the tribunal of God which is open to all creation that will be evidenced by what our words have been. For faith without works is dead. The Bride will be clothed with the righteousnesses of God's people (Revelation 19:8), otherwise she is not the true Bride.

The Response of The Scribes and Pharisees Is To Seek A Sign From Heaven.

The Scribes and Pharisees now came seeking a sign from Heaven. Like the towns of Galilee in Matthew 11:20 they have failed to take note of His mighty works, and will be equally exposed by the Gentile nations at the Day of Judgment. The addition here of the Scribes may suggest an official enquiry, or at least a calling in of reinforcements. They had come to test Him. He was making these great claims and now they wanted proof. It seems almost incredible that with all Jesus' healings and casting out of evil spirits they should ask about signs, but they may well not have personally observed too many of them, and even when they had it had been with prejudiced eyes. Mainly they were going from hearsay. But even had it been otherwise they would have wanted special signs. For that was what Moses had given. That was what Elijah had given. That was what, in their view, the Messiah would give. What they wanted Him to do was something spectacular like the burning up from Heaven of Elijah's sacrifice (1 Kings 18:38). The Jews had a firm belief that when God began His final work such signs would be given. They loved the spectacular (compare 1 Corinthians 1:22).

But Jesus never performed signs for His own benefit or in order to justify Himself. Even His healings were performed out of compassion, not as evidences of Who He was, which was why He commanded silence about them. He had been faced during His temptations with the idea of winning men through the spectacular and had recognised that it was displeasing to God (Matthew 4:5). He and His Father wanted men to respond to Him because they recognised the truth of His words and as evidence of what was in their hearts. Those who really desired to do His will would know whether the teaching were true or not (John 7:17)

Jesus replies by giving them two signs. The first is in the form of a promise. It was similar to Isaiah's sign in Isaiah 7:14 and to the sign given to Moses in Exodus 3:12, a sign that would become a reality in he future. It was that just as Jonah had spent three days in the body of a large fish, miraculously coming from certain death by a miracle, so would He as the Son of Man spend three days in the body of the earth, coming out of His grave after being buried. This would be a unique sign indeed, for the Son of Man was not expected to go into the grave, but to enter straight into the presence of God on the clouds of Heaven to receive His kingship (Daniel 7:13). The second, although only secondary, was that if they thought about it they would realise that His preaching had had a greater impact than that of both Jonah and Solomon. Jonah was partly chosen as an example (as well as the reason above) because, of all the prophets, his success as a preacher had been most publicly portrayed, Solomon was chosen because he was a great wise man, renowned for his wisdom, and a son of David. He was chosen because a greater son of David was now being revealed as here, and possibly also because Jesus' miracles were being compared to the legendary works of Solomon.

Analysis.

a Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we would see a sign from you” (Matthew 12:38).

b But he answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and there will no sign be given to it apart from the sign of Jonah the prophet” (Matthew 12:39).

c “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the large fish, so will the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40).

b “The men of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, a greater than Jonah is here” (Matthew 12:41).

a “ The queen of the south will rise up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, a greater than Solomon is here” (Matthew 12:42).

Note that in ‘a' some of the Scribes and Pharisees come to Jesus as the Teacher asking for a sign, and in the parallel Jesus provides a sign in that He is a greater Teacher than the wise Solomon. In ‘b' that ‘evil and adulterous generation' seek a sign and will only be given one in the prophet Jonah and in the parallel ‘this generation' receive one in the prophet Jonah in the prophet Jonah and his success. Centrally in ‘c' is that what will happen to the Son of Man, who is portrayed as coming in triumph on clouds to the throne of God (Daniel 7:13), is that like Jonah He will spend three days and nights entombed. Thus what is to happen to Jesus will itself confirm this sign to all who will receive it.