Flipping the Script

Then some of the teachers of the Law and the proud religious law-keepers said to Jesus, “Teacher, we would like to have you do something special for us to see.” He said to them, “The sinful people of this day look for something special to see. There will be nothing special to see but the powerful works of the early preacher Jonah. Jonah was three days and three nights in the stomach of a big fish. The Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the grave also. - Matthew 12:38-40

Jesus regularly flipped the script. Where the established powers preened and postured, Jesus showed up as himself and didn’t try to impress. Where the Romans powered up on the conquered Jewish state, Jesus powered down, embracing nonviolence and identifying with those on the margins. When religious people pushed to the front of the line, he blessed those at the end of it.

So it’s no surprise that when the prevailing interpretation of the prophet Jonah was that he was some sort of walking miracle that converted the Ninevites with the flashy evidence of God’s power shining from him, Jesus flipped that script, too. The only sign that the people would get would be the ‘sign of Jonah’ - a different take on Jonah entirely. Namely that Jesus would walk through the world with no glory resting on him - only humble love. And that instead of Jonah heading outside the city looking for a comfortable spot to see God’s fiery judgment on it, Jesus would head out outside the city bearing a cross, sacrificing his life so judgment would not fall on it.

The real question for us today is what scripts need to be flipped in our minds and hearts? Where have we missed the way of Jesus, seeking instead to be powerful, successful, wealthy. What might it look like for us to embrace simplicity, poverty, and weakness instead as true signs of the kingdom?