Jesus compared to Jonah

When Jesus compared himself to Jonah, did he mean to include you?

Jonah was the guy who, when God told him to go one way, he went the opposite way -- and got himself swallowed by a whale.

This guy wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer.

And yet Jesus not only compared himself to Jonah, he compared himself to Jonah when Jonah was in the midst of his mistake:

"For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth..."

This doesn't mean that Jesus made mistakes like Jonah. It simply means that, when Jesus died and rose after three days, he bore all the sins of the world with him.

Which is to say, he bore all of our mistakes.

So when Jesus compared himself to Jonah, he did mean to include you and me.

This is why a greater than Jonah is here.

Logos2Go

Matthew 12.39-41 But he answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. "For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. "The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.