Showing signs

Matthew uses the word “sign” in only four contexts. In the closely parallel passages 12:38-45 and 16:1-4, the Jewish leaders ask Jesus for a sign; the word is used several times in chapter 24, and a last time in 26:48 to describe Judas’s kiss.

Chapters 12 and 16 are obviously linked, but the opening verses of chapter 24 are also verbally connected to these demands for a sign. In 16:1, the Pharisees come ( proserchomai ) and ask Jesus to show ( epideixai ) a sign ( semeion ). In chapter 24, the disciples come ( proserchomai ) to Jesus and show ( epideixai ) Him the buildings of the temple (v. 1). When Jesus warns that the buildings will be torn down, they ask for a sign ( semeion ) of His coming. These are two of the three passages where Matthew uses the verb “show” (the other is 22:19). Given the paucity of uses of “show” and “sign,” their appearance in 16:1-4 and 24:1-3 strongly links the passages.

The upshot is: Jesus does give the Jews a sign, as they requested, but it’s the sign of the coming of the Son of Man. Since Jesus has previously said that the only sign will be the “sign of Jonah” (12:40-41; 16:4) , the sign that Jesus gives in Matthew 24 must be in some way connected with the sign of Jonah. Perhaps it’s the contrast of a repentant and rescued Nineveh and an impenitent and destroyed Jerusalem; or perhaps it’s the fact that Jesus will send the gospel to the Gentiles who will conquer Jerusalem, just as Nineveh, delivered from destruction, conquered Samaria.