NOTES for Mat 12:38-45

The scribes are typical people of science. They know what should happen, and they seek experimental confirmation of their guesses about Jesus. They would like to receive a sign that would free them from moral choice and, above all, from the need to trust, to "fall into the hands of the living God." Jesus speaks about the sign of the prophet Jonah and about His resurrection on the third day after the Crucifixion. Then He recalls the Ninevites, who repented after Jonah's preaching, and says that, against the background of the Ninevites' repentance, the scribes' search for proof falls under condemnation.

The point is that Jonah called things by their proper names in Nineveh. Evil deeds were called evil deeds, not necessary cruelty; violence was called violence, not a restriction of freedom for the sake of the interests of one phantom or another. The Bible says that the Ninevites were people too, although Nineveh of those times resembled the fascist regimes of the 20th century. And the human heart is capable of opening to the truth, to a serious moral assessment of itself. The Ninevites repented and turned away from their evil deeds. No miracles or signs were shown to them, but they recognized the justice of Jonah's assessment of their deeds, and they were saved. God gave the human person a moral center, the conscience, and we can be saved if we listen to its voice.

Indeed, faith is not so much a question of reason and proofs as a matter of conscience. And then Jesus says that ceasing to do evil is not enough to become a person of truth, a person of conscience. One must begin to do good, or else one will fall into even worse sins. On the path of truth one cannot stand still; one can only walk. If you are not moving upward, you are falling.

How frightening freedom is... Responsibility inevitably follows it. Free choice is our problem, our headache. Even choosing yogurt in a supermarket is unbearably difficult for us because, if we choose wrongly, we alone will be to blame, and we are afraid of being at fault. So, sometimes even subconsciously, we seek a lack of freedom, decisions forced upon us, proofs, and signs—like the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew's Gospel.

But refusing the freedom to choose is also a decision, and one for which we must answer. Refusing to see the signs of God's action in our lives and demanding ever more proof leave us in the wrong before God even when compared with repentant pagans.

Today we understand the word "sign" as a miracle. Yet the corresponding Greek word, and also "sign" in its original meaning, which it has in Church Slavonic or Old Russian, means a "mark" or "signal." It turns out that the people listening to Jesus expect from Him some kind of sign that would speak... about what, exactly? About His messiahship?

That is quite possible: as people thought in those days, when the Messiah came, He had to prove His messiahship, including by certain definite signs, among which there had to be miracles, manifestations of God's power proving that God was truly with Him and that He was entrusting Him with the ministry to which He laid claim. More broadly, signs were expected in order to be convinced that it was truly God acting, and not a person acting by his own will. Such signs were expected and demanded from Jesus: by them His listeners wanted to determine who He really was before them. The demand would seem quite legitimate, if not for one "but": Jesus had shown more than enough testimony that God was truly with Him, as He tells the people around Him.

Israel had never before seen such manifestations of the Kingdom, of its breath, of its power, such visible signs of God's presence, and many who looked at the situation without prejudice agreed with this. Of course, the signs were not exactly the kind people expected, but they were plainly there. Many people's unwillingness to see the obvious made new signs meaningless: those who wanted to see had already seen, and those who did not want to see would not have seen anything, no matter what signs were shown to them. There was, however, something else as well: fascination with signs does not always bring a person spiritual benefit in itself.

A sign is only a pointer to the main thing; it must not become something self-sufficient and self-important. Signs are like a geographical map that depicts real terrain schematically: on different maps the system of symbols may differ, but if the map is accurate, it will in any case convey the geographical realities adequately. To reject a map with an unusual system of symbols merely because that system is unfamiliar means forgetting the purpose of a geographical map as such. That is why Jesus does not try to conform to the public's expectations concerning signs: what matters to Him is the Kingdom, not the pointers.

Why is this text so important for us? It warns us against one very dangerous situation. Let us note that, in general, Christ's commandments and the Gospel as a whole can in a certain sense be compared to road signs that warn of danger: for example, "sharp curve," "slope," or "ice." They really are bright symbols, carefully placed to warn us away from trouble.

What troubles, then, does the text given to us today by the Lord warn us against? There is something here to think about. What does a person experience when he understands that he has come through some temptation with honor? As a rule, he experiences a certain pride; there is no getting around it. And perhaps, to some extent, this is normal. But the question is precisely one of measure, the eternal question of measure: as soon as the measure is exceeded, a crack opens into our inner space, where the place once occupied by sin has not yet had time to be occupied by anything else.

Yes, our victories should be precious to us, but we must not forget the main thing: after Christ conquered, He Himself was conquered, nailed to the Cross, crucified. So we too, after conquering evil in ourselves, are in fact wounded by it, sick with it. And we need to guard our inner space very carefully, as someone going outside after a severe sore throat must wrap his throat well and put on warm socks.

Has the Kingdom of God reached us? In the Gospel the Lord connects the coming of the Kingdom, on the one hand, with victory over the forces of evil, over Satan, and on the other hand, with the action of the Holy Spirit in people's lives. For it is by the Spirit that He casts out demons and heals diseases, and in denying this fact the Lord points to the danger of unforgivable blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. So the Kingdom of God not only awaits us beyond the grave, but is also realized here on earth, wherever people give the Holy Spirit the opportunity to act through them. The actions of the Spirit can be very diverse (1 Cor chs. 12-13), but the chief one is love. Therefore, to reach the Kingdom, little is required of us: first, complete trust in and openness to God, allowing His Spirit to act in our life; and second, attentiveness to His actions, allowing us not to quench His life in us, but on the contrary, to respond to it with thanksgiving.