A King, Cattle, and the King of Kings: The Sign of Jonah in Lent

In this sign of Jonah in Lent, even the cattle repent—will we answer the True King’s greater call?

First Reading

Jonah 3:1-10

The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: “Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you.” So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD’s bidding. Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,” when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.

When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes. Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh, by decree of the king and his nobles: “Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep, shall taste anything; they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water. Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God; every man shall turn from his evil way and from the violence he has in hand. Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath, so that we shall not perish.” When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out. 

Gospel

Luke 11:29-32

While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the judgment  the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation  and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.” 

Moo-ving to Mercy: Jonah, the Cattle, and the Call from the True King

Why is Jesus the “sign of Jonah”? As the ancient Jewish prophet was sent to warn the Ninevites of their city’s destruction in forty days, Jesus was sent to purify Israel and the Gentiles for union and communion as one, deified human race, averting destructive division. 

Jesus evokes the Queen of Sheba and the Ninevites—Gentile witnesses to faith in Israel’s God—and thunders the Refiner’s message of repentance. The prompt, sincere response of the King of Nineveh and his subjects, whose repentance extended to every “man and beast,” exemplified the need for cosmic renewal of humanity and the cosmos.