When the religious leaders claimed Jesus was driving out demons by Beelzebub’s authority, they also tested him by asking for a sign from heaven. When they said, “…from heaven,” they meant something that clearly only God could do. They believed that Satan would command other demons to come out of someone. Jesus taught the silliness of that statement. Then he answered their request for a sign from heaven.
As the crowds increased, Jesus said, “This is a wicked generation. It asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” A man coming out of the mouth of a fish after being in its belly for three days, marching into an enemy capital city, and preaching repentance or punishment will come is clearly a sign of heaven. Satan could not and would not do that. That is the sign that Jesus’ generation would receive.
Jesus was saying that he would die, be buried for three days, and then come out of the tomb, which is the mouth of the earth. Only God could do that. But even then the religious leaders would not believe that Jesus is the Messiah of God. Miraculous signs from God are not enough for a hard and proud heart to believe.
Jesus continues by telling those who rejected him that the people of Nineveh will stand up, meaning rise from the dead at judgment with this generation and condemn it. They repented at the preaching of Jonah, the man who came forth from the mouth of a fish, and now Jesus who is greater than Jonah is among them and they rejected him.
