"And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them: for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineve shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light. The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light."
In today's lesson Jesus rightly described the leadership of the Jews of His day, as an "evil" generation.
The Jewish people, throughout their history, had so distorted and disobeyed God's laws so as to completely destroy the covenant Abraham had made. They had continually chased after and worshiped idols. They had perverted God's laws to fit their own power hungry, greedy agendas.
Jesus gave the examples of how Solomon, blessed with the infinite wisdom, had so impressed the people of his generation that they had followed Him without question. He told how that, because of Jonas, the people of Nineveh had repented their evil ways and turned back to God.
Jesus explained how, even though He is the all powerful, omniscient Son of our creator God, mightier than any of the prophets, the Jews of His day still refused to believe in Him.
Jesus explained how, even though He is the all powerful, omniscient Son of our creator God, mightier than any of the prophets, the Jews of His day still refused to believe in Him.
Just as the ancient Jews had Jesus' physical presence, we today, have His wisdom and power through the presence of His Holy Spirit. We also have every word of His gospel message.
Jesus said we are not to accept then sit down with His grace, we are to remove the "bushel" that hides it and broadcast our faith to all who will listen, every waking minute of every day.
We should be very conscious of the fact that just like the ancient Jews, most of the earth's population today, even those who take on the mantel of "Christianity", still choose to distort the pure gospel of Christ by parsing His words to suit personal agendas. Those who might be guilty of practicing such distortion either don't realize, that by doing so, they reject Jesus and His loving grace, or they just don't believe enough to care.
Jesus said that those who believed Jonah's warning and repented would rise up to judge those who had not.
The sad reality is that the judgment facing those who reject the saving grace of Jesus Christ is horribly worse by comparison to any judgment that could be delivered by the people of Nineveh.
Those who reject Jesus and His soul saving sacrifice will be damned for eternity.~
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