<p>11:29 <i>And when the crowds were gathering together to him, he began to say: This generation is an evil generation. It seeks after a sign- </i>Ahaz was likewise rebuked for seeking a sign instead of believing in faith the Messianic prophecies. The Lord had been clearly doing signs / miracles. They were maybe claiming that they personally had not been present when the signs were done, and now they wanted to see one.&nbsp; But Lk. 11:16 adds the detail that they sought a &quot;sign&nbsp;<i>from Heaven</i>&quot;. This continues the issue under debate; the Pharisees accepted that Jesus was doing signs / miracles, but they considered them to be from 'Satan'; the Lord has responded by saying that His good works show He is a good man working on God's behalf, and that they would be called to account at the last day for their blasphemy. But it seems this other group of Pharisees continue in the blasphemous position- their response is to assume that the earlier miracles were signs from 'Satan', but now they give the Lord a chance to do a sign / miracle from God (&quot;Heaven&quot;). They repeated this request later (Mt. 16:1), and again the Lord answered them with &quot;the sign of the prophet Jonah&quot;. It's not necessarily wrong to require a sign- Gideon's example comes to mind. The disciples themselves asked for a sign (Mt. 24:3), and the Lord answered them to the effect that there would be &quot;the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven&quot; (Mt. 24:30). &quot;In&quot; Heaven can mean 'by the instrumentality of Heaven'. The similarity of words and concepts is so close that there must be some continuity in meaning. It could be that the sign of the Son of Man given by Heaven in the last days is the sign of Jonah- the successful preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles and the resurrection from the dead.</p><p><i>But there shall no sign be given to it</i>- The idea could be 'no&nbsp;<i>further</i>&nbsp;sign', as if the Lord was saying that He would do no further dramatic miracles to seek to persuade the Pharisees. In this case, the allusion would be to the Egyptians not believing the signs given them (Ex. 4:9), resulting in their final destruction. Unbelieving Israel are no better than Egypt / the world, and will &quot;be condemned with the world&quot;. Note that here as often we have to read in an ellipsis: 'No&nbsp;<i>more</i>&nbsp;sign'. For He had been doing signs / miracles in abundance. Or perhaps, seeing that He did continue doing miracles: 'No sign&nbsp;<i>greater than</i>&nbsp;that of Jonah'.</p><p><i>Except the sign of Jonah-&nbsp;</i>The &lsquo;resurrected&rsquo; Jonah was a type of the Lord- and he was a &lsquo;sign&rsquo; to the Ninevites presumably in that he still bore in his body the marks of a man who had been three days within a fish. It could be that the fish beached itself, and vomited Jonah out of its stomach in its death throes (this is how beached whales meet their end). In this case, the fish would have drawn the attention of the local population, as would have the man with bleached hair and strange skin who walked away from it. We too as witnesses of Christ will have something about us that is unintentionally striking in the eyes of those with whom we mix. There was no human chance that Jonah would be listened to when he came to preach judgment against Nineveh. Some guy standing on the edge of town, saying &lsquo;You&rsquo;re all gonna be destroyed&rsquo;. People would have laughed, ignored him, or told him to shut up. But there was something about him that was gripping and arresting. He was living proof that the judgment of God is real, and that His mercy is just as real. Presumably Jonah must have said far more than &ldquo;Nineveh is going to be destroyed&rdquo;.</p><p>It is a worthwhile speculation that for Jonah to be a sign to the Ninevites by reason of being three days in the whale (Mt. 12:38-40), he must have borne in his body the marks of his experience for all to see, as our Lord did. Being inside the fish for that period may have made his flesh change colour or bear some other physical mark so that he could be a sign to them of what had happened. Doubtless he recounted his story to them- so that they were encouraged by the fact of God's love to the resurrected Jonah to repent and likewise throw themselves on God's mercy. In all this we see Jonah as a type of Christ. They would have looked upon that man as we look upon Jesus, to see the love of God manifested in him; they responded by repenting in sackcloth, casting off their materialism, and living in a way that showed their complete belief that &quot;the judge stands before the door&quot;. What is our response to Jonah/Jesus?&nbsp;</p>