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.He was swallowedby a great fish, but after three days he was vomited up on the land.Rather than incur further wrath, Jonah went to Nineveh, preachedhis message, and converted the city.Jesus contrasts his own situation with that of Jonah.He, Jesus, ispreaching to a recalcitrant people, but they don t repent.He refuses,however, to perform a miracle to establish his divine credentials.The only proof the people will be given will be the sign of Jonah, which in the context of Matthew s Gospel means the sign of the res-urrection.Jesus will be dead for three days and will then reappear.This event, not something he does in his public ministry, will needto convince people of the truth he proclaims.This is Matthew s view throughout his Gospel, and it helps usmakes sense of one of his most puzzling stories.Before Jesus beginshis public ministry he goes out into the wilderness and is tempted bythe Devil (Matthew 4:1 11).Matthew mentions three specific temp-tations, but only two of them make obvious sense.For the first, afterJesus goes without food for forty days, the Devil tempts him to turnthe stones into bread.Jesus refuses: his miracles are not meant forhimself but for others.The third temptation is for Jesus to worshipSatan and be given, as a reward, the kingdoms of earth.The temp-tation is obvious who wouldn t want to rule the world? But it hasa particular twist for Matthew, who knows that Jesus will rule theworld eventually.First, though, Jesus has to die on the cross.This 84 j e s u s , i n t e r r u p t e dtemptation is to bypass the Passion.Jesus again refuses: God alone isto be worshipped.But what is the second temptation about? The Devil takes Jesus tothe top of the Jewish Temple and urges him to jump off: if he does,the angels of God will swoop down and catch him before he scrapesa toe.What exactly is tempting about taking a plunge from a build-ing ten stories high? One needs to understand where this is takingplace: in Jerusalem, the heart of Judaism, in the Temple, the centerfor the worship of God.Lots of Jews would be milling around theplace.Jesus is tempted to jump off, in full view, so that the angelswill appear and catch him.In other words, this is a temptation forJesus to provide a public, miraculous proof to the crowds that hereally is the Son of God.Jesus spurns this as a Satanic temptation: You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. In Matthew, Jesus will perform no sign to prove himself.That iswhy his miracles are called miracles, not signs in this Gospel.Theyare demonstrations of power meant to help those in need and toshow that the kingdom of God is soon to appear.What about John? In John s Gospel, Jesus spectacular deeds arecalled signs, not miracles.And they are performed precisely to provewho Jesus is, to convince people to believe in him.Claiming to bethe Bread of Life, he performs the sign of the loaves to feed thecrowds (John 6); claiming to be the Light of the World, he doesthe sign of healing the man born blind (John 9); claiming to be the Resurrection and the Life, he does the sign of raising Lazarusfrom the dead (John 11).It is striking that Matthew s story of Jesus refusing to give theJewish leaders a sign, except for the sign of Jonah, cannot be foundin John.But why would it be? For John, Jesus spends his ministrygiving signs.John also does not tell the story of the three tempta-tions in the wilderness.Again, how could he? For him, Jesus provinghis identity through miraculous signs is not a satanic temptation; itis his divine calling.These signs in John are meant to promote faith in Jesus.As Jesus A Mass of Variant Views 85himself tells a royal official who has asked Jesus to heal his son: Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe (John 4:48).Jesus heals the boy, and the man comes to believe (4:53).So, too,the author of John thought that it was the signs that proved Jesusidentity and led people to faith: Jesus did many other signs in thepresence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.Butthese are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah,the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in hisname (20:30 31).Whereas supernatural proofs of Jesus identitywere strictly off limits in Matthew, in John they are the principalreason for Jesus miraculous acts
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