Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, "Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you."
He answered, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here. The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here.
"When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation."
Earlier, Jesus had told John the Baptist to look at the evidence to show that He (Jesus) was the promised Messiah -Good News was being preached, people were being healed, and demons were being cast out. Now come some Pharisees and teachers of the Law asking Jesus to prove Himself by performing miracles and casting out demons. They were looking for a sign. Here, however, Jesus tells them the only sign they are going to get is the sign of Jonah; Jonah spent 3 days inside a fish, and Jesus will spend 3 days dead and buried. The Pharisees, of course, did not understand what Jesus was talking about.
A question we might wonder is why Jesus was angry with the Pharisees for asking for a sign when Jesus told John to consider the miracles He was doing a sign. I think it has to do with motivations of the heart. John needed to be reassured, but was looking for evidence because he already believed Jesus was the Messiah. These Pharisees, all of whom had already witnessed many miracles, were trying to prove that Jesus was not the Messiah. For them, no sign will be good enough. As it turns out, even resurrection from the grave was not enough evidence for them to repent.
Jesus says something else that is important here -something we should consider as we minister to people. He gives an analogy of delivering someone from demons only to have more demons return. I think Jesus is saying that even as we minister, it is pointless to minister to people who hate God and have hardened hearts...it will do no good. The model I find in Jesus is Him seeking Father's will moment by moment. He is constantly asking Father who to heal, who to pray for, who to bless, who to preach to. He does not take a shotgun approach to ministry hoping to hit something. He takes a very specific and focused approach seeking only the targets God directs Him to. To put it another way, Jesus constantly ministered to those whom God was already stirring. He worked where Father was already working. This model for ministry was powerful and effective -we should do ministry like this.
But, of course, in order to do ministry like Jesus, we need to develop intimacy with Father like Jesus. Intimacy with Father begins with embracing the moving and promptings of the Holy Spirit. Apart from the Holy Spirit, there is no intimacy. Without intimacy, there is no personal leading from God. With no personal leading, there is very little meaningful ministry.
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