There is something greater than Jonah here and there is something greater than Solomon here. Earlier in Matthew's gospel, with the giving of the new law in the sermon on the mount, we learned that there is something greater than Moses here. Throughout the gospels we are reminded that there is something greater than David here and something greater than Elijah. And so on. Jesus is understood against the backdrop of all the main figures of Old Testament history and theology. Because of who Christians believe him to be, he is greater than any of them.
Luke in particular tells us how, after his resurrection, Jesus himself took the disciples through the law, the prophets and the writings, to show how everything that was written in the scriptures was about him. This he did for the disciples on the road to Emmaus and again when he appeared to the early community back in Jerusalem (Luke 24:27, 44-45).
Today's gospel passage fits with this teaching. Something greater than Solomon means something greater than the wisdom literature of the Bible. Something greater than Jonah (why Jonah though, of all the prophets?!) means something greater than the prophetic literature of the Bible. Something greater than Moses and David means something greater than the law given to the people and greater too than all earlier acts in their dramatic and formative history.
Saint Jerome famously said that ignorance of the scriptures is ignorance of Christ. And he means the whole of the scriptures. They are all about Christ. He is the giver of the new law. He fulfills the ancient prophecies while bringing new promises and opening a new future. He is the teacher of teachers since he not only transmits the wisdom of God but is himself God's Word, God's Wisdom incarnate. And he is the leader of God's people, their king and shepherd, guiding them through the historical times and seasons that continue to test their faith and to form them in it.
We continue to look for signs in spite of all the signs we have been given, in creation, in history, in the remarkable lives of holy people. If they do not believe Moses and the prophets, the Lord says in the parable of Dives and Lazarus, are they likely to believe if someone rises from the dead?
It means we have been given all the signs we will ever need. If we have a Bible then we have access to all these signs. If we have a crucifix then we can contemplate the greatest sign of all. Reading through the scriptures we will see what it means to have something - someone - greater than Solomon or Jonah, greater than Moses or David. Our hearts burn within us as the treasures of the scriptures are revealed. And we will find there also the keys that allow us to interpret the other signs of God's presence that we find outside the scriptures, in creation, in people, in historical events and in the life of Christ's body, the Church.
For the presence of God and of Christ in creation the Irish poet Joseph Mary Plunkett sums it up beautifully in his poem I see His Blood upon the Rose for the sign of the cross is stamped on the whole of creation:
I SEE his blood upon the rose
And in the stars the glory of his eyes,
His body gleams amid eternal snows,
His tears fall from the skies.
I see his face in every flower;
The thunder and the singing of the birds
Are but his voice—and carven by his power
Rocks are his written words.
All pathways by his feet are worn,
His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea,
His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn,
His cross is every tree.
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