This morning, I would like to start our Easter sermon by talking about Jonah, a Bible character particularly popular with children. Remember it in Sunday School? It's been a favorite because the story captures children's imaginations so well. It seems every children's Bible also had it and still does. And even children's songs-"Who did swallow Jonah?" "Whale did swallow Jonah." This is a story parents would tell their children at bedtime with their bedtime prayers, but alas as children grow older, they think Jonah should go the way of all bedtime stories, and all the heroes they admired as they were growing up. Like St. Paul says, "When I was a child, I spoke like a child; I thought like a child; I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways."

If you ever thought this way about Jonah--Don't! Don't do it! Don't put him away with your childhood heroes. He's real. He really lived, and what's more his experience points to what we have been celebrating, particularly our Lord's death and resurrection.

Who knew? I mean, before this Lenten season, most of us probably only thought about Jonah as the guy who was swallowed by a huge fish, who was then spit up and went to go preach to the people of Nineveh. But Jonah's stay in the belly of the fish, was an Old Testament pointer to Jesus' death and resurrection. Jesus Himself used Jonah to say this pointed to His stay in the tomb for those three days.

Now, the verse we are using for our text fits into a little bit larger context. The opposition against Jesus we had been observing throughout the Sundays of Lent, was going on when Jesus tells them about the sign of Jonah. The religious leaders had been demanding a miraculous sign that Jesus was the Messiah.

I don't know what they wanted. I mean, I thought He gave them enough signs that He was God in the flesh, but they still wanted more. Here's what Jesus had to say about that. "No sign will be given to you, except the sign of Jonah." And then He went on with the words of our text, "For just as Jonah was three days in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."

As we have observed during our Midweek services, Jonah is more like Jesus than just these three days and nights. Also, as we have observed through the Midweek services, it wasn't Jonah's heroic character that made them so much alike.

In fact, Jonah was hardly a hero, but before we do a quick recap of his story, we need to take a quick peek at how he and Jesus were alike. Both were sacrificed for the rescue of others. Both experienced Divine Judgment. Both died, or in Jonah's case, nearly died and then came to life again, and of course, spending three days in less than ideal circumstances.

First, as I said, Jonah was no hero. In fact, it was Jonah's lack of heroic character that he wound up becoming fish food. He disobeyed a direct command from God. He was told to go preach to the people of Nineveh, which at that time was the capital of the world power of that day. He hated them. He despised them. That's why God chose him.

Can you think of someone better to go and preach than someone who hates the people he is supposed to preach to? Just about anyone else? You might think, but that wasn't God's plan.

God chooses Jonah to the Ninevites, but he wasn't willing--imagine that! So chartering a ship and hiring a crew, he tries to go to Tarshish. He doesn't get too far. The Lord chases him down with a huge storm that got progressively worse. Eventually, Jonah lets his crew know who he is and why he is running, and finally tells them the storm will stop if they throw him overboard. That's how he wound up fishing--using himself as bait.

He offers himself. He says, "Throw me overboard, or you are going to drown." He becomes the sacrifice so they are spared. Jonah was hardly valiant when he made this statement. He was ready to take the whole ship down with him, but eventually decided it would be better that he drown by himself, rather than taking the whole crew with him.

No wonder Jesus said, when He compared Himself to Jonah, "One greater than Jonah is here." Jesus does sacrifice Himself. That's what we had observed on Friday. It was a sacrifice that could so easily have been avoided, though--unlike Jonah. He did it, because if He didn't, we would be lost in our sins. He could have stayed in heaven. He could have kept His royalty, but to do this was to sacrifice all of humanity and all of creation. If He had done this, we could look forward to nothing after this life, except hell. So, He sacrifices Himself. Such is His love for you and me.

But it's hardly over. Nor is the comparison. The second point of comparison is the Divine Judgment they endured. What Jesus chooses for Himself by sacrificing Himself is the rejection of His Father, the worst thing He could ever experience, for it was hell itself.

Jonah had a taste of it. As Jonah sinks down into the water, he realizes what he has done. He's a dead man. When death is staring him in the face, he began to wonder if it had been such a good idea to run away from the Lord in the first place. Then while in the belly of the fish, he composes a prayer, and he speaks about being driven away from God's sight as he was dying.

If only he knew. He feels God's judgment, which he deserved. But he really didn't know what it was like. Jesus did.

Jesus felt rejection like no man ever has. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Jesus was forsaken because He had become as the greatest sinner the world had ever seen. He takes on the sins of the whole world, which includes yours and mine. God the Father turns to Him, and rather than smiling at Him, shows Him only fiery anger and unbounded disgust. After being abandoned by everyone else, the One Jesus used to be able to count on, was also gone. But worse than that, He had turned into His enemy. Again, this He did all so we could be spared what He endured. The smiling face of His Father was what He wanted for us, and so He went through this, so we would have it.

The last point of comparison is the actual three days. Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days. Jonah was as good as dead, but he was rescued. The fish actually saved his life. He might have thought it would have been nicer had there been another ship, or something else, but hey, beggars can't be choosers. At least He was alive.

Jesus actually did die, as could be seen by the spear thrust into His side, and His statements, "It is finished," and "Father, into your hands I commend my Spirit." And then He was buried.

Jonah was there in the fish's belly for three days, Jesus in a tomb for the same length of time.

That brings us to today, the third day, which is, contrary to what it has sounded like so far in our sermon, Easter. The women were on their way to do a more thorough job of spicings and anointings of Jesus' body. They had seen how he was prepared, and knew He deserved better than the rush job Joseph and Nicodemus had given Him on Friday night. They were all ready. It had been three days--a portion of Friday, all of Saturday, and about half of Sunday. They got to the tomb, and you know what happened. It was empty.

Hallelujah! It was empty. He had said this would happen. "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." Several times He talked about His passion and then said "On the third day I will rise again." Notice the three. It keeps recurring. The glorious three. Because this three has happened, we can say we have been given the sign of Jonah. Because it has happened, we can trust His Word.

The religious leaders wanted proof that they should listen to Jesus. "Give us an unmistakable sign that you are who you say you are." This was it. It is for us, too.

Sometimes, we question what He has said. It is inconvenient for us or it seems impossible. Maybe it doesn't square with our experience or we have trouble believing something so wonderful. Sometimes we are so close, we don't see the forest for the trees. We think we already know, so we don't hear what He is saying. Listen to Him. And the sign of Jonah tells us we do well to listen to Him.

When He says, "He that believes and is baptized will be saved." listen to Him. He speaks to you. He speaks with authority backed up by the sign of Jonah. He tells you, you have to do nothing else. You don't have to make a decision for Him. You don't have to prove you deserve to be saved. Simply believe that He has chosen to rescue you, a sinner, and give you life. This is what His Word means, and this word is trustworthy because of the sign of Jonah.

When He says, "Whoever hears you, hears me," listen to Him. He speaks to you. He speaks through His called men, and when they say, "You are forgiven," it is He who is speaking to you. You can trust His Word, because of the sign of Jonah. He is who He says He is, the Holy One of God.

When He says, "Take eat, this is my body given for the forgiveness of your sins; take drink this is my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins," listen to Him. He speaks to you. He says, "This is given for you, you who acknowledge your sin and recognize your need for forgiveness." You can trust His Word. He has it backed up with the sign of Jonah.

And when He says to you, who look on the Son and believe in Him, "I will raise you up on the last day," listen to Him. He speaks truthfully to you. Just as He is risen from the dead, so you too will live a new life. And this is His proof to you: Just as Jonah was in the belly of a great fish and then emerged from it, so too, the Son of Man was in the heart of earth and victoriously emerged from it, declaring to you and all the world, sin and death are conquered. You, as one of His people will live eternally.

AMEN