Luke 11:29-32

Jesus Condemnation Of Those Who Seek Signs (11:29-32).

The passage now takes up the reference to those who sought a sign in Luke 11:16, and within the chiastic analysis of the whole Section parallels the woes on the evangelised cities that have rejected Jesus' message in Luke 10:12. The basic lesson is that because a greater Wisdom Teacher and Prophet is here as contrasted with Solomon and Jonah, those who hear Jesus and seek signs because of unbelief will in the Judgment suffer under the condemnation of those who heard and responded to them.

Note how this connects back to what has gone before, and with what follows. He has brought the word of God for them to keep (Luke 11:28). He has come bringing the Kingly Rule of God and Tomorrow's bread. He has come offering the Holy Spirit. He has come proclaiming the word of life (Luke 10:25). Along with the casting out of evil spirits He has come to minister God's word as it has never been ministered before (Luke 11:31, compare how the word and the casting out of evil spirits regularly go together - Luke 4:18; Luke 9:1; Luke 9:6; Mark 1:27; Mark 6:12). And He has come to bring light into the world, separating light from darkness (Luke 11:33) and to confound the teaching of the Scribes and Pharisees (Luke 11:37). He is the greatest teacher of them all.

We may analyse it as follows:

a When the crowds were gathering together to Him, He began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks after a sign. And there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of Jonah (Luke 11:29).

b For even as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will also the Son of man be to this generation” (Luke 11:30).

a “The queen of the south will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and will condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, a greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, a greater than Jonah is here” (Luke 11:31).

It will be noted that ‘a' speaks of the prophet Jonah and in the parallel we have a double example of those who responded, those who responded because of Jonah and the one who responded because of Solomon (this is the necessary dual witness before the Judgment throne). Central in ‘b' is the fact that the Son of Man is a sign to this generation.