The Pharisees asked for a sign. Jesus says no sign will be given but that of Jonah.
The Pharisees’ generation was wicked because they asked for a sign. They wanted Jesus to prove himself to them. They would get no sign to prove who Jesus was other then his resurrection, which they would not believe anyway. Are there things about Jesus that we would not believe even though he demonstrates them to us? Are there things we are asking Jesus to prove to us by showing a sign? We might think: “you say you are this or that, Jesus; prove it by doing [fill in the blank]”. How about that thing where we have decided that he will not do it, or he is incapable, or his nature his of another sort? Are there ways we want Jesus to be and we will not accept any other way? Are we like the Pharisees, and we already have made up our minds?
Jesus gives examples showing people who did respond. The city Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah. The queen of the Sheba traveled to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Neither one of these had a sign, but responded to what God was doing, and the way God was doing it. The Ninevites did not have a sign and responded to Jonah’s preaching; the Queen did not have a sign yet she traveled to seek the wisdom.
The pharisees seemed to want a sign before they did something. Do what? Jesus spoke of an evil spirit who goes out of a man and comes back bringing other, more evil spirits. The spirit leaves and while he is gone the house is cleaned up. When he comes back, he finds it clean and goes out to gather other spirits to the house. The state of the house is worse than it was the first time. How might this story of the spirit relate to the Pharisees? Leaving the house to seek rest equals "give us a sign to make us comfortable with you" . Finding no rest equals "nothing you do satisfies us" . Gathering others equals "let's commiserate with others who also do not except Jesus" . The house equals physical bodies in which they live, the organization which they run.
The wickedness of “this generation” must be in the attitude that is seeking Jesus to perform a sign. They might say “Jesus you really need to conform to the way we conceive of you, and you need to prove that you do conform. Until you do, we have no use for you.“ The wickedness is in the attitude of “we are right, Jesus has to prove himself to us.”
