While speaking to a crowd, Jesus delivered a scathing rebuke due their chief concern being for a sign of His validity (and that of His message). Specifically, he said, “The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here” (Luke 11:32 NASB). According to Jesus, the crowd had completely failed to come under the truth of His message; furthermore, they had failed to use the truths of the Old Testament to identify Christ as a trustworthy messenger. Essentially, their whole method of evaluation of truth was emotional (i.e., asking for signs) and completely divorced from rational consideration of sacred Scripture and a corresponding willingness to humbly accept its truth.
When considering the potency of Jesus’ remark and the immediate reaction of those in attendance, it would seem that Jesus could easily be charged with multiple errors that are commonly employed against anyone (in American society) who has the audacity to speak the truth boldly and directly. Jesus could be charged with being overly blunt, being insensitive, being angry, lacking polish, and failing to speak the truth in love. Given that Jesus is the son of God and absolutely perfect, none of these charges could ever be correctly employed against Him. Unfortunately, this is not the case for any Christian who is bold enough to speak the truth openly in the overtly humanistic and secular culture of America where self-esteem, self-fulfillment, and self-comfort have become the measuring rod against which all things are validated.
These Christians who valiantly stand-up to speak the truth will certainly experience persecution for having done so. They will be charged with being unloving and angry truth-mongers who simply desire to divide and spread hate. Sadly, many of these saints face such responses and end up in a sea of self-doubt because unlike Jesus they are capable of having less than perfect motives behind their words. Furthermore, they can easily find within themselves ways in which they could have better expressed their message. While healthy introspection is advisable and even commanded in Scripture, perhaps these faithful truth-bearing saints can take comfort from the prophet Jonah.
Jonah, sometimes called the Angry Prophet, intentionally disobeyed God’s call to go to Nineveh because he hated them for the misery they had caused to come upon his people (Jonah 4:2). His anger according to verses 3-4 was so seething that he was even willing to die rather than observe God’s mercy being cast upon the Ninevites. Despite initially running away from God, Jonah eventually (after the Lord’s discipline) preached the truth to the Ninevites and they repented.
Unlike Jesus, Jonah could most certainly have been correctly charged by the Ninevites as being a hateful angry messenger. Instead of cancelling Jonah for his personal deficiencies and sinful disposition, the godless and sinful Ninevites chose to accept the truth of Jonah’s message in spite of the character to the messenger. Their acceptance led to Christ’s commendation in Luke 11:32 and His criticism of the crowd.
Unfortunately, many in America find more in common (if they wish to be honest) with the crowd gathered around Jesus. Whenever truth is delivered to them, they prefer to focus on emotional aspects concerning how the message was delivered (communicated) while evaluating the character and tone (and everything else) of the messenger.