Jonah Never So Interesting: The Milta and Matthew

This morning I saw that Jonah sacrificed his man, the physical body he was in, for his unfortunate shipmates. The immediate peace with God they enjoyed was the sign of Jonah, that God accepted the sacrifice of Jonah's physical body--his man--for them. Jesus gave His man--His physical body--for us. I believe Saint Francis called his physical body Brother Donkey. Seeing the sign of Jonah as that experienced by the sailors, I looked up the sign of Jonah in the New Testament, Matthew 12:38-41. Googling around, I see that most people believe that the sign of Jonah was Jesus' resurrection. As always, I fail to see the connection. So I pick up my Book of Jonah from Vic Alexander, and it begins: "The Lord's revelation was upon Jonah the son of Matthew (Lit. Aramaic: Mattai)."

WHAT?! The Lord's "revelation" is the Milta, the Ineffable's Manifestation, who became incarnate in Jesus. The Aramaic name of Jesus' disciple Matthew was Mattai. In the Book of Jonah, the Milta came upon Jonah, the son of Mattai. In the Book of Matthew is the passage revealing the Milta through the sign of Jonah. Just a coincidence? Or the Milta - operating outside of time - working generation of Himself in the past? I think I see Jesus, the Milta, waving through the blinds.

I would never have seen this if it weren't for Vic Alexander's translation from the ancient Aramaic.

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From RachelStarrThomson.com: "Jesus never ran away from his mission to preach repentance and return, deliverance and welcome. He ran toward it. His entire ministry on earth was a running toward it. And like Jonah, he would soon become a sign — the great sign, the only sign we will ever need. The sign that God is alive and all-powerful. The sign that God is loving and all-merciful. The sign that the kingdom has come, and we can come home. All we need to do is recognize him and respond, as the Pharisees did not. In the NKJV, Jonah 2:8-9 is rendered, 'Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own Mercy. But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.' Because the sign of Jonah has been given to us, we need not forsake our own Mercy. We too can recognize, with the ancients, with millions in our own day: salvation is of the Lord."