A sermon preached by Dr. John Clayton at Covenant Presbyterian Church of Fort Smith, Arkansas on September 28, 2025.
As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light” (Luke 11:27–36).[1]
When Jesus cast out the mute demon from the man, enabling him to audibly praise the Lord, the people marveled and then grumbled. Some alleged that his miracles were the work of the devil. Others argued they weren’t enough. No one in that moment spoke up in his defense (as if the word and works of God need defending). But Luke tells us that there were more marvellers than the antagonistic and skeptical. Such as one outspoken woman, who cried out, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” (Luke 11:27), which is perhaps a maternalistic way of saying, “God bless your momma, ‘cause she raised you right!” (Or, at least that’s how she might have said it if she was from Arkansas).
Regardless how she said it, she was right. Prior to Jesus’ miraculous conception, the angel told Mary that she had found favor with God, that she would conceive and bear a son, the promised one, the heir of the Davidic throne, and an eternal kingdom.[2] And Mary acknowledged that God had “looked on the humble estate of his servant,” prophesying, “For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed” (1:48). And so they have and to they did, beginning with one woman in the crowd, blessing Jesus’ mother for his birth and raising. Of course, her blessing was an indirect form of affirmation. In a crowd full of antagonists and skeptics, she was decidedly pro-Jesus. God, give us more women like her!
So, we shouldn’t interpret Jesus’ response as a contradiction. As one commentator explains, “The woman had not made a wrong statement as much as an incomplete one,”[3] which is why Jesus responded, saying in essence, “Yes that, but also this”[4]: “Blessed . . . are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (11:28). God is not silent but has revealed his will to us by special revelation, the inscripturated Word of God, as the rule of faith and life.[5] And he has done so not as a novelty but to be read, to be heard, to be known, to be obeyed, to be kept. Blessed indeed are those who do.
The writer of Hebrews tells us that “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). The Word of God is also life-giving; it is, as the sage says, “life to those who find [it]” (Prov. 4:22). The people did not have far to seek and find the Word, because the son of blessed Mary is the eternal Word of God. But though he stood before them, were the people looking and listening? Are you?
Blessed Life
At least in this part of the country, I am occasionally told, “Have a blessed day!”, which I think is code for “I’m an evangelical. Are you?” (But I could be wrong). But regardless of whether someone wishes me one or not, we are indeed blessed, daily even, as we enjoy God’s common grace blessings, for “The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made” (Ps. 145:9). As a species, we receive far better than we deserve, as God makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust,[6] giving us fruitful seasons, and satisfying our hearts with food and gladness.[7] He is kind, even to the ungrateful and the evil.[8] But despite God’s daily blessings upon us, as a lot, we presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, never considering that God’s kindness is meant to lead us to repentance.[9]
Therefore, when the woman cried out, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” Luke 11:27), Jesus could concur but also respond, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (11:28). The blessing of life and bearing life are to be celebrated, but neither are eternal life. Jesus’ mother was indeed blessed by God, but, as Augustine of Hippo clarifies, she “was more blessed in accepting the faith of Christ than in conceiving the flesh of Christ. . . . Even her maternal relationship would have done Mary no good unless she had borne Christ more happily in her heart than in her flesh.”[10] Mary serves not as a saint to be worshiped but an example to be followed. For, by God’s grace, she who bore the living Word of God heard and kept it.
And so must we, who have been given the whole counsel of God, a complete canon of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation. There is great blessing in hearing and keeping the Word of God. And while all of Scripture is God-breathed,[11] the Westminster Confession of Faith helpfully explains, “All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all: yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation, are some clearly propounded, and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.”[12] It is not required that we all be Bible scholars, but we must believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, revealed to us in Scripture. Apart from faith in Christ, all the common grace blessings of God conclude with our death, only judgment and eternal torment await.
But working through the Word of God, and especially the preaching of it, the Holy Spirit convinces us of our sin and misery, enlightens our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renews our wills, persuading us and enabling us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel. As a result, we are justified as righteous before God through the imputed righteousness of Christ, adopted into God’s family as an heir, and being conformed to Christ, are enabled more and more to die to sin and live to righteousness. In this blessed life in Christ, we are assured of God’s love, have peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Spirit, increase of grace, and perseverance in Christ to the end. But the end of this life is not the end of the blessed life, because at our death we will be made perfect in holiness, pass immediately into glory, and be in the presence of the Lord forever.[13] And on the last day, we will be bodily resurrected in glory, “openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity.”[14] Therefore, it is our duty but also our blessed privilege to obey the revealed will of God![15]
Blessed Sign
Unfortunately, this doesn’t come naturally. Naturally, we do what we do best: sin. Scripture confirms what we witness in ourselves, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. . . . all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and . . . the wages of sin is death (Rom. 3:10-12, 23; 6:23). As a lot, we are totally depraved, as were Jesus’ brethren, whom he called, “an evil generation” (Luke 11:29), to whom the Son of God incarnate came, and they heard but did not believe but crucified and killed him, “according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). Despite the evidence of his birth and life, words and works, the people wanted more, an explicit sign of all signs confirming his identity. But Jesus responded, “no sign will be given . . . except the sign of Jonah” (Luke 11:29). What did he mean? What is this blessed sign?
Jonah, you will recall, was a prophet, who when God called him to pronounce judgement upon the pagan city of Nineveh, sailed away, presumably in the opposite direction. Of course, no one can run (or sail) away from God, even a prophet of God, and so God purposed that a great fish swallow Jonah and carry him for three days, dropping him off (or vomiting him up) on dry land, perhaps in close proximity to Nineveh. While Luke assumes we will deduce the inference, Matthew records Jesus’ explanation: “just as Jonah was three days and three nights 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” (Matt. 12:40), alluding to his death, burial, and resurrection on the third day. The ultimate sign, the “sign of Jonah,” would be given in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Surely the sign of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead would be enough, even for the antagonists and skeptics. Or, would it?
I am reminded of the parable Jesus told of Lazarus and the rich man, who, when told by Abraham that he could not cross from hell into heaven to join Lazarus, begged Abraham to send Lazarus back to warn the rich man’s brothers of the torments of hell. But Abraham would not, telling the rich man, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them” (Luke 16:29), meaning they had the Old Testament canon of Scripture, so let them hear and keep God’s Word. But perhaps knowing that he had not believed the Word of God himself, the rich man argued, “No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent” (16:30). But Abraham responded, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead” (16:31). The foreshadowing of the parable is obvious: Like the rich man of the parable, Jesus’ generation had the Old Testament Scriptures, which point to Christ, but when he came, they did not know him, and though they heard his word and witnessed his works, they wanted more, even after he died and resurrected from the dead.
But there is more to the “sign of Jonah” than three days. When Jonah went through the streets of Nineveh proclaiming to pagans, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”, all the people believed, repenting with fasting in sackcloth (Jon. 3:4-5). But when Jesus came to God’s covenant people, “proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel’” (Mark 1:14-15), they listened to his words and marveled at his miracles but demanded more. And so, Jesus said, “The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here” (Luke 11:32). Likewise, Jesus tells of the Gentile queen of Sheba who traveled with her entourage to the hear the wisdom of Solomon and was left breathless, leading her to confess and bless the Lord God.[16] A pagan city could repent, and a Gentile queen could confess, but the children of Israel remained in darkness.
Blessed Light
The apostle John, in the first chapter of his Gospel, refers to Jesus not only as “the word” and “the life” but also “the light,” saying, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:1, 4-5). As God is light,[17] Jesus’ presence in this world stood in strict contrast to its darkness. Like a lamp on a stand, the evidence of his works was on full display, for everyone to see. But you cannot see the light if you are blind. And such is the unregenerate heart, which is “deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (Jer. 17:9), and spiritually blind. Unless the Holy Spirit gives us new life through faith in Christ, we cannot see the light.
Jesus uses the metaphor of the eye to explain this: “Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness” (Luke 11:34). When the eye of the soul sees clearly, it receives the light, but when the eye is blinded to the light, it remains in darkness. Or, another way to put it is: The problem isn’t the light but the looker. No matter what Jesus said, no matter what he did, those without eyes to see could not truly see him. And so, Jesus cautioned them and us, “be careful lest the light in you be darkness” (11:35). But when the Holy Spirit supernaturally opens our spiritual eyes to see the light of our Savior, it illuminates every dark corner of our life. We suddenly see sin for what it is and the amazing grace we have been given, to know the Lord Jesus for who he truly is and believe.
If you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, even today, you know this light. Jesus said, “your whole body is full of light, having no part dark” (11:36a). This doesn’t mean that we are perfect or never struggle with sin but the light of Christ shines upon our sin, leading us to confess our sin and walk in his light. The world, our flesh, and the prince of darkness will of course seek to lead us away from the light, and sin can certainly distort our perception. But children of light are meant to live by it and shine it. If you find yourself consistently struggling with darkness, seriously consider what you are exposing yourself to and thinking about. I think Paul’s counsel to the Philippians is apropos here too: “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Phil. 4:8). Set your mind on things above.[18]
In Christ, we have been redeemed by the light of the world, whose light shines in us and through us. Our perception leads to reflection, as our lives, ever conforming to Christ, reflect the radiance of his glory, preparing us for glory. And in this we are truly blessed.
[1] Unless referenced otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001).
[2] Luke 1:30-33
[3] “The Blessing of Keeping God’s Word,” Tabletalk, Vol. 47, No. 6 (June 2023): 37.
[4] Dale Ralph Davis, Luke: The Year of the Lord’s Favor (Fearn: Christian Focus Publications, 2021), 208.
[5] “The Confession of Faith” 1.2, The Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms (Lawrenceville: PCA Christian Education and Publications, 2007), 3.
[6] Matt. 5:45
[7] Acts 14:17
[8] Luke 6:35
[9] Rom. 2:4
[10] “The Blessing of Keeping God’s Word,” Tabletalk, Vol. 47, No. 6 (June 2023): 37.
[11] 2 Tim. 3:16
[12] “The Confession of Faith” 1.7, The Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms (Lawrenceville: PCA Christian Education and Publications, 2007), 6.
[13] “The Shorter Catechism” Q. 31, 33-37, Ibid., 376-378.
[14] Ibid., Q. 38, 378.
[15] Ibid., Q. 39, 379.
[16] 1 Kgs. 10:5, 9
[17] 1 John 1:5
[18] Col. 3:2
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