36. I tell you that everyone will have to answer for all the careless things they have said. This will happen on the day of judgment.
37. Your words will be used to judge you. What you have said will show whether you are right or whether you are guilty.”
38. Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law answered Jesus. They said, “Teacher, we want to see you do a miracle as a sign from God.”
39. Jesus answered, “Evil and sinful people are the ones who want to see a miracle as a sign. But no miracle will be done to prove anything to them. The only sign will be the miracle that happened to the prophet Jonah.
40. Jonah was in the stomach of the big fish for three days and three nights. In the same way, the Son of Man will be in the grave three days and three nights.
41. On the judgment day, you people who live now will be compared with the people from Nineveh, and they will be witnesses who show how guilty you are. Why do I say this? Because when Jonah preached to those people, they changed their lives. And you are listening to someone greater than Jonah, but you refuse to change!
42. “On the judgment day, you people who live now will also be compared with the queen of the South, and she will be a witness who shows how guilty you are. I say this because she traveled from far, far away to listen to Solomon’s wise teaching. And I tell you that someone greater than Solomon is right here, but you won’t listen!
43. “When an evil spirit comes out of a person, it travels through dry places looking for a place to rest, but it finds none.
44. So it says, ‘I will go back to the home I left.’ When it comes back, it finds that home still empty. It is all neat and clean.
45. Then the evil spirit goes out and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself. They all go and live there, and that person has even more trouble than before. It is the same way with the evil people who live today.”
46. While Jesus was talking to the people, his mother and brothers stood outside. They wanted to talk to him.
47. Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are waiting for you outside. They want to talk to you.”
48. Jesus answered, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?”
49. Then he pointed to his followers and said, “See! These people are my mother and my brothers.
50. Yes, anyone who does what my Father in heaven wants is my true brother and sister and mother.”