This Reflection is taken from the Sunday Devotion written by this blogger for Christ Episcopal Church, Yankton, SD on January 24, 2021.
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days' walk across. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the USA, and used by permission.
REFLECTION
Eternal power, be our support. Amen.
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The story of “Jonah and the whale” is one of the most well-known stories in the Bible, and it is that particular part of Jonah’s story which sticks with most people but there is far more to his story than being swallowed by a big fish and the city of Nineveh being spared. The main focus of this story is Jonah himself, an individual called by God to be God’s prophet.
The story of Jonah begins with Jonah trying to duck out of his obligation to deliver a devastating message from God to the people of Nineveh by taking a cruise to Tarshish in order to get as far away from Nineveh as he could. While out to sea, the ship he is on encounters a storm and begins to sink. Jonah confesses the ship is going to sink because he is trying to evade his calling. He tells the captain and crew to throw him overboard in order to save themselves. They try to
row to shore to avoid that option but their attempt proves futile. Then, repenting for any wrongdoing they might commit, they throw Jonah overboard. Immediately, Jonah finds himself swallowed by a big fish in whose belly he remains for three days and nights. During that time, Jonah becomes repentant and is belched up on a beach pointed in the direction of Nineveh, which is where our first lesson picks up the story.
The story continues after the people of Nineveh repent. Jonah goes a distance from the city in a huff to sulk because he is angry that they were saved and builds a makeshift shelter to stay out of the sun. God come to his assistance by having a bush to grow to provide extra shade. Jonah is pleased with the bush but doesn’t take care of it. Overnight the plant dies and Jonah starts to complain about the plant dying. At that point, God questions him with the following:
But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?” And he said, “Yes, angry enough to die.” Then the Lord said, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?” [Jonah 4:9-11]
With that question the story of Jonah ends.
Jonah’s story is a parabolic story that presents a dramatic scenario in order to teach us something about ourselves and our God. It brings to mind Jesus’ use of parables like the “Good Samaritan” and the “Prodigal Son,” which he used to show us ourselves and our capacity to act like the characters in those stories. The story of Jonah personifies the stubbornness of people who know better but refuse to do better simply because of their personal fear and hatred of someone or something.
Jonah’s dramatic scenario is centered around God sending him to Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire to warn its people of its imminent destruction. The Assyrian Empire was noted for its excessive cruelty to those it defeated. Assyria was the empire that destroyed the Kingdom of Israel and carted its populace into captivity. They were very close to destroying Jerusalem but were prevented by a plague that wiped out the army [See 2 Kings 19]. They were ultimately defeated by the Babylonians.
For Jews returning from the Babylonian exile, the memories of the Assyrians were far more dreadful than the Babylonians who eventually destroyed both the Temple and Jerusalem and took them into captivity. The likelihood of God sending a prophet to a people considered more heinous than the Babylonians in order to tell them God was going to destroy them, yet alone save them, had to strike those who heard this story as an utterly ridiculous notion as it did for Jonah.
Ironically, Jonah’s fear was centered in knowing God to be merciful. His fear was that the people of Nineveh would receive the message he was sent to give, repent, and God would spare them, which is exactly what happened. Jonah was so entrenched in his hatred of the people of Nineveh that he preferred death rather than be involved in their salvation.
That sounds really messed up, doesn’t it?
Jesus used this story to demonstrate how messed up things were during his time. In today’s lesson from Luke, the main religious/political groups of Jesus’ day were the Sadducees and the Pharisees. For the most part, they were ideologically opposed to one another but who, on rare occasion, might come together when there was someone like a would-be messiah who threatened their status quo. Like Jonah, they knew what God required (to be just, merciful, and walk humbly with God) but they were so entrenched in their differing views on Judaism and maintaining a hold on their lifestyles that they had little time for anything else.
Jesus was not about to play their give-us-a-heavenly-sign game. Instead, Jesus gave them a down to earth sign. Paraphrasing Jesus’ response in our second lesson, Jesus was telling them, “You already know the signs. You already know what God wants, but if you want a sign. I’ll give you one, the story of Jonah. Do you see yourselves and what you are doing in Jonah’s story? Do you see yourselves running from the what the Lord requires in order to stay entrenched in the misery of your religious and political haggling?
Jonah’s story is a story for every age, including our own. The story of Jonah serves to remind us that, as children of God, we cannot escape God. God goes where we go and God’s will is done even if we don’t like it.
We all have Jonah moments in our lives. We all have moments when we know better but fail to do better.
Like Jonah, we can try and escape our callings as God’s children. We can try to do our own thing and have it our way.
Like Jonah, we can ride the troubled seas of our making only to find ourselves swallowed up in the misery we created.
Like Jonah, we can became entrenched in our idealism, our fear of those we perceive to be our enemies, and our hatred of those we find disagreeable.
We need to consider who are the Assyrians of our day and in our lives? Who do we fear so much that we would not wish them to exist? Is it a nation? Is it some ideological group? Is it a person?
If there is an answer to any of these question, consider placing those answers in the context of God’s closing question to Jonah in order to understand the direction God is pointing us in.
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God of mercy, have mercy on us, break the bonds of our fear and hatred, strengthen our faith so that we may live in peace with one another, and instill hope within our hearts that we may live according to your will through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
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Until next time, stay faithful.
Norm
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