Atom“God of Those We Despise…Hear Our Prayer”
Jonah 3:1 - 4:3
The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Ninevah, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.”
Most of us here know the story of Jonah. I mean, who wouldn’t remember the story of a guy getting swallowed by a whale and then being spit out on the shore only to discover that in returning to those who love him he is transformed. He is no longer a wooden puppet, but now a real boy. Wait…that isn’t the story, is it?
No, Jonah is the one who heard God’s call to go to Ninevah…which was the capital city of the big bully Syrians somewhere to the northeast of Israel…and so decided to go directly west toward Tarshish. No one really knows where Tarshish was, but it was rumored to be somewhere as far away as Spain was in the ancient world – on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea, at the edge of the earth, kind of like Divide County in Western ND.
Knowing the politics of the ancient world, one might understand why Jonah wouldn’t want to go up to Ninevah. What citizen of Israel in their right mind would? Syria was the conquering power of its day. It had ravaged little Israel and its people. It would be like God telling a Jewish citizen of Poland in 1940 to go to Berlin. But then again, when we hear what God wanted him to say to the Ninevites, we wonder why he didn’t jump at the chance? God says, “Cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.” Who in Israel wouldn’t jump at the chance to go up to Ninevah and tell them how terribly wicked they were and that God had noticed and now there would be hell to pay? Perhaps Jonah was frightened.
Apparently not. Jonah explains in our lesson today that he refused to go to Ninevah because he was afraid it might work. That is, for all he knew the Ninevites might listen and repent and God would forgive them and then where would we be? With us as the good guys and those violent, sinful Ninevites as the bad guys, well, you know here you stand. But if they should repent (which you remember means literally “to turn around”), then what? Then we would have to treat them like sisters and brothers and wonder if their repentance was sincere and whether it would last.
So, Jonah gets on a boat to go where God is not and that leads to the part of the story of Jonah that we remember best – perhaps the only part of the story that we remember most of the time – where Jonah is cast overboard in the midst of a storm and is promptly eaten by a big fish. After three days and nights of severe indigestion, the big fish “vomited Jonah out on the dry land” (2:10) right on the very shore where Jonah left in the first place.
God comes to Jonah again and says, “OK, Jonah, now that I’ve got your attention, let’s try this again, “Get up and go over to Ninevah, that great city, and proclaim to them the message that I tell you.”
At this point, Jonah, so recently whale spit, listens and grudgingly does what God commands and goes to Ninevah. But I would suggest to you this morning that he does so only half-heartedly. He goes into Ninevah, “an exceedingly large city, three days walk across.” But he only goes in only one day’s journey and he delivers a one sentence sermon. Then turns around and heads out of town. No illustrations, no poems, or video to emphasize the point, just these words, “Forty days more and Ninevah shall be overthrown!”
There. Are you satisfied, God? I did what you asked. It’s done.
God’s work is not, however. The response to the world’s shortest and worst sermon is the greatest in the Bible. The people of this great city hear and repent. They start fasting. They all put on simple burlap clothing from the oldest to the youngest. They roll in ashes. All signs of sorrow over sin. Even the king, who must have heard the sermon from someone else, takes the lead in the repentance. Even the cattle repent. Dogs, cats, kings, everybody repents.
And Jonah? He is ecstatic. He says, “Wow! God is good! Even my simple words…” No, Jonah gets mad…depressed even, and says he wishes he were dead! Listen to what he says here in chapter four:
“I knew this would happen!” he says. “That’s why I headed for Tarshish. I knew you were a God who was merciful, forgiving, a lover of losers like those Ninevites. I knew it. And I didn’t want to be a part of it!”
What an amazing story! What an amazingly rotten attitude Jonah has! But…more importantly, what is this story about…for us? What is God trying to tell us in giving us the story of Jonah? I don’t know about you, but I’ve always thought of it as kind of a promised punishment for disobedience. You know…if God calls you to do something, and you don’t do it, there will be consequences to pay. You’ll get swallowed by a big fish. You’ll lose your job. Your marriage will break up. And that’s God’s way of getting your attention, so God can start over with you after the whale has spit you out.
But then I was driving to Moorhead this week, thinking about the lessons as I often do and driving the speed limit as I usually do, making sure to slow down in Audubon and Lake Park like the sign says. Remember, I am an oldest child. I may not always follow the rules. But when I don’t I feel really guilty and I don’t like that feeling. So, I am driving the speed limit and someone blows by me. And I think, “Where is Dan Vickmark (the Highway Patrol) when you need him?” But then about 10 miles down the road, I see this car planted squarely in the median in a big pile of snow. And I think, “Yes, serves you right. Justice is served. Vengeance is the Lord’s!”
And then I thought, “This is what Jonah’s story is about.” The story of Jonah is about the cry of my heart that the wicked should get what they deserve. Not that the person in that other car was particularly wicked, you understand. I am just trying to make the point that I love mercy for me (when I break the speed limit) more that I love mercy for the other guy. Which is a trap that believers easily fall into – especially when it comes to those we don’t like or even hate.
God tells us this story to remind us that God’s heart yearns even for those we despise or are afraid of. You may not remember this, but some years ago, Billy Graham scheduled a crusade in the Soviet Union. There was great reaction – almost exclusively negative! Why would we offer mercy to our enemies? To those we are afraid of? To those who might turn against us again?
But let’s bring it a little closer to home. What if someone comes to our congregation who has committed a great and heinous crime? They have seen their sin. They have served their punishment. They have repented and their life has been turned around. But that sin is so great and so frightening to us when we consider that they may fall back into it that we are not sure that we want mercy for them. Justice, even revenge is just fine with us. But we’re not too keen on mercy. That is when the Jonah story begins to wiggle its way into our understanding of God’s passion for the broken.
Or how about if we have a broken marriage and it ended really badly. We are devastated, hurt irreparably, and we desire the worst for our former spouse. If they were to pile up in a wreck by the side of the road, we would gladly drive by. Surely they deserve whatever punishment comes their way. They have made their bed, let them lie in it! That is when the story of Jonah begins to wiggle its way into our understanding of God’s passion for the broken.
Use any enemy – anyone you despise – personally, ethnically, economically – the business that just fired you – and hear the story of Jonah and confess with Jonah. “I knew this would happen and despise it. I knew you were a God who was merciful, forgiving, a lover of losers like those Ninevites, or my spouse, or executives of big business, or sex offenders. I knew it. And I would rather die than tell them they can be forgiven and restored.” And Jesus knows this about us. Jesus knows that forgiving and restoring our enemies and those who have wronged us is a particularly difficult spiritual hurdle for those who follow him.
And so Jesus tells us another story in the Bible that you probably remember, the story of a father waiting for the return of his prodigal son. We all love the part of the story where the father waits upon, receives and restores the wayward younger brother, especially if we recognize ourselves or someone we love in that brother. But remember how the story ends, not with the father inside the house, partying with the once wayward but now repentant younger brother. The story ends with God out standing in the dark, earnestly pleading with the older brother to come inside, to join the party and to celebrate the mercy that embraces even those we don’t approve of or just plain don’t a like.
You see, God knows we have this human inclination to judge each other and to determine those who are in and those who are not worth caring about. And against that inclination to judge God gives us this story of Jonah…to remind us that our God is the God even of our enemies, and of those of whom we are fearful or resentful, and is ever seeking those we would not seek. It is a challenge, to be sure, to follow the leading of such a God. And there are times when we may see a lot of Jonah in ourselves. And yet in a strange way the story brings us comfort. If God can love the Ninevites, he can certainly love me. If Jesus invited Judas, his betrayer, to his table to eat with him, he can certainly include me. And…in including me, perhaps he can also transform me, change my heart, your heart, turn us into real boys, and real girls (remember the other guy swallowed by a whale?), with the kind of compassionate hearts that our Creator God intended us to have from the very beginning. May Jesus change my heart again to be like his. Let’s pray…
Lord, we are thankful that you would show us mercy. Help us, we pray, to be thankful that you also show mercy to th
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