The word of the Lord came to Jonah, 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.
The book of Jonah is a story about a prophet rather than a book of prophecy. It tells the story of Jonah’s rocky relationship with God. I really recommend that you take time to read the whole story …. … it is a short one but filled with insights! There is a reason it has formed part of both Hebrew and Christian scriptures for some 2800 years.
So, here’s a quick overview —— The Lord calls Jonah to a particular mission in life – to preach to Ninevites, who are coincidentally a people Jonah despised . Jonah’s response? He ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction. He did all he could to avoid his calling. And when he ran out of land to run away on, he hopped on a boat to sail far away. How far away? To Tarshish , which was beyond the gates of Gibraltar, west of the Mediterranean. In other words, at that time, beyond the known world. Now that’s far away!
What happens? Well, this part is the one we usually remember. A powerful storm – so strong that even the pagan sailors on their way to Tarshish turn pious in the face of disaster and begin praying and offering sacrifices to the Lord. They figured that Jonah must be the reason they are in the storm, so they throw him overboard and the storm relents. Jonah gets swallowed by a big fish, and once inside the fish, Jonah realizes his error and repents for being so impetuous. But the drama is not over yet! The fish spits him out, and the story continues. This is where the reading we heard today comes in …….
God sends his word to Jonah for the second time, asking him to go and preach to Nineveh. Jonah reluctantly accepts. Remember…. Jonah despised the Ninevites and resented the fact that the Lord wanted to extend his mercy to them. I suspect that secretly, Jonah was hoping that the Ninevites wouldn’t listen, and the wrath of God would destroy them all. But guess what! When Jonah preaches God’s message, the people of Nineveh respond immediately with fasting and prayer, just like the sailors in the first part of the story.
Todays reading ends here, but what happened after? Jonah is despondent that the Ninevites were shown Mercy, and finds a hillside on which to sulk. Then the Lord explains that Jonah’s attitude contradicts the merciful heart of the God he represents.
And therein lies the crux of the story. And why perhaps it has stayed with us for approaching 3,000 years. Because we can relate to Jonah’s odyssey: like Jonah we, too, are often tempted to run away from the word of God; like Jonah, we readily cocoon ourselves in the “belly of the fish”, opting to ignore the needs that surround us, only to discover that our sheltered lives leave us wanting; and like Jonah, we grow angry and stubborn at the realization of God’s generous and extravagant mercy.
And of all of thee ways we can relate to Jonah, perhaps the most important for us, for our faith, and for our world, is how unwilling we are to accept Gods generous and extravagant mercy. How quick we are to judge and condemn. How quickly we forget that as Christians, we are called to mimic our Lords Mercy, our Lord’s hesed, our Lord’s rachamim.
The story of Jonah calls us to widen our perspective to embrace the Lord’s plan for others even when it contradicts our assumptions or selfish desires. When we make judgements on other peoples lives, we reveal just how much like Jonah we truly are, and how unwilling we are to accept Gods generous and extravagant mercy. Therein lays the crux of the story of Jonah. And perhaps the uncomfortable truths of our own stories, too.