Jonah 3: Unwilling But Still Going
One morning before church a few years back, one of our long-term members, Ms. Thelma Price, came up to me with a joke. For those who never knew her, she was about 5-foot tall, late 80s, white hair, and full of joy and laughter. She used to say, “My name’s Thelma Price, and the Price is right!” She always had a joke ready on Sunday morning. Here is one she told. A wife came up to check on her husband one Sunday morning, and he was still asleep in the bed. She told him to get up because they were going to be late for church. He replied, “I’m not going. It’s hot outside, I’m tired, and those people hate me. I’m not going.” The wife put her hands squarely on her hips and in a strong voice said, “There is air conditioning in the car and the church. Those people love you. And lastly, you’re the PASTOR! It’s your job, so GET UP AND GO NOW!”
Sometimes in life we lose our sense of “Lord, here am I,” and it becomes more of a, “Oh, no, Lord, no not I.” In today’s scripture we read of two responses to God’s call or God’s word to the people. The first in Jonah’s response. The other is Nineveh’s response. Each of these responses must be weighed carefully—Jonah as God’s prophet, and Nineveh, as the warlike city being called to repentance or destruction. Weigh these responses in terms of both right action and a right heart to accompany the action.
First we look at Jonah and his unwilling obedience. We read that Jonah finally went to Nineveh, but it was still not done willingly because he desired to follow God. The word of the Lord had to speak to Jonah a second time to get him to go to Nineveh. One would think the storm and fish were enough motivation, but apparently not for Jonah. This time, God is not so easy in asking Jonah, saying, “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh and deliver the message I have given you.” When Jonah got to Nineveh, he did not preach for them to repent at all. Instead, he said, “Forty days from now, and Nineveh will be destroyed!” Yes, God had given them judgment, but there was still the hope for mercy if they turned their hearts. Jonah offered none of that. In his book, Beyond Bumper Sticker Ethics, Steve Wilkins talks about virtue and says there is a distinction between good character and good rule following.
Drawing some on ancient philosophy, he writes, “An honest act is virtuous only if one does it because one is honest.” There is a difference in desiring to follow God wholly and completely, and simply following the rules because you have to. I worry that we have become an entire country of Jonahs. We’ve politicized our entire country, our lives, and our faith. And faith, especially, has become a weapon of politics. Republicans seek to demonize and spread hate about Democrats, and Democrats seek to demonize and spread hate about Republicans. When was the last time you or I went a day without something political thrust in our faces? We’ve lost our virtues. Jesus taught love your enemies and do good to those who hate you. Jesus taught gentleness and kindness and love one another. Where has this gone? We’ve all gleefully marched to Nineveh to preach God’s destruction and found ourselves in our own living rooms instead.
The true picture of what God wants is found not in the angry and bitter prophet, but in the City of Nineveh and its heartfelt repentance. We will never find God’s hope or God’s peace, until we find in God’s love the power to change hearts. We must seek the power to change hearts instead of the desire to control power. And all too often humans desire to control power over all else. Look at Nineveh. The Word of God, scathing as it was, moved them to fast and put on burlap. From the king in the highest places, to the poorest in the streets, to even the animals they owned, all fasted, prayed, and asked for God’s mercy.
They called throughout the land to give up their violence, their meanness, and their cruelty, and they turned from their evil ways. What they said, to me, is one of the most shockingly moving parts of the whole Book of Jonah: “Who can tell? Perhaps even yet God will change his mind and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us.” Because Jonah was to mean and stubborn to talk about mercy, they repented, prayed, and sought God not even knowing if God would hear them and give them mercy. They certainly didn’t deserve it. And this little bit of work at humility certainly didn’t earn it. But they clung to the hope that God sought mercy over destruction, even despite their violent ways.
And God most certainly was and is merciful to those who seek God’s way. When God called Jonah, he answered bitterly and unwillingly. Nineveh, however, responded fully, humbly, and rightly to God’s call. The saddest part about this is that Jonah was God’s prophet, and by the end of this book, no one would say that we should be like God’s own prophet, Jonah. Instead, the example to follow is Nineveh. Sometimes, I think God turns things on their head to show us how mercy and grace truly work. Jesus did so all the time saying to love enemies, the last shall be first, be born again. Those ideas went against logic and expectation. And yet, God sometimes works in very mysterious ways.
One would expect mercy for God’s prophet. But here we are shown that sometimes God’s people must stop and evaluate, and the ones perceived most evil will find God’s mercy. It is a reminder to us that forgiveness and mercy are abundant, and they are most abundant when we stay close to the cross. We see here two different cities. The old Nineveh is violent, warlike, and filled with evil. The new Nineveh is humble, repentant, and redeemed. The one constant in all of this is Jonah’s bitterness, for he can neither face the old Nineveh with strength and conviction, nor celebrate the new Nineveh with hope and love. We cannot become a nation filled with Jonahs.
I am reminded of two old hymns. One says, “There’s room at the cross for you,” calling us to mercy, grace and redeeming love. The other says, “There is much to do and work on every hand. Hark, the cry for help comes ringing through the land.” At different times in our lives we will hear God calling to us. That call may be for us to repent and be humbled. Sometimes we will be asked to evaluate whether we have listened and follow God or everything else in society around us. You won’t find God’s peace and grace in the news, politics, winning, or the society around us. God’s peace is only found with God. Sometimes we may be tempted to pull the covers over our head and shut everything out, or we may jump in over our heads to everything going on around us.
Hopefully instead of one extreme or the other we can find that our strength, our hope, and yes, even our redemption from power, politics, and the love of both can be found in seeking God’s grace. We have to be ready, not just repent and to willingly follow Christ in this world, but we must also be ready to be sent. We may be asked to teach and train within our church family. We may be asked to speak prophetically in Nineveh. Or we may be asked to reach out and find new mission. Listen carefully for God to speak, and then be ready to say, “Lead me. Here I am Lord.”
Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/3337309369655385