By Rev. Venson Jordan
Scripture: Jonah 4:1–11
The Book of Jonah is a short read. It is four chapters long and contains a total of 48 verses.
Chapter 1 is Jonah running away, Chapter 2 is his prayer in the fish, Chapter 3 is his preaching to Nineveh, and Chapter 4 is his anger at God’s mercy.
This is an old story. It was an ancient story when Jesus was a boy. There’s around 790 some years that separate the life of Jesus and the story of Jonah. And as you know, there’s about 2,025 years between the birth of Christ and now. In the synoptic Gospels of Luke and Matthew, we can find Jesus teaching from this Story.
So, why is this relevant?
With all of the new problems in our world today, why are we still talking about this old story? Because the human behavior that made this story so necessary, is still here.
Hate is the most destructive emotion we have access to. It can cloud your judgment, and it can even cause you to defy the will of God.
Jonah was a man of deep faith, but he saw the people of Neneveh as evil, he despised them, and that clouded his judgment.
He was so angry that our God Yahweh would consider forgiving them that he was willing to forfeit his own life to disrupt it.
To truly understand Jonah’s defiance, it helps to know the back story, and then we might better understand his dilemma.
Nineveh was a part of the Assyrian Empire. One of the most powerful nations of that time. And they were known for their cruelty and their relentless extermination of the Israelites. Jonah was an Israelite. He wanted God to destroy the people of Nineveh, not reform them.
The Assyrian people had been a source of suffering for the Israelites for so long, Jonah had to feel, why ls our God willing to help those people? Why? They don’t even like you.
So, here we have a well-known prophet of the faith who is so corrupted by the power of hate, that he begins to question his own God and oppose his own beliefs.
On this Third Sunday of Easter, again we celebrate a resurrection that changed the world.
But not just for Christians. The resurrection of Jesus the Christ is a declaration of grace for all people. No matter what you did or did not do in your life, the love of our God extends to you.
That’s an important attribute to highlight. Because some of us are not comfortable with the idea of God extending grace to the so-called sinner. We see it as being unfair.
But fairness and forgiveness are not the same thing.
Forgiveness is a core concept of our faith in God; fairness is a human arrangement that can change with circumstances and time.
Sometimes, like Jonah, we struggle when God’s mercy extends beyond the boundaries we have drawn. Jonah’s anger in Chapter 4 reveals a tension as old as humanity: Why does God show compassion to those we deem unworthy? When we explore the old story of Jonah, it brings us face to face with our own bad habits.
This story, at this time of year, reminds us that just as Jonah was given a second chance to fulfill his mission, the resurrection of Jesus gave all of us a second chance.
And the repentance of Nineveh mirrors the repentance we see in the Gospels.
God’s compassion for Nineveh shows that mercy is extended to all people, not just those who look like us, speak like us, vote like us, and worship the way we do.
Though we express it differently Jonnah’s odyssey is our Odyssey. And it highlights an important purpose of the Jesus movement. To provide hope and guidance to those who want a way up from their mistakes, and for those who want a way out of whatever keeps them from becoming what God is creating them to be.
About Hate:
Today, hate is popular, and it’s profitable. And some seem to believe it is containable. That we can press it into pill form and dispense it in prescribed doses to targeted online communities.
Others believe they can bundle it with a course correction, wrap it in positive packaging, and sell it to historically mistreated and underserved communities.
But the scripture shows us that hate is not containable. Jonah had a prejudice that he could not handle, and it metastasized into hatred.
The power of hate can sit at the top of that bell-shaped curve in our lives, and seduce the most compassionate human being to a place of philosophical satisfaction and moral superiority.
And most people can’t feel themselves sliding down the other side of that curve until they are in it.
The nature of hate degrades the human capacity for compassion, until you begin to sound, look, and act like that thing you despise. Jonah was a true prophet, and even he was overwhelmed by the power of hate.
We know that Jesus taught from this story. Maybe that’s why forgiveness is a core concept in our faith tradition. Maybe it’s why anger, resentment, and revenge are discouraged, while mercy and reconciliation are encouraged. Maybe it’s why the lessons of our messiah teach us to love our enemies, not hate them.
Our faith tradition is designed to include people, not exclude them. The way of Jesus has the power to transform; to turn the most cruel criminal you have ever met, into the most compassionate colleague you ever knew.
Ultimately, our goal is to embody the lessons of our messiah, and role model his way of life to the world. This is why we say, whoever you are, and wherever you are in life’s journey, you are welcome here.
Jesus taught from this story because it was useful.
And some things are old things for good reasons.
Closing Prayer:
I pray that these ideas help us to create that beautiful humanity promised to us by our God. Until we are together again–let us say — Ashe/ Amen