Lesson: Jonah 3:1-10

I usually blog about the lectionary Gospel passage, but Jonah is one of my favorite books in the Bible. Even people who’ve never opened a Bible know about Jonah and the whale. The story begins with a Hebrew word that many Bibles translate as “Now,” but might also be translated, “And it happened,” or “Now it came to pass.” If it began, “Once upon a time,” or, “A prophet and a person from Nineveh walk into a bar,” we’d know exactly how to read this story. Jonah is something of a hybrid, full of fantasy, humor, and irony. And it ends with God almost saying, “Don’t you get it now, Jonah?”

Jonah never gets it. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria; it’s near where Mosul, Iraq, is today. Ninevah was destroyed in 605 B.C.E., which is long before the book of Jonah was written, but the author chose Nineveh for this story because the Assyrians were still remembered by the Hebrews as the Enemy, with a capital E. When Hollywood wants to depict villains that will in no way elicit our sympathy, they make the villains either Nazis, or Nazi-like, like the Imperial officers in the “Star Wars” movies. The Assyrians were ancient Israel’s Nazis.

God tells Jonah to take a message to Nineveh. Jonah heads in the opposite direction, jumping on a ship to Tarshish. We’re not sure where that is, maybe Spain; the point is it’s about as far away from Nineveh as Jonah can get. God causes a huge storm, and Jonah tells the crew to throw him overboard to stop the storm. He’s swallowed by the great fish, and after three days and nights of praying, he’s vomited onto the shore.

That’s what most of us remember about the Jonah story, and we probably thought the moral of the story was, “Don’t mess with God!” But that’s not the lesson. The story continues with God giving Jonah a second chance, and Jonah obeys, but his heart isn’t in it. He goes part way into Nineveh and cries out a doomsday message, just five words in Hebrew. The city will be demolished in forty days. You can almost picture Jonah saying to God, “Okay, I did it. Now get off my back.”

And lo and behold, the people of Nineveh repent. They change their evil ways. They turn into upstanding, God-fearing people. So God calls off the demolition. The city is saved.

The first piece of good news in the book of Jonah is that God is the God of second chances. And third, and fourth and fifth chances, and on and on. I recommend the Veggie Tales movie about Jonah, and in particular, the rousing gospel choir that serenades Jonah inside the whale. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeOnADmkD74). God gave Jonah another chance, and God gave Nineveh another chance. Nineveh; that tells us there is no sin so terrible that God cannot forgive, no hurt so terrible that God cannot heal. This is who God is; this is what God does. It is God’s ability to do the incomprehensible, to extend mercy to the least deserving, that opens the door to our own hope. Everyone messes up, and God accomplished more through Jonah after Jonah messed up than before he messed up. That can be true for every one of us.

You’d think this would be a reason to celebrate, but in the verses that follow, Jonah is furious. The second piece of good news in Jonah – but the news Jonah himself just can’t swallow as good – is that God’s mercy is not the exclusive property of anyone. Jonah was all in favor of God’s mercy when it was flowing in his direction. He just didn’t want any of it to flow over to Nineveh. Jonah would rather die, he says, than live in a world where his enemies can worm their way out of total annihilation by something as flimsy as complete and unadulterated repentance. He sulks in a little hut he builds in the harsh desert wind and sun. God makes a bush grow over Jonah’s head, and Jonah is relieved. But then God withers the bush, and Jonah is exposed and angry once again. And God says, “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?” Jonah says it is. God says, “You’re concerned about a bush; shouldn’t I be concerned about a city full of people, including innocent children?”

Don’t you get it now, Jonah?

The startling, troubling message in the book of Jonah is that God loves the Assyrians, the most un-chosen people this ancient Jewish writer could conjure up, and Jonah needs to get over it. Although maybe what really would make it as startling to us and as troubling for us as it’s supposed to be is if we substitute a more current enemy. God loves the Nazis. God loves the people on Death Row. God loves Islamic jihadists. God loves the members of the Proud Boys and Q-Anon. God loves Vladimir Putin. God loves whatever politician or news host it is that you love to hate. God doesn’t just love us. God loves them, too.

So the question is, will the joke on Jonah be a joke on us?

© Joanne Whitt 2024 all rights reserved.