Well, we have been enjoying our Vacation Bible School this week and the theme “Operation Overboard.” As I was thinking about that, one biblical story certainly came to mind—perhaps the original “Operation Overboard” in the story of Jonah.
Jonah, of course, is a well-known sea story. A quick summary: Jonah is a prophet called by God to go to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria (remember we talked about Nineveh last week – the capital of a violent and powerful empire, the enemy of Israel). Jonah was to go and proclaim God’s wrath on the city and call for its repentance.
But Jonah has other ideas and instead of traveling by land to Nineveh (the only way you can get there from Israel) he catches a ship to Tarshish, going in the other direction.
Well, a storm comes up and the sailors fret about who has angered their gods to cause the storm, so they cast lots to see who the guilty party is and, of course, the lot fell to Jonah. Jonah knows he’s the problem, having run out on God, so he tells the sailors to cast him into the sea whereupon Jonah is swallowed by a great fish (a whale), spends three days in its belly, and then gets spit out on dry land going toward Nineveh. God wasn’t taking no for an answer, clearly.
A lot of people come up with questions about Jonah. Like, is this story really historically true? Well, there is a story from 1891 about a British whaler named James Bartley who fell into the mouth of a sperm whale that was attacking his ship, but survived in the whale’s body for 15 hours until the whale was got and gutted by his shipmates. This story, however, is considered by most historians to be a sea story with very little basis in fact. Scientists do know, however, that a person could fit into a large whale’s stomach, so it may be possible (Mythbusters, anyone?)
But the swallowing of Jonah isn’t really the key part of this story, though some think it is.
It’s like the teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because even though it was a very large mammal its throat was very small.
The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale.
Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was physically impossible.
The little girl said, 'When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah'.
The teacher asked, 'What if Jonah went to hell?'
The little girl replied, 'Then you ask him'.
The story of Jonah, however, illustrates a much bigger point. When you read Jonah closely, you begin to realize that the real crux of the story, the reason that Jonah gets on a ship instead of heading to Nineveh, isn’t because he’s afraid of dying there, it’s because he’s afraid that his message might be successful!
Imagine Jonah emerging from the whale’s belly: bleached white from the stomach acid, clothes mostly burned off, seaweed wrapped around his head. He grudgingly goes to Nineveh and walks across it for three days, but his message is only this: “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” Not exactly a scintillating sermon.
I mean, you can’t be much less enthusiastic than that. Where’s the detail, the reasoning, the long poetic explanations of the other prophets? Seems like Jonah, despite his rescue from the deep, is doing everything he can to fail, sabotaging the mission.
Why? He doesn’t want Nineveh to repent! Well, remember the history, the description of what Assyrian Ninevites have done. They are ancient terrorists. Jonah doesn’t want them saved, he wants them destroyed and the threat removed. He wants God to smoke them. He doesn’t want dialogue, he wants destruction! So he does as little as possible to at least give the appearance that he’s doing God’s work and then leaves the city, wanting to get a front row seat for God’s judgment on his enemies.
But lo and behold, the Ninevites get it. Even Jonah’s poor preaching is effective! They repent, turn to God, and God spares them.
Now, as a preacher, I wonder about this. Sometimes when I am least prepared, it’s then that the sermon is the most effective. But whether your preaching is stellar or stupid, you hope that people will respond. But not Jonah.
Listen again to what he says to God. Instead of being happy because of his effectiveness, Jonah is angry (beginning of chapter 4): 4: 1 But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. 2 He prayed to the LORD, "O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live."
Jonah’s mad because God offers grace to his enemies!
This reminds me of a word that is becoming more in vogue these days. It’s a German word, and German words sometimes capture larger concepts. It’s Schadenfreude – defined as pleasure at someone else’s downfall. Jonah has schadenfreude in spades.
He has it so much that as he sits outside the city and pouts, he’s completely furious at God and waits in vain for the city to go up in an apocalyptic cataclysm. He sits so long that God, in his grace, gives him a shade bush. Jonah is happy for the bush, but still not happy about Nineveh not being in flames. God sends a worm to kill the bush, and then God sends the wind and the heat, but Jonah still isn’t moved.
Now, look at the next exchange (4:9): God says, “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?” Jonah says, “Yup, angry enough to die!” That’s pretty angry.
You know I think this is one of the most evocative stories in Scripture because it speaks to us right where we live. Just flip on the radio, TV, internet, newspaper, and you see this kind of anger all over the place. Blogs and twitter pages spew all sorts of vitriol about people and politics. Caustic talk show hosts rile up people with their demonizing of those who don’t agree with them. People who claim to be Christians post some of the nastiest invectives on social media about people and politicians. Anger is the first response of most people to any issue that catches them sideways. The more media we use, the more anger we see. It’s bad and it’s getting worse, particularly as the election campaign heats up. So what’s going on here?
Well, it’s Schadenfreude. Columnist George Will has even said that schadenfreude is the new 8th deadly sin. It’s become a national pastime.
Jonah is its patron saint. See, this isn’t so much a big fish story as it is a cautionary tale. When we’re caught in schadenfreude, we’ll never see the purposes of God for the whole world—a world that includes our enemies.
Look at what God says to Jonah, whose angry about Nineveh, angry about the bush, angry about everything (4:10): “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being at night and perished at night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”
That’s how the book of Jonah ends, that question hanging there.
You know, I wonder if God isn’t asking us the same question. “Why should I not be concerned with (insert name of people you disagree with here)?”
Turns out Jonah is really a story about grace—God’s unmerited mercy and favor. We preach grace, we teach grace, but do we offer grace? Do we believe that everyone really is a child of God and that God cares for them even when we disagree? Can we quit pouting and spewing for a season and actually listen to each other?
I’m as guilty of getting the rants as anyone else (usually about theology and sports), but knowing that, we need to be calling one another to change.
And, if we’re going to do that, we’ve got to take some steps, particularly during this politically charged season we are about to enter. Now, I’m usually not a political preacher. I tend to function and think as an independent, but here’s a suggestion. First, I want to challenge you turn off the talk radio, the nasty Facebook posts, the pundit-driven TV no matter which side you’re on. It’s full of Jonahs, be they liberal or conservative, religious or irreligious, who have planted themselves in the shade to comment on the hoped-for destruction of the other side. I would also urge you to think before you post that derogatory cartoon or that one-liner that excoriates someone you don’t agree with, or if you’re reading them constantly then turn that off, too. Think about having a dialogue instead of diatribe. You can choose to stop listening to and reposting the Jonah jabber!
Instead, I want to urge you to start listening to God. My hope is that through our exploration of the Scriptures you’re getting a better picture for the kind of world that God created this to be. Are you catching God’s mission for the redemption of the whole creation, of care for the poor and vulnerable, God’s vision for making the wounded whole and mending the brokenhearted? Can you see that the idea is never that we get God on our side but rather that we get on God’s side?
Oh, it’s so much easier to gravitate toward the poles, the extremes rather than centering ourselves on the Lord. It’s not the blowhards we need to listen to, but the still, small voice of God. Rather than rubbing your hands in glee over the potential downfall of your rivals, why not pray for them instead?
Now, whether the story of Jonah is historical or not, we know that Nineveh eventually did fall in 612BC. I talked about that last week sermon. But what you may not know is that there is still a very small but very faithful community of Assyrian Christians who trace their spiritual lineage back to Jonah. In the midst of dark days and menacing times, God still cares, even for those who might oppose us.
So should we. Christians should be a listening people, a grace-filled people, a people who love as God loves. That’s not easy in an angry, schadenfreude-filled world, but it is our call.
How can you begin this week to be a prophet of peace? Who are the people you can’t stand the most and, as a disciple of Jesus, how will you bless them instead of cursing them? What words can you offer that will build someone up instead of tearing them down?
