Choose Your Own Adventure: The Petulant Preacher (MTKA)

Jonah 3:1-5, 10; 4:1-4

The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, 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.

But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

Dear beloved of God, grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus who is the Christ, Amen.

I love the story of Jonah. It’s big and vivid. There’s drama and excitement. It has boats and sailors and a giant fish. It’s got cows and bushes and worms. It’s protagonist is grumpy or resentful or a profound realist or all of the above. Jonah is one of the biblical stories that I learned first, or at least remember learning as a child, but it’s also one that continues to challenge me every time I read it, because there’s always more to this story.

We didn’t have time to read the whole story this morning, but as far as books of the bible go this one is pretty short, so if you haven’t recently, I’d encourage you to read the whole thing sometime later today. It’s only four chapters. It goes pretty quickly, and then you can say you’ve read a whole book of the bible. Win!

Quick recap for those of you that aren’t super familiar with this story.

God calls Jonah to go to Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire, the people that eventually lay waste to the Northern Kingdom of Israel. God wants Jonah to help Nineveh turn from it’s evil ways. But instead of heading toward Nineveh, Jonah hops on a boat heading in the opposite direction. A storm develops on the water. The sailors panic, they ask Jonah why is this happening?

Jonah tells them, it’s because I’m running away from God. So the sailors throw Jonah into the sea, where Jonah is promptly eaten or saved by a giant fish. The fish swims around with Jonah in his belly for three days, then vomits Jonah back onto dry land whereupon God calls to Jonah again. Go to Nineveh.

That is where we pick up the story today. Jonah enters Nineveh, preaches the shortest, the worst, but arguably most effective sermon recorded in the bible, and the people of Nineveh repent. They believe Jonah and believe God. And God changes God’s mind. God decides to extend grace and mercy to Nineveh.

And Jonah is upset.

But wouldn’t you be? If you were in Jonah’s place. Wouldn’t you just resent the hell out of this whole situation? I mean think about it. Nineveh is the seat, the capital, of the evil empire. Nineveh is the enemy. Nineveh is the place of power and dominance and brutality in the region. In due course, it’s Assyrian people that will destroy Jonah’s people. Jonah knows these people, he hates these people. And yet Jonah’s God, Jonah’s protector, Jonah’s light and life and salvation has sent him to deliver a saving word to them.

And they respond. And Jonah is devastated.

He’d rather be dead than see God forgive them.

It’s why he didn’t even want to go in the first place. It’s why he ran away. Jonah knew who God was. He knew what God would do. And he can’t stand that God, his God, would do that for them.

And God says to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

We’re supposed to say no. Jonah’s supposed to say no. We’re supposed to see things from God’s perspective. God cares about Nineveh too. The people. The animals.

But what about justice? What about fairness? What about holding people to account and righting wrongs and punishing those who deserve it? What about that God? I so desperately want to see those who have wronged me, who have hurt me, those I disagree with and feel are dangerous for my wellbeing, my family’s wellbeing, my country’s wellbeing, this world’s future get-theirs. I want people to pay for what they’ve done. Don’t you?

Jonah does. It’s why he sits down outside the city and waits and watches. What will happen in 40 days? Will justice be delivered or will mercy win out?

What will happen to Nineveh? What will happen to Jonah? The story doesn’t tell us. It ends with a question. Jonah sets up camp to watch what will become of the city and God creates a plant that provides shade for Jonah. Then the next day there’s a worm that consumes the plant and Jonah is left to bake in the sun. 

But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?” And he said, “Yes, angry enough to die.” Then the Lord said, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labour and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”

God’s concern, God’s love, God’s faithfulness is maddeningly expansive. It includes those we would exclude. It embraces those we would push away. It creates potential and possibility for those who we would leave behind. Should I not be concerned, God says? Should I not work tirelessly to bring those people back under my care? Did I not also make them? Are they not my children as well?

Yes.

Yes.

And still I want limits. I want boundaries. I want to know where love ends and tough love begins. I want to know that God will take care of God’s people and punish the wicked and judge those who deserve it.

But this story doesn’t give us that. It ends with a question. How big is God’s love? Does it include them? And if it doesn’t, can you be sure it includes you?

The recklessness of this story gives witness to a God who is so concerned, so committed, so willing to bet it all that God became human, endured life and death so that we, who know no limits, might be enfolded into God’s own life of possibility and promise now and forever. How big is God’s love? It includes you today and always. Amen.