We are Jonah

The more I study Jonah the more I find that the book is basically a mirror. And as with looking in the mirror I prefer a dim light. When the light is bright I'm not real fond of what I see. I see some things that...aren't that pretty. Yet the Holy Spirit has a way of turning up the dimmer switch, if you know what I mean. Fortunately along with the ugly there is also some glorious news.

Jonah is quite the model prophet, isn't he? Called by God he receives messages from the Lord. His part is to proclaim those messages. Only he keeps getting in the way. Called to go east to Nineveh he buys a ticket to Tarshish - which is due west about as far as he could possibly go. How could he - a man of God - do such a thing?! What is he thinking? ...How many times do you go to Tarshish...each day? There will always be a boat to take you there. What's your Tarshish? Is it fantasy baseball? Is it the latest episode of Lost? Is it the approval of co-workers, clients...your wife or kids? Is it the latest read online...? There's no shortage of boats to take you to Tarshish.

Then as Jonah gets aboard the boat and it begins to get some distance from shore God sends a storm. As the boat rocks and his stomach lurches Jonah decides to go down into the hull. Finding a cushion he tries to escape for a nap. Only he is awakened by that annoying pagan captain wanting him to pray to his God. "Who knows? You never know - It might make a difference!" "Now?!" Jonah decides to tell these guys that if they really want relief they should fling him into the water for, he's actually a fugitive from Yahweh, the architect of this storm. Considering this a little too drastic they start to unload cargo...besides, if this man's a prophet what might Yahweh do to them if they dispose of one of his messengers? Jonah, unwilling to throw himself overboard, yet preferring death over repentance, sits by as the ship tosses up and down, up and down...

Jonah is unbelievably stubborn. His heart is cold. Does he not care one ounce for the Ninevites? Would he really rather die than repent? His issue seems to be the way in which he sees himself in relation to them. He hates them. This becomes obvious at the end of the story, though his actions already make it quite clear. "But those Ninevites...they don't deserve God's mercy!" Is mercy "deserved"? How does Jonah view himself? Does he see himself as worthy of God's mercy? "You know that Rick is such a great guy...he'd make a great Christian." What about murderers like Saul, Moses and David? What about greedy, hording cheats like Zachaeus? What about women whose livlihood is sex, like Mary Magdalene? What about deadbeat dads and racists? To the Pharisees Jesus said, "It's not the well who need a doctor..."

We are Jonah. We're quite content with being "in." Why bother? What is it to us? They can all go to hell. Like Jonah, we have rebel hearts. Like Jonah, my heart is so often untouched. God have mercy. God had mercy.

Despairing of all hope the pagan sailors seek God's pardon before they toss Jonah overboard. As Jonah sinks toward the bottom the whitecaps above subside. He descends, dropping to the depths, entering a strange state of consciousness. Steadily his heart fills with guilt and fear. In this state his weakening spirit groans, calls out to the Lord. Suddenly he feels something close in over him...he's moved around, or through something. It's dark. Surreal. Has he died? Where is he? What's happened. Moments turn into minutes...he almost drifts into sleep, but then his thoughts begin to get more clear. "Am I dreaming? I can feel my body. I'm not asleep. Where am I?" Suddenly awareness comes. He reviews the facts. I was sinking. They'd tossed me overboard. I should be dead. But I'm awake...I'm alive. I'm alive! Where am I? How could I be alive? I've been spared! God has been merciful to me! I deserved to die but I'm alive - I'm being rescued! God has shown mercy to me!"

Then three days later...through the darkness a violent upheaval and onto the beach. Oh the brightness of the light...! Jonah suints. The smell...yet also, the reality: I've been delivered! Jonah washes himself in the surf. He dries off in the sun.

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

How can this be? How is it that God could still believe in this guy? If anyone has disqualified themself from ministry...it's Jonah. Yet God comes to Jonah a second time. And that's just like him. He's done it with Moses, David, Peter, me, you... He has an astounding habit of using disqualified types. God's method, it seems, is to qualify His servants by first exposing their rebellion, then showing them grace, then sanctifying their suffering, then bringing them to repentance. God qualifies his gospel servants - they don't qualify themselves. He gets them into a posture of gratitude and dependence. He helps them see their ongoing need for mercy. And we're slow in getting this...just like Jonah.

Though Jonah must have gotten it eventually. Sure, he complains in chapter 4 that he knew God would just show mercy to those nasty Ninevites, and that that was the reason he didn't want to go in the first place. Yet how is it that we even have the record of these events? How is it that we don't have a seriously edited version of this story in which Jonah is the successful preacher of history's single greatest revival? How is it that we even have a portrait of a resentful Jonah and he doesn't seem to have cleaned himself up? It must be because God went after Jonah - as the father went after the elder brother in Luke 15. It must be because Jonah eventually saw himself more clearly, and also as a result saw God's grace to him more clearly. And when Jonah saw himself and his God more clearly, he had new eyes for his Ninevite brothers and sisters. He even got to the place where his ugly rebellion and cold heart could be on display, for it would only serve to magnify the greatness of the mercy of God.

O that I was more like Jonah. May God in His mercy and by His Spirit make us more like Jonah.