Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today’s OT lesson is a portion of the writings of the prophet Jonah in the book attributed to him.
If you go through all the pericopes listed in our hymnal, you’ll find that this is the only Sunday throughout the entire church year that has any reference to Jonah, save perhaps another brief reading on the day of the Resurrection of Jesus. We’ll talk a little more about the “why” of that later. However, even though there is only this once every three year reading, I would venture to say that the story of Jonah is one of the best known to just about everyone in this congregation and perhaps even in the world outside of this congregation.
So the question I would pose to you this morning is “WHY?”
Not why is this story so well-known and so popular. That’s pretty obvious. It’s got lots of excitement. It’s a great fish story. And it’s one that we love to teach in Sunday School.
The Why question I have is “why is this book included in the holy Scriptures?” Why did God give the insight to Jonah, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to write down this account, and what is it supposed to teach us?
To begin with, let’s review the story. The whole book of Jonah is only 4 chapters long, so it doesn’t take much to recount everything that happened.
In a nutshell, Jonah is a prophet. Now, first of all, what is a prophet? Some people think that prophets are people who tell the future or at least give inklings into what is going to happen at some later date. Not so.
Prophets are those who are called by God to profess His Word.
And that’s exactly what we see here in the book of Jonah. He is already a prophet when he receives a revelation from God. Verse one and two of chapter one reads: The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me."
So, Jonah receives his marching orders from God. He is to go to the city of Nineveh and “preach against it.”
What happens next? Jonah decides that he really doesn’t think that’s such a good idea. We’ll get to why he didn’t like the idea in a little bit too. But, the bottom line is, Jonah decides to run from God. Not just hide away for a while, but flee.
He travels down to Joppa and jumps on a boat that is headed for Tarshish. In Jonah’s day, that was about as far away as he could go. It was clear on the other end of the Mediterranean Sea, on the western side of Spain.
Once they got under way, God sent a storm. Violent waves and wind tore at the boat. All of the sailors were afraid. Now, these weren’t just a group of fishermen that got together for a days outing. These were guys who knew the ocean. They were professional sailors who had undoubtedly been through rough seas before.
But these weren’t any rough seas. These were bad. So bad that they figured someone on board had upset one of the gods. So they cast lots to see who the guilty party was and sure enough, they decided the guilty party was none other than Jonah.
When they confronted him, he confessed and when they asked what they should do, Jonah suggested that if they threw him overboard the storm would go away. At first, they tried to row back to land, but in the end, the storm, growing ever fiercer, made them change their minds and over went Jonah.
We’re all very familiar with what happened next. Jonah was swallowed by a great fish and spent three days in the belly of that fish.
While he was inside, he prayed to God. This is a great prayer, and I want to take the time to share it with you.
"In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. I said, `I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’
The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God.
"When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. "Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the LORD."
God heard his prayer and commanded the fish to vomit him up on the shore.
And again, the word of the Lord came to Jonah telling him to go to Nineveh. And guess what – Jonah obeyed the command of the Lord and went to Nineveh.
Unfortunately, that’s where the knowledge of Jonah stops for most people. I know when I was a little kid in SS, that’s pretty much the story I would have told.
Jonah said no. God made him get eaten by a fish. Fish spit him out. Jonah did what God told him to do.
Our text today tells what Jonah did when he got to Nineveh.
......And, I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but Jonah preached one of the shortest sermons in the history of mankind. He said: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.”
Now, an important thing to note is that Jonah didn’t even make it all the way into the heart of the city. Nineveh was a big city. It took three days to walk from one end to the other. Jonah went in and on the first day, he delivered his sermon, the Word of God. “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.”
It was short, but you know what? It worked! The entire city believed him. Or maybe we should say…they believed God. The people started fasting. They put on sackcloth. And when the King heard about the message, he sent out a royal decree. Everyone, from the greatest to the least, was to fast. And they were all to put on sackcloth…even the animals. I can’t imagine trying to put sackcloth on Toby. (my dog) And they were also told to give up their evil ways.
Now, there’s a little more to the story, but I’m going to save that for the end of the sermon.
There’s still that looming question out there. Why? Why is this story in the Bible?
I’d like to take just a few minutes and look at it from 3 different viewpoints.
A personal viewpoint. A Christological viewpoint. And from God’s viewpoint.
First, a personal viewpoint.
When I say personal viewpoint, I don’t mean mine…or just mine. I’m going to relate a little personal story, but I believe that everyone who hears this message can relate to it in his or her own personal way.
From a personal viewpoint, I think we can look at how we react to the call of God.
Many of you know my story. I was called by God to be a preacher. And I don’t mean when I was called here to SOS. I was called when I was in college. My former pastor asked me if I ever thought of going to the Seminary. I was honest. I said “NO!” But he didn’t give up. He started to tutor me. He taught me about liturgy. He taught me about Scripture. He taught me about theology and doctrine. And when the time came for me to answer the call and go to the Sem, I ran.
No, I didn’t jump on a boat, I just decided that there were other things that I wanted to do with my life, so I pursued the world of high finance and big corporations. And I’m not going to say I wasn’t successful. I was. But there was always a nagging feeling in the back of my head that I wasn’t really doing what God had intended. So, several years later, I decided to answer the call. I made application to the Sem, got myself all ready to go…and when the time came, I ran again. I won’t bore you with all the details, but suffice it to say, I was getting pretty good at this running thing.
Finally, I found myself moving to Fresno. The yearn for the Sem had long since passed, but I still felt that I wanted to serve God in some capacity. You see, God is rather persistent. He knows what and how and where and why and whom He is going to use for the furtherance of His kingdom.
That’s how I ended up here. God put me here. Not in the place of my choice. Not according to my timeline. Not according to what I necessarily wanted. But according to what He desired. And to that I now say, thanks be to God.
How often have you heard the call from God? Maybe not to go into the ministry, but perhaps to share the Good News with a neighbor or a family member. How many times have you run from that call?
Fortunately, God is persistent in giving us opportunities to be “little Christ’s,” to be shining lights in our homes and in our communities.
My advise: Don’t ignore God’s call. He has purchased you with the blood of His Son Jesus Christ. He has asked you to forgive as you have been forgiven. He has asked that you be the salt and the light of the earth…not for your sake, but for His names sake. So that all may hear the Good News and come to salvation through Christ our Lord.
That’s one of the purposes of this book. From a personal viewpoint, to listen to the call of God.
The second purpose is a Christological one. What does that mean? Well, Jesus used the book of Jonah and the example of Jonah when He was speaking to the Pharisees and some teachers of the Law. They had recently accused him of being in cahoots with Beelzebub. They thought that his miraculous powers came not from God, but from the devil. So, they asked him for a sign. What they wanted was what so many of us want when we ask God to give us a sign: a big NEON one up in the sky. The leaders of the Jewish nation wanted God to show them that Jesus was really who he said he was.
But Jesus used a sign from the OT. He used the historical sign of Jonah. Jesus said: "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
Jesus was prophesying about his resurrection using the example of how the Lord had brought back Jonah from his watery grave. This is why we sometimes hear the words of Jonah read on Easter Sunday.
Finally, there’s a third viewpoint from which to look at this story.
And this third viewpoint has a lot to do with why Jonah didn’t want to go Nineveh in the first place, and Jonah’s reaction to what happened when he preached the Word of the Lord.
The last verse of our text this morning reads: When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.
Now, I have to tell you that if I was able to go to a city…a big city…or a small one…and preach an eight-word sermon and get the reaction that Jonah did, I would be thrilled. Hopefully it would not be because it was me doing it, but because the people had heard the Word and responded in a positive fashion.
But listen to the words of Jonah from the beginning of the 4th chapter.
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."
We might say: What was Jonah’s problem?
Well, he was looking at this situation from a very human point of view.
Israel had always been a favored nation by God. They rejoiced any time God did something miraculous for them. They found great delight in the fact that they were the “chosen people.” They also found great delight when God turned His wrath on their enemies.
It’s hard for us to look at a nation, a people, a neighbor, a relative, someone with whom we are at war, whether it be a military action or just a war of words, and not wish ill upon them. It’s hard even, for us as Christians, to not want to see the wrath of Almighty God come down upon those with whom we disagree.
But that is not God’s desire.
God, our God, is a compassionate God. He is a God slow to anger and abounding in love. He is a God who relents from sending calamity.
He cares about all the creatures of the earth, from the greatest to the least.
God’s desire, His point of view, is that all men hear His Word and be saved.
So, I hope that from now on, when you hear the story of Jonah, you will not only think of poor Jonah spending three days in the belly of a fish, but that you will think of your calling from God. That you will think about Christ crucified and resurrected for the forgiveness of all sins. And that you will remember that God loves all of His creation and “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”
To God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be all power, might and glory, now and forever. Amen.
