The story begins with God telling Jonah to go to Nineveh to preach to people because they needed a change of heart. Jonah tells God, “No!” Jonah has his reasons for telling God “no”. His primary reason being that the people of Nineveh are Assyrians . . . dreaded and despised enemies of Israel. Jonah pretty much hates the Assyrians. Yet, God insists that Jonah go and preach to the Assyrians to change their hearts or be wiped out.
Not wanting to do this, Jonah runs away . . . runs to the nearest boat heading as far away from God as he can get. Jonah doesn’t understand that you can run, but you can never get away from God. Soon the boat encounters a violent storm . . . so violent that the sailors begin to fear that the boat will sink and they will all die. They begin to throw cargo overboard in hopes of keeping the boat afloat . . . then they begin throwing over everything not nailed down. Nothing stops the storm. Realizing what is happening, Jonah tells the scared sailors to throw him overboard . . . and, they do. The storms stops.
While floating in the sea, Jonah is gobbled up by a great fish. He would sit inside of that fish for three days and three nights. Now, being inside of a fish provides a person a whole lot of time to do some thinking . . . to do some praying. That’s what Jonah did . . . he thought and prayed . . . thought and prayed about his situation. Finally he came to the conclusion that he had to do what God was asking him to do. And, God heard his prayers. As the writer of the story tells us . . . “And the Lord commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.”
Reluctantly, Jonah did as he was asked to do. He went to Nineveh to preach to the Assyrians to have a change a heart. Now Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire . . . a huge city. It takes three days to walk across the city. In order for all the people of Nineveh to hear the message, Jonah would have to spend three days traversing the city. Now, remember, I said Jonah was reluctant to do this task of delivering God’s ultimatum . . . the Assyrians would have 40 days, and if they did not change their hearts, God was going to wipe them out. Thus it was that Jonah’s heart really wasn’t into the message he had to share, nor was he into its urgency. He just figured half the effort was better than no effort . . . besides, if they won’t change their hearts, God would wipe them out.
Jonah walks one day’s journey into the city, does a little half-hearted preaching, and calls it quits. He figures he lived up to his end of the deal with God . . . and, that there was no way for the people to have a change of heart . . . God would wipe them out. Jonah figures it is a win/win deal.
Surprisingly, the people have a change of heart. Then God has a change of heart towards the people, and decides not to destroy the city. God spares every last one of the people. This really, really . . . I mean, really . . . angers Jonah. Ticks him off. Ticks him off so much that he lets God know his real feelings: “O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still 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.”
Jonah is so angry with God for not wiping out the hated Assyrians . . . of doing what he wanted God to do . . . that he ends his prayer by telling God to take away his life because it was better than this. He tells God: “O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” Jonah wanted no part of this . . . he wanted the Assyrians dead.
I think Jonah had a problem with his faith. I think that he truly thought that God would wipe out the people of Nineveh . . . after all, Jonah didn’t put a whole lot of effort into sharing God’s message with the people. As far as Jonah was concerned, these people were not his people . . . they were not Jewish . . . they worshipped another god . . . they were a different race . . . they were enemies. They were not God’s people as were the Jews. As far as Jonah was concerned they were pretty worthless . . . that the world, and the Jews, would be better off without them. God was on his side. That is what he truly believed.
Well, that is where Jonah was wrong . . . and, where we are often wrong. We are all the same people. There is only one human family . . . one family created under God . . . period. Whether it be the sailors on the boat, the Ninevites, or even Jonah . . . they are all God’s creation . . . God’s people. It does not matter a person’s color or race, religion, education, wealth or lack of wealth, politics . . . they are all a part of God’s family. Nothing can change that fact.
As the children of God we are each loved and cherished by the God who created us. We are desired and wanted. We are embraced by a God of love and grace . . . a God who constantly has a change a heart toward us despite our--at times--errant belief that we are the only children of God. God wants us all. The love and grace of God is bigger and more encompassing than we will ever understand . . . and, it is much bigger than our own faith.
God defies our faith.
We are living in divisive times . . . times in which there is a lot of disagreements and hostility. Divisive times in our world . . . in our nation . . . wherever we live. We hear it in our prayer requests each Sunday morning . . . prayers calling us to come together in peace, love, and understanding as one people. And, this divisiveness scares us . . . more than a few times I have heard the statement that the “world is going to hell in a handbasket.” Despite our prayers, nothing changes.
The human race continues to be stubborn in holding onto it various understandings that one race is better than another . . . that one country is better than another . . . that one person is better than another. In that stubbornness we forget . . . we forget what our own scriptures tell us. That we were all created in the image of God . . . that we are all the children of God . . . that we are family. And, the scriptures tell us that it is God’s desire that the family be restored.
That is God’s will . . . and, who are we to go against God’s will?
A change of heart is needed. This problem is not new to our generation or time . . . it has been around since the start of humanity. As the human race, and certainly as a people of faith--as the followers of Jesus Christ, we must change our hearts of separation and division to reflect the heart of God. God’s heart is open to all of God’s children . . . wide open to all people.
We must remember that it is not our way, but God’s way that matters. Jonah could never fully embrace this openness of God’s love and grace, even after God tried to explain it to him. Jonah remained angry and defiant in thinking that God went against his faith. But it was Jonah who defied God and God’s will. Despite it all, God’s desire and will was fulfilled.
We are God’s people . . . each and every one of us created in God’s image. Together we are the family of God . . . period. Amen.
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