Jonah 3:1--4:11
Heb. 12:1-14
Luke 18:9-14
3The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, 2‘Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.’ 3So 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. 4Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, ‘Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’ 5And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. 6When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: ‘By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. 8Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. 9Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.’ 10When 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.
4But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. 2He 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. 3And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.’ 4And the Lord said, ‘Is it right for you to be angry?’ 5Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city. 6The Lord God appointed a bush,* and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush. 7But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. 8When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, ‘It is better for me to die than to live.’
9 But God said to Jonah, ‘Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?’ And he said, ‘Yes, angry enough to die.’ 10Then 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. 11And 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.
We start out Lent with this reading from Jonah. Best known for fleeing from God and being swallowed and then ‘spat out’ by a large fish (probably not an actual whale), the rest of the story is more impressive. When he was obedient to God’s order to “Go to Ninevah” and proclaim the coming wrath of God, Jonah converted the entire city.
How many of us can relate to Jonah? We feel God urging us to do something we would rather not attempt. It might be forgiving a wrong or taking on a ministry, but we don’t want to do it. So instead of obedience, we run away by finding excuses. “I’m too busy.” “I can’t forgive yet.” ”Someone else is better qualified.” Etc. God however rarely lets us get away with our independence. There may not be a great fish in our future, but sooner or later, we will find ourselves in exactly the ministry we felt unqualified for or forgiving an enemy we thought unforgivable. It is through our obedience that God is able to work great things.
Jonah’s words convicted even the king of Ninevah and because of the repentance of the citizens, God spared them. Poor Jonah, feeling he has lost face because the city isn’t destroyed, begins to complain to God. The crux of the story is found in chapter 4:9-11 when God proclaims his compassion on the pagan city of Ninevah—a perfect beginning for our Lenten observances of repentance and renewal and relationship. God desires greater intimacy with us--with all people.
John Donne, Anglican Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, is remembered for many sermons and poems. One that, for me, embodies the Lenten journey is Holy Sonnet 14, below. I would urge you to dedicate your Lent to obedient listening.
Batter my heart, three-person'd God; for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn and make me new.
I, like an usurpt town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but Oh, to no end,
Reason your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy:
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
For your journal—on this first day of Lent, write a prayer expressing your desire to be obedient and listen to God during Lent. You may also want to write down your plans for your Lenten discipline.
My prayer says simply: Holy and Living Lord, I know I am not always as obedient and willing to listen to you as I could be. Help me during this season of preparation to open my heart to hear your knock and to respond. Amen.
