Who’s In Charge?
How many of us have dug in our heels and refused to do something that we knew we should do… when it would have been easier just to do it and get it over with? How many of us have reluctantly done something we did not want to do… and done it in such a cursory way… or with such bad grace… that we might as well not have done it at all? How many times has our reluctance been the result of our dislike… or even hatred… of another person… or race? And finally, how many times have we been caught doing these things… dragging our heels… or doing something half-heartedly… and been ashamed of ourselves… wishing we had been better Christians… better disciples… or a better reflection of our Savior?
The story of Jonah stands in stark contrast to our gospel text today. In our gospel text, Jesus obediently begins his ministry by recruiting men to work with him as quickly as he can. Those fishermen… the first disciples… respond eagerly to his call by dropping whatever they are doing and leaving everything behind… in one case, even their own father… to follow him. What an example they are to those of us who don’t want to hear God’s call… don’t want to leave the comfort of our homes… or want to tie up all the loose ends in our lives before saying, “Yes”… even when we realize that the loose ends in our lives will never be completely tied up… even on the day we die. So, we contrast the eagerness of those first disciples with Jonah, who also hears God’s call, but does not want to go where God is sending him.
Let’s review a bit of the story before we tackle the details: The book of Jonah was written roughly three thousand (3000) years ago by the prophet Jonah. A couple of the key themes that we find in this book are God’s sovereignty… the fact that God is in control… and the belief that God cares for all people… even sinful people like the wicked Ninevites… who are not Jews… and even disobedient people like God’s own prophet, Jonah… who is a Jew.
In the first part of the book, Jonah tells the story of how he was called by God to go and preach repentance to Nineveh. Thinking that this was not the best career path for him, Jonah jumped into a boat going two thousand (2,000) miles in the opposite direction. Rather than letting Jonah off the hook, God gets Jonah’s attention by causing a storm that nearly sinks the boat Jonah is on. To confirm that wise saying that “there are no atheists in foxholes”… or any similarly dangerous situations… all the sailors on that boat become believers in God… and they throw Jonah overboard to save their own lives, whereupon he is immediately swallowed by a large fish. Rather than thanking God for saving him from drowning, Jonah, who is convinced he is about to die, cries out to God for help, and God answers his prayer. Jonah repents of his sinfulness… at least, temporarily… and the fish vomits Jonah onto dry land. Jonah, still convinced that he is wasting his time, makes his way to Nineveh, dragging his feet the whole way.
We don’t hear a lot about Nineveh in the Bible, but it was one of the greatest cities in the world at that time. It is said that her walls were an hundred feet high and broad enough that three coaches could meet on top and safely pass each other. It is also said that it took one million four hundred thousand men working for eight years to build the city, but that might be a stretch, for the total population of Nineveh was only one hundred and twenty thousand. Jonah arrives in Nineveh, where he grudgingly walks up and down the streets preaching a simple message: “Forty days and Nineveh will be no more.” The people of this great city hear his warning, and the entire city repents, from the king on down to the livestock. Everyone puts on sackcloth for clothes and begins fasting with the hopes that God would not destroy them and their city. Not knowing Jonah’s God, they did not know whether or not God would relent.
Jonah knew, but amazingly, the peoples’ repentance and God’s mercy makes Jonah angry. How many times have we gotten angry at God for something that God is doing that we disagree with or do not understand? I know I have. God has just rescued an entire city from destruction. Tens of thousands of Gentiles have repented… and humbled themselves… and become believers… and Jonah is… angry?! Isn’t this why he came to Nineveh? What kind of a response is that for God’s servant… God’s messenger? Instead of praising God for this miracle, Jonah gets angry. Jonah completely misses out on the beauty and the blessing of thousands of people being saved by God. In his anger… his self-centered and judgmental anger… Jonah totally misses the wonderful thing that God has done. How many times have we missed God’s miracles, because we are focused on our own needs… wants… desires? How many times have we gotten angry because someone died… a child rebelled…someone got sick… we lost our job… or any of the other countless things we blame on God? Basically, if we don’t get our way… if we don’t get to call the shots... if we don’t get to play God… we get angry. And that is Jonah. We are Jonah.
How has being angry at God worked for you? My guess is, not too well. It hasn’t work for me either. Note to self: I am not God and, most of the time, I do not have a clue what God is doing. But, when I read the Bible, I can pick up some clues from what God has done before. Jonah did that. You see, Jonah was a prophet to Israel. He was well aware of God’s pattern. He knew all the stories of Israel’s sinfulness… how many times they had turned their backs on God… and how many times they had repented and God took them back and gave them another chance. Jonah’s God was the God of second chances. Our God is the God of second chances. When we repent of our sins, God who is faithful, forgives us of our sins through his son, Jesus Christ. As the saying goes, “When sinners repent, God relents.” God knew what he was doing… but Jonah did not want God to do it and, with gut-wrenching honesty, he tells God so: “I’m angry because I hate these people, and I knew you would save them if you gave them another chance.” Now comes the really childish part: “Now, O God, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live." Oh, Jonah!
Jonah’s temper tantrum doesn’t stop at just being angry with God. Now Jonah is saying that he would rather be dead than to live in a world where the people he hates can become people of God and God is merciful to them. Can we see Jonah’s true colors here? We’ve caught glimpses of his hatred… his bigotry against the Ninevites… throughout this story, but now he makes it crystal clear. It was bad enough that Jonah didn’t want to help God save these people… but now he reveals how deep and dark his hatred really is. Jonah should be rejoicing that the lost have been found… that the prodigal children have returned home… but, instead, he is so selfish and so filled with hate that he would rather be dead than to be a part of this people’s salvation. God rebukes him: “Have you any right to be angry?”, but as we see in the rest of the story, Jonah ignores this rebuke.
Now comes the crowning touch: Jonah goes out and sits down at a place outside of the city… safely out of harm’s way… makes himself comfortable… and waits for God to execute judgment on the city of Nineveh. Despite all that he knows, Jonah is still holding out hope that God will destroy Nineveh for its sins. Jonah leaves the city for his own personal safety… just in case God does decide to wipe them out… and then he sets up camp where he can hopefully watch God destroy them… up close and personal. This is really a sad place for a man of God to be. First, to have no desire to help his enemies find salvation… to be reluctant to share the wonderful stories of God’s grace because of a fear that God will forgive them… to abandon those to whom God has sent him… and to consciously wait for their destruction… claiming a front-row seat on the fifty-yard line. Hello?
How often is this true in our own lives? How often have we nursed our anger… and our hurt against another when God has already forgiven them? How often do we let that pain fester in our lives… bringing only bitterness that ruins our lives… and the lives of others around us? How often do we miss out on chances to celebrate great works of God because we are mired in our own anger and resentment? My guess is, we allow that to happen far too often. We are all Jonah. We are all blinded, at times, by our own selfish anger.
God tries once again to reach Jonah and teach him a lesson. God provides a vine and makes it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head… to ease his discomfort… and Jonah was very happy about the vine. But at dawn the next day, God provided a worm, which chewed on the vine so that it withered and died. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head, so that he grew faint. Then, Jonah again said, "It would be better for me to die than to live."
God sent the vine not as a blessing to Jonah, but again as a way to get his attention. The story of the vine is another way for God to remind Jonah of God’s sovereignty… that God is in charge… that God is in control… not Jonah. How many times have we seen this in the story of Jonah? Let’s see, there was the storm that resulted in Jonah being thrown into the sea. There was the fish that swallowed him. There was the beach where the fish vomited Jonah onto dry land. There was God’s forgiveness of the people of Nineveh. And, now, there is the vine. Jonah still doesn’t get it. His wanting to die isn’t because he has lost the vine and he is baking in the sun… After all, this story takes place in what is now Iraq. Jonah knew when he left the city and went to sit in the desert that it would be hot. No, Jonah is having a temper tantrum because God is clearly telling him who is in charge… and it is not Jonah.
“God said to Jonah, "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?" And, basically, Jonah answers, "I do and I am angry enough to die." Jonah’s anger has so blinded him that he no longer sees anything that God does as right. Instead of conceding that God is sovereign and that God’s way might be the higher road… the path of love… of grace… and of mercy… Jonah stews in his own juices. He focuses on his own desires… his own losses… and ignores the plight of one hundred and twenty thousand people. We, of course, would never do this! Would we?
Have we ever allowed our anger to make us unreasonable or irrational? Have we ever allowed our anger to lead us to make bad choices and miss out on God’s blessings? Rather than admit that he is wrong… rather than change his ways and acknowledge God’s sovereignty… Jonah says that he would rather die than to give up his anger. That kind of anger ruins lives. It destroys relationships. And, in particular, it destroys our relationship with God. It separates us from God. But the God of infinite patience continues to reason with Jonah: "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left… Should I not be concerned about that great city?" God points out that Jonah has been more concerned about this vine that he didn’t own… that he didn’t make grow… than the one hundred and twenty thousand Ninevites that God wanted to save. By saying that the Ninevites didn’t know their right hand from their left, God told Jonah that these people needed guidance. And yet, here sits a “man of God” on the outskirts of town… throwing a temper tantrum… filled with rage and hate… withholding his knowledge of God and God’s grace and mercy from the Ninevites… and not using his gifts… the gifts that God has given him… for God’s purpose and God’s glory. Jonah’s priorities are completely backward.
On the surface, it appears that we have no resolution to this story… for the book ends here. But the hero of the story is not Jonah… it is God. This whole book points toward the greatness of God. Jonah’s legacy stands as a warning to us… and as a testament to God’s goodness. We all can be consumed by anger and hatred… and rarely is it truly a righteous anger. More often, it is a sinful… selfish anger. What anger do you harbor in your heart today against one of God’s children? Why are you holding onto that anger? The phrase “Let go and let God” is not just a saying that acknowledges God’s greater power to accomplish things in your life… it is submission to God’s will… to God’s plan for you and for all of humanity. Today, I challenge you… and me… to let go of whatever anger and bitterness lies in our hearts… and open ourselves to a new and deeper relationship with God… a relationship that allows God to be God… the almighty and sovereign ruler of the universe. “Let go… and let God.” Amen.
Jonah 3:10 – 4:11; Mark 1:14-20