We are half way through our bible study on the Book of Jonah, which most know a bit about as the man who got swallowed by a whale for three days, but the rest of his story isn't so well known. Jonah is one of my favorites out of the minor prophets. (Minor meaning it's a small book with four chapters but it's no less important than Isaiah with 66 chapters). Jonah is a story that speaks of the meaning of grace and god's purposes and our motivations. Jonah is called to go to preach repentance to the Ninevites—the hated foreigners, the religiously incorrect, the racially impure, the decidedly unchosen. And frankly, Jonah was angry about taking a message of hope and deliverance for them. Frederick Buechner says that at the moment God called Jonah to go to Nineveh, the expression on Jonah's face was that of a man who has just gotten a whiff of trouble in his septic tank. “Anywhere, Lord, anywhere, but Nineveh!” Far from wanting the Ninevites to get saved, nothing would have pleased him more than to see them get what they deserved, what they had coming to them. So Jonah decides to book it out of there and gets on a boat to go literally to the farthest reaches of the sea. Fast forward, and a little meditation time in the belly of the fish provides the motivation for Jonah to reconsider.
Jonah still reluctantly goes and preaches his sermon of eight words, shortest sermon ever (we all love a good short sermon don't we?!), “Yet, forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” In the depths of his soul, Jonah believes that the Ninevites won't change and he relishes the thought of their destruction, but he was surprised when the entire city repented from the king down to the lowest peasant and even the animals! They promise to shape up and God decides to be gracious to them and bless them and Jonah is furious; he is seething. He lets God have it: “You see God! I knew all along you wouldn't go through with it. I knew you'd go soft, you're too good—all gracious and merciful. You think they're really going to change?! I'd rather die than live so take my life!” History tells us the Assyrians (Ninevites) were brutal and violent. Despite this, God sends them a word of redemption and grace through Jonah. God counters their torturous behavior with grace and mercy. How do we respond to acts of violence—with grace and mercy? The lesson of the “wideness of God's mercy” is a lesson most of us, most of the world, most of the church, has yet to learn. We want God to be merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love when it comes to our own sins, but God don't be too good to those others. They deserve to get theirs! God has an awesome sense of forgiveness. There is more to God than we can or ever will understand. To me there is great hope and promise in believing that.
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