“And why would I not have compassion for Nineveh, this great city that has as many as 120,000 people who don’t know their right hand from their left and so many animals?” (Jonah 4:11)
You remember Jonah. God tells him to go to Nineveh. Jonah goes and hops on a boat headed in the opposite direction. There’s a storm, Jonah has the crew toss him overboard, and Jonah is swallowed by a fish that vomits him up on dry land. God, again, tells Jonah to go to Nineveh. This time, Jonah goes. The moral is: don’t try and run from God’s calling, right? That’s what I learned.
But, I think we missed something. We missed something that, right now, we desperately need to remember.
That account above is a synopsis of most of the book, but it doesn’t pick up the reason Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh. After the people of the city repent and God chooses not to punish them, Jonah goes and sits and pouts and tells us why he ran away. I knew, he says, that if I did this you, Holy One, would do just what you did. You’d forgive them and wouldn’t destroy them.
In other words, God wouldn’t do what Jonah would have done.
Jonah is often called the reluctant prophet, but that’s not true. There’s no reluctance in him. He didn’t run off because he didn’t want to do what God wanted him to do. He ran away because God wasn’t going to do what Jonah wanted God to do.
Our prophet wanted fire to rain from the sky. He wanted these people to be punished. He wanted all of them to cry out in woe and heartache as the wrath of the Holy One washed over them. That’s what they deserved. They’re bad, evil, terrorist, seditious people. They deserved to be punished.
And he knew, given even the slightest reason, it wouldn’t happen. God would forgive them for what they’ve done. Worse, he’d make Jonah a part of that redemption, that forgiveness.
No, Jonah wasn’t reluctant. Jonah was deliberate. He wasn’t trying to run from God. He was trying to be God.
Think of it, if Jonah hadn’t have gone to that great city then Nineveh wouldn’t have repented. They would have kept on spouting conspiracy theories and watching cable news and supporting people who didn’t care about the truth. And then the Holy One would have ground them into dust. God would have done exactly what Jonah wanted.
Then Jonah would be like God.
This story is not about a big fish. It is not about responding to Christ’s call, or fear, or disobedience. It is about how we want to be like God, and how we want God to punish those people, whoever they happen to be.
Jonah’s story ends on a question. Shouldn’t I care about these people? Even if they believe all sorts of crazy things, even if they’re lost and deceived, don’t you think I should care about them, want to save them?
And what about the animals? Isn’t it worth it to protect them? Aren’t they as precious as the people?
“Shouldn’t I care?” God asks.
Shouldn’t you?
That was an awesome synopsis!! Makes you think about your actions!!