Jonah 3
3 The 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.” 3 So 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. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.
6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 Then 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. 8 Human 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. 9 Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.”10 When 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.
Some of you may be fans of Dave Chappelle, one of America’s greatest satiric comedians. His humor cuts to the quick of the truth about America and many of the issues of our society. Someone has remarked that satire first makes you laugh and then makes you think. We expect to find satire and a comic view of the world on television, in the movies and on stage. We hardly expect to find it in the bible. So when it shows up, our expectation, or lack of it, blinds us to the satirical humor.
The Book of Jonah ranks as one of the most satirical books of the bible. The unknown author of the book uses words to paint a caricature of a reluctant and prejudiced prophet. After today’s worship, you might want to take out your bible and read the three short pages of the Book of Jonah.
You will discover that today’s reading begins with Jonah’s second call. The crux of the story lies in the first call. God calls Jonah to leave the northern kingdom of Israel and go to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, the archenemy of Israel. Everyone assumes that when God calls, the prophet will obey God. Not Jonah. When God tells Jonah to head north east and preach repentance, Jonah heads west and books passage in a boat.
God follows Jonah and the comic side of the story happens when God stirs up a storm. The pagan sailors soon discover that Jonah is the cause of the storm, so Jonah offers that they throw him into the sea. For this reluctant prophet, even death in the sea is preferable to preaching repentance to Ninevah.
The story continues its comic satire. God sends great fish which swallows Jonah and carries him back to shore. In a bad cast of fish indigestion, Jonah is vomited out of the belly of the great fish and lands on the shore.
Today’s reading begins with Jonah, drenched in fish sputum, hearing God call for the second time. Reluctantly, Jonah heads toward Ninevah with his sermon. Nineveh and the Assyrians were notorious for their violence and cruelty. Their meanness took deep root in their hearts. Who would imagine these terrorists of the ancient world turning from their wickedness. So Jonah starts his mission and his preaching.
In Hebrew, Jonah’s sermon consists of five words: Forty days and Nineveh will be destroyed. Jonah starts his three day journey across the city with his five word sermon when the people hear the message and believe God. The king heightens the comic response to the prophet. When he hears the prophet’s message he calls for a fast. The king decrees: “Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence which is in his heart.” (Jonah 3: 8) Not only people are to fast from food and change their silk robes for scratchy sackcloth underwear. All the cattle and herds are to fast and put on sackcloth. Can’t you just see it? On the rolling hills of Nineveh, those hills populated by herds of cattle, you see endless numbers of cows, bulls and calves, all bellowing for food, all wearing sackcloth diapers. God sees their change of heart and God reverses course: “God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.” (Jonah 3: 10 RSV)
The story of Jonah comes to us as a satirical tale, a piece worthy of Dave Chappelle. The story was told in Israel at a time when they saw themselves as the only ones for whom God cared, as the only ones who were worthy of receiving God’s abounding and steadfast love. The story is told to us today to shine a light on our own hearts.
The story of Jonah compares the heart of the prophet against the heart of God. God’s heart proves itself wide and expansive and the prophet’s heart small and unforgiving.
Each of is a Jonah and each of us has experienced the violence of an Assyria. Perhaps we have not endured physical violence at the hands of another. None of us are strangers to people who treat us poorly, who hurt us emotionally, harm us spiritually.
The story of Jonah asks us how we deal with our anger toward others who harm us.
In the story, Jonah nurses anger toward God for God’s change of heart. God challenges Jonah with the question: “Is it right for you to be angry?” (Jonah 4: 4) God sees all people as God’s children, people capable of change, capable of turning around. Our anger locks people into the moment of the offense, into the time when they hurt us. Such anger can be directed toward individuals or against groups of people. God invites us to look at our hearts.
Do we allow anger to fester into resentment, hostility and an unforgiving heart? I heard it said that "Living with resentment is like taking poison and expecting the other guy to get sick."
Today’s touch of biblical satire invites us to smile at the prophet Jonah and perhaps to laugh at ourselves. A deep hope opens up for us if we are bold enough to accept the God of Jonah, the God for whom nobody is too bad, too mean, too hopeless. This God goes with us into places of our heart as dark as the caverns of a fish’s belly for us to turn from our resentments and make the discovery that saved Jonah: We surrender our own anger to the degree we surrender our heart’s to God’s forgiving love.