“Lessons from Jonah: Forgiven and Employed”

Scripture: Jonah 3

From a Far Side cartoon: A bearded man stands at the front door, dripping wet, in rags. A woman opens the door and says, “For crying out loud, Jonah! Three days late, covered with slime, and smelling like a fish!... And what story do I have to swallow this time?”
- Homiletics OnLine

When we last left our wayward and “slime covered” prophet, the fish that he had just spent 3 long days in had just deposited him on dry land in a most abrupt and undignified way! In Jonah’s prayer, he had proclaimed that “What I have vowed I will make good.” But nowhere do we see him vowing anything to God, except that there was no way he was going to Nineveh! But he did readily admit that if he continued to cling to his “worthless idols” of fear and hatred, he would certainly forfeit God’s grace.
By this, I think, we can understand that Jonah’s vow was that he would renounce his hatred for the people of Nineveh, and would carry the Lord’s message to them. And this will be born out when we begin our text for today.

But before we begin, we need to consider just what it was that changed Jonah’s mind? Was it his fear that the stomach contents of the fish would be his last companion in this life? Or was it the realization that in God’s omnipotence – his overwhelming power and authority – that there was no way he was getting out of this mission? We aren’t told of the exact reason, and I’m not sure that there was any joy in his decision, but he agreed to go, none-the-less, and the Lord God Yahweh would accept this as Jonah’s confession and acceptance of the call on his life.

Read Jonah 3:1-5

The call to serve is given a second time, and Jonah obeys. Do you remember the original words of the call? “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” (Jonah 1:1) He was to bring the sinful nature of the people to light and to express God’s displeasure in the things they were doing, but Jonah’s message, at least as it is recorded, is different. He simply says that in 40 days, the city will be overthrown – no mention of why, no mention of who will do it, no mention of how they can avoid this fate! Jonah, if he was truly faithful to the Lord’s intended message for Nineveh, would have given them a little more information to work with.
But regardless of what was actually said, the people, much to Jonah’s chagrin, began to respond. We have to remember that this people were violent, brutal, cruel, and feared by every nation in the region. And yet, Yahweh’s message cut them to the quick. If it had been an invading army of overwhelming odds, they would have stood firm and resisted. If it had been an internal insurrection, it would have been put down without mercy. But when one, minor, unwilling prophet of Almighty God tells them that destruction is on its way, everyone – and I mean everyone (!) – fears the message, and begins to mourn over their impending demise. What is there about God that can have such a profound effect on such evil people?

This just goes to show us that when the Lord puts a plan into motion, there is nothing in all of creation that can interrupt it! Not Jonah’s attempt to run away, not the sailors’ attempt to drown him, not even the hateful and evil nature of the Ninevehites. Despite Jonah’s reluctant warning, the people somehow knew that God was serious! And Jonah’s worse fears began to come true. The people were beginning to acknowledge their sinfulness, and the most unexpected mass repentance of all time was about to take shape.

Read Jonah 3:6-10

Even the king takes the news seriously, and joins in with the fasting and mourning. And just in case there was someone who hadn’t begun to fast, he issues a proclamation that everyone – human and animal alike – were to participate. This is an abject and universal fear that had gripped this mighty city, and there was nothing that the people, nor the army, the administrators, the wise men, not even the king, could do about it.

Do we take God’s call on our lives - his message of warning that evil can only bring about destruction, that failure to follow his lead will take us down a perilous path, and that his way will always lead to life eternal – do we take that message as seriously as those people did? The problem is that we have a life that is just too easy! We don’t know war, we don’t know the fullness of oppression, we don’t have the fear that every day we live may be our last. Now don’t take me wrong – I have no desire whatsoever to be immersed in that sort of life, but I also know that our situation is just as serious as that of the people of Nineveh.
So when will we begin to take the word of God at face value? What will it take to convince us that the message of Jesus Christ is an offer of truth and personal love for us? The king’s decree that was given to the city was that the entire community was to give up their “evil ways and their violence.” And this cruel ruler of this most evil people in all the earth believed that if they all did this, that Jonah’s God just might relent – MIGHT relent – from his dire warning, and might show compassion on the city.
What faith! And we aren’t told if the king had ever even heard of the power and authority of Jonah’s God! But the kingdom did repent, and they gave up their evil ways, and God’s compassionate nature forgave the entire city.

What has Jesus taught us about forgiveness? There was that time when Peter asked him ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?’ Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”, and some translations even say “seventy times seven”! (Matthew 18:21-22) Seven would have been the perfect and complete number of times to forgive, but Jesus tells us that our concept of a “perfect” forgiveness is never enough. Forgiveness must be offered as long forgiveness is needed.

Forgiveness is an act of God's grace, says Landisville pastor Sam Thomas. You don't forgive and forget; you forgive again and again and again.
-Valerie Weaver-Zercher, God's Crime Bill, www.christianitytoday.com.

And Susan Pendleton Jones writes:
We are pleased with the idea of a forgiving God, but not if it would require us to change our lives. Forgiveness becomes something we claim but fail to proclaim in our living. We too often sound like George Eliot's description in Adam Bede (the first novel published under the “Eliot” pen-name): We hand folks over to God's mercy, and show none ourselves.
-Susan Pendleton Jones, Forgiven and Forgiving, Christian Century, August 25-September 1, 1999, 801.

Jonah had been called to be the instrument of Nineveh’s repentance and of God’s forgiveness, and it wasn’t a comfortable task for him. And yet he did it. The Lord forgave his reluctance to serve him, and then used him in a powerful and unprecedented way.
And God will forgive you, too, when you repent of your reluctance to answer the call he places on your life! And then he will use you to carry his forgiveness to those who you know, without a doubt, do not deserve it.
Are you prepared to be the Lord’s instrument in faith?