Jonah vs Them
Issue 038
OCTOBER 31, 2018
WRITTEN BY CODY MCMURRIN
Jonah is so weird. I love it!
First of all, sheep repent and wear sackcloth (Yup! It’s in there). Secondly, a grown man whines that he “wishes he were dead” because his shade is eaten by a worm. And, obviously, the living inside a fish part. It’s all so strange. (By the way, he wishes to die because his shade went away, NOT when he smells like fish guts. Wild.)
For me, this brings up a couple important questions.
High Schoolers from Lake Brantley, Lyman, Lake Mary, and Lake Howell have been asking these two questions all semester. Last night we finished our series on “Stranger Things in the Bible”. During the series we walked through a handful of strange stories from our Bible.
To finish the series we focused on Jonah. A story written when Israel was more prosperous than it had ever been before.
That’s also weird.
Most scripture was written when the authors were in captivity, the wilderness, or under strong persecuting pressures; however, Jonah is different. Jonah was written during the reign of Jeroboam II, when Israel was on top.
(If you haven’t read the book of Jonah in a while you should totally read it. It’ll only take you about 7 minutes.)
This sets the stage. Now the questions. I think the answers to these questions are relevant to our community today.
““Nineveh was more open to grace and love than Jonah.””
Why did somebody feel the need to write this down? Why did people choose to preserve it?
Jonah saw himself and Israel as an “us”. He saw Israel as God’s chosen people covered by God’s sheer grace and mercy. Israel was rich in God’s love and redeemed in God’s forgiveness. Jonah saw Nineveh as “them”. Specifically, the enemy of Israel. A constant nuisance to Israel’s growth and success. He wanted Nineveh to be destroyed. That’s how Israel felt too.
I imagine this being read to its first listeners. They would have whooped and hollered in agreement as Jonah fled to Tarshish. But then the punch line comes in a literate move that pulls the rug out from under the reader. God doesn’t destroy Nineveh because he loves Nineveh.
This is best observed when Jonah yells at God, “God! I knew it—when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen! That’s why I ran off to Tarshish! I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness!”
This story is subversive. I imagine the crowd listening to this story for the first time to be moved to silence. Nineveh was more open to grace and love than Jonah. God and Nineveh have reconciled, and Jonah would rather die than reconcile that idea to himself.
Religious people like me are very good at seeing ourselves as “us” and people outside of our tribe as “them”. Is it possible that your enemy, your “them”, is more open to grace and love than you are? Can you reconcile that God’s redeeming love can flow through “them”? Can we move past being a people of “us” vs “them”?