Jonah reluctantly preaches a message of repentance, but Jesus wholeheartedly preaches a message of repentance.
Jonah reluctantly preaches a message of repentance, but Jesus wholeheartedly preaches a message of repentance.
Advent Day 18, The Messenger.
Jonah resists going to the Ninevites with God's message.
He is the most reluctant of messengers.
No joy follows his footsteps, only duty.
Jesus, by contrast, is the most joyful of messengers.
He willingly comes to earth as a baby to ultimately proclaim God's message.
The kingdom of God is at hand, therefore repent.
God sends word to Jonah.
"Go to Nineveh," he says, "and call out against it, for their disaster has come before me."
Jonah squirms.
Surely he must heard, "Go to Nineveh, the great city, where the Assyrians dwell?"
How is God trying to get your attention this Advent?
Jonah closes his ears.
He refuses to hear anymore.
God can't mean Nineveh.
Nineveh, he assures himself.
God sees our reflection.
He sees how the Assyrians have oppressed us.
But Jonah knows, deep down in his gut, that he heard rightly the first time.
God wants Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell the people to repent.
Jonah feels sick to his stomach.
Jonah clenches his fists.
"No," he cries.
Jonah flees as far from the Lord's presence as he can get.
He boards a ship to Tarshish.
A city across the sea, and nearly 1,500 miles away from Nineveh.
That should do it, Jonah muses, as he stows his small bag in a small compartment on the ship.
When have you tried to flee from God's presence?
How did that turn out?
Jonah can't get away from God, though.
God hems him in, before and behind and beside.
But in Jonah's haste to flee God's presence, he forgets who God is and how God acts.
God doesn't forget anything, though.
God is God.
He doesn't change.
Nor does he forget Jonah and what he has asked Jonah to do.
He sends a magnificent storm.
Jonah weary from arguing with himself and rushing to board a ship, headed away from Nineveh, sleeps through it.
God sends the ship, Captain.
What are you doing, you sleeper?
Call out to your God.
Maybe that God will save us.
Jonah staggers to his feet.
God invites Jonah to tell the truth.
When the ship's men deduce Jonah's to blame for the great storm, they pelt him with questions.
What is your occupation and where do you come from?
What is your country and of what people are you?
Jonah 1, verse 8.
Question upon question and nowhere to hide.
When have you been asked a question that forced you to quit hiding?
Either the hiding of sin or the hiding of your faith?
Jonah answers their questions, wishes he could slink below deck.
He recognizes the storm for what it is, though he wishes it were otherwise.
God isn't going to let him go.
The ship's men recognize the storm as God's handiwork too, if not fully.
They understand messing with the gods is never a good business.
And Jonah's God isn't any run-of-the-mill God.
His God is the God of skies and earth and seas.
Tell us what to do, they demand.
Jonah offers the only solution at hand.
Throw me overboard.
Jonah slips like a stone below the surface of the sea.
But the depths aren't his end.
God sends a big fish, and Jonah caught by a grand storm and a big fish ponders his existence.
He, as reluctant a messenger as he is, finally remembers God.
Stuck there in the belly of a fish, surrounded by fishy smells and fishy guts, he comes to his senses.
And Jonah praises God.
Jonah 2:6-7 says, "Yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.
When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you into your holy temple."
When have the consequences of your actions brought you to your senses?
What did you do after coming to your senses?
If only the rest of Jonah's accounts are lined with his words in the fish, but he remains a reluctant messenger.
When the Nine of Arts repent, God relents from sending the promised disaster, and Jonah is exceedingly displeased.
He tells God, "This is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster."
Jonah 4:2.
Jonah knows God is gracious and relents from disaster, and both things upset him.
When have you been upset by God's kindness to someone that you didn't think deserved it?
How has God been kind to you when you don't deserve it?
God doesn't forget Jonah this time either.
God asks him a question.
God gives Jonah a plant and takes it away, and God asks him a question.
Jonah, though, gives not an answer.
How would you answer God's question?
Should I not put in the name of that great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left and also much cattle?
The Son of God, Jesus, answers the question with a resounding "Yes."
He puts on flesh so that the people can see the Father.
He leaves His throne to dwell on earth for 33 years, and in that time, Jesus is the most joyful of messengers.
Everywhere He goes, life and life to the full.
No one is beyond His reach.
No one is so far gone that they cannot be restored.
Jesus also is the message.
He is the one to whom the law and prophets point.
He is the one who illuminates the darkness.
He enters the depths and spends three days there so that we don't have to.
Jesus receives the disaster we deserve so that we can repent and receive His righteousness.
We remember and celebrate how Jesus came to earth as a baby during Advent.
Jesus didn't come reluctantly.
He came joyfully.
He longed for people to repent and be reconciled with God.
How does Jesus' joy at finding you and rescuing you make you feel?
Think of someone with whom you need to reconcile or someone you could encourage through word or action this holiday season.
How could you be a joyful bearer of good news and great joy to that person this month?
Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, you are never reluctant.
You are never distant.
You are never far off.
You are near to us and that is for our good.
Thank you so much for Jesus, our joyful message and messenger.
May we be joyful messengers too, bringing good tidings of you to everyone we love and meet.
Amen.