Growing up I loved magic. Who doesn’t? Magicians get to stun and bewilder people. One of the best parts of magic is the shocking misdirection of magic. A good magician gets you asking one question - “Is the ball in his left hand?” - but then all of a sudden reveals that the question of the trick is totally different. Suddenly the ball is somehow in your pocket. Now you’re asking the question at the heart of the trick, “How did the ball get in my pocket?”
The story of Jonah in the Old Testament is a story of misdirection. All of a sudden in chapter 3 readers realize the question they’ve been naturally asking doesn’t get at the heart of the message the story is telling. The question we naturally ask is, “Are the unbelievers going to believe the message Jonah preaches about repentance and faith in God?” But then the question shockingly shows itself to be different than that and it’s aimed at…believers.
For context, up until Jonah 3:6 we learn that Jonah was called by God to go to an unbelieving country, the land of Nineveh. He was called to go there and preach God’s Word. But from the beginning he resisted the call and we are repeatedly told that he was fleeing from “the presence of God”. With that language, Jonah’s fleeing was not just from a “call” but from God, personally. But we don’t know why. We don’t know why Jonah is fleeing from God. Finally, Jonah gets to Nineveh, preaches, and we read in Jonah chapter 3, “The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, ‘….let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.”
This is wild, sweeping revival. God’s Word has run wild, reached the King, and the King has joined in the proclamation. He calls his own people “evil” and says they are guilty of being a violent people. Imagine this! Imagine one day over the airways you hear Hitler proclaiming, “We must repent! We are evil in our ways. We are violent, ungodly people!” Imagine the President of the USA proclaiming one evening on the news, “We must turn. We are wrong. We are evil. We are guilty before God and must repent to him.”
This may be a subpoint to the story but it’s worth noting. It’s Incredible that this happened through Jonah. Remember, Jonah is a trainwreck of a missionary. A fish had to eat Jonah to get him back on mission. We naturally think Jonah will thwart God’s plans. There’s no way revival breaks out through Jonah. We think this because we wrongly tie God’s power to people, as though God needs us. We think, “God can’t use me because my sin struggles, poor communication skills, low IQ, my young or old age, my nerves, or my dull personality.” Then churches and conferences feed this theology (or create it) by platforming people based on their last name, fame, charismatic personality, or charismatic communication. We would never platform Jonah. We’d fire him.
But this story flips our bad theology on its head. This isn’t about Jonah, he’s not the Savior, it’s not his Word running wild, God’s power is not tied to Jonah’s ability, character, or performance. God’s Word is about God and God uses it in power. This was Martin Luther’s mentality about himself and the Word in the revival of the Reformation in the 1500s. Luther reflects on the fact that Christians became known as Lutherans, writing, “What is Luther? The teaching is not mine….How did I, poor stinking bag of maggots that I am, come to the point where people call the children of Christ by my evil name?…I simply taught, preached, wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept, or drank…beer with my friends…the Word did everything.”
The Word is doing everything in Nineveh. So take heart if you’re a nobody because it doesn’t matter to God. Biblically speaking, he prefers that. Alright, major subpoint over.
The King ends his proclamation like this: “Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” The Word brought understanding of repentance, faith, and grace. The king understands clearly that they are sinners. He understands God is rightly and justly angry. He understands they deserve to die. And he knows there is no hope for salvation unless God has mercy on them. And sure enough, God has mercy on them. “When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.” Sure enough, God’s grace and mercy is enough for Nineveh. Sure enough His grace is enough for the greatest of sinners. Especially you.
This is where we expect the story to end. The prodigal son (Nineveh) has come home! Surely Jonah is going to throw a huge party and celebrate and the story will conclude. But just when we think all is right and well and good, Jonah has something to say about it all.
Shockingly, we read in chapter 4, “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.” What in the world? How is Jonah angry about this? Well, Jonah explains why he’s mad. “And he prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That 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.” Here we get to the heart of story of Jonah. Why has Jonah been resisting and fleeing from God? Why is he angry?
Because God is full of grace for sinners.
The King of Nineveh asked, Who knows? Who knows, maybe God has enough grace for us. You know who knows? Jonah. “I knew that you are a gracious God.” “I knew you’d accept the prodigal home.” Jonah knows His Bible. He’s a believer. He quotes a core OT text about God’s character. He just doesn’t like it. Jonah is like an angry older brother who has a younger rebellious brother return home from squandering everything and he’s mad that his dad accepts him back. I think there is a parable about that in the New Testament.
Jonah is so angry he would rather die than watch Nineveh be saved. He prays, “Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” Jonah took so much pleasure in the thought of Nineveh being judged that he would have rather died than see them saved.
At this point you’re probably thinking, what in the world is going on? I can’t fathom why Jonah feels this way. But Jonah was written precisely because we couldn’t relate more. Imagine I told you that I know that Hitler is in heaven right now. He has supreme joy and peace, far more than you, in the presence of God. He feels no guilt for his atrocious sin. He is all joy, no guilt, no suffering.
Feel that anger boiling up? Let me guess, you’re thinking, “I hope you’re wrong. I hope he’s in hell. I hope he got what he deserved.” In other words, we’re thinking, “I hope God wasn’t gracious, merciful, and loving to Hitler.” You see, Jonah was written precisely because we couldn’t relate more to Jonah.
Where does this come from? Where does Jonah and our anger come from? I mean, we know the Gospel as Christians. We know about grace. We know John 3:16. It comes from our deeply ingrained love for works-based righteousness. It comes from our love for trying to live up to God’s Law to earn His acceptance, favor, and love. The reason we want God to withhold grace from others is because we think we’ll be OK if he withholds it from us. We don’t realize how much grace we have received and still need. This is the misdirection of Jonah: as we’re wondering if the unbelievers will rely on the grace of God, the story asks, are you still relying on the grace of God? Do you realize how much grace you have received and still need?
Now, where do we go from here? Where do we go when we realize that relying on grace is harder than we thought? We go where God goes – back to grace. God responds to Jonah, “And the Lord said, ‘Do you do well to be angry?’” God’s question is like saying, “Jonah, consider this: does your anger make any sense? Does it make sense theologically? Does it make sense experientially?” Ultimately this question is asking: does it make sense that you want to withhold grace? This question is telling Jonah, and us, to consider the grace of God again.
“But I already know it. I’m a believer,” we respond. Yes, Jonah too. But we are prone to wander from it. Writing about this very reality Martin Luther said, “The article of justification must be sounded in our ears incessantly because the frailty of our flesh will not permit us to take hold of it perfectly and to believe it with all our heart….In actual living…it is not so easy to persuade oneself that by grace alone, in opposition to every other means, we obtain the forgiveness of our sins and peace with God.”
God’s response to Jonah is to remind him of grace again and give grace again; grace that covers even our rebellion against it. When we are brought back to dependence on grace we can pray, “Lord, forgive me for not liking Your grace all too often.”
Where do we go from here? Back to the Gospel. Jonah looked on a large city and had no compassion. But when Jesus shows up we are told, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Jonah took so much pleasure in sinners being punished he would have rather died than see them saved. But not Jesus. Jesus took so much pleasure in sinners being forgiven that he was willing to die to save them. And God takes so much pleasure in you knowing you’re forgiven He will continually remind you of it sermon after sermon, Bible-story after Bible-story, , communion after communion, and blog after blog.
