Have you ever been derailed from a good head of steam? You know, those times when you are laying into someone because they’ve done something wrong, or your kids have done the thing that you told them not to, or someone at work has now caused you to fix a mistake that you shouldn’t have to be fixing? Ever had one of those experiences?
Do you remember what its like to get derailed in the middle of that?
I remember a story about an old Irish priest. He was in the pulpit one Sunday morning, and he was building up a good head of steam. He was leading up to hellfire and damnation, and preaching on the evils of the world and the sins of the people in his church!
And he looked out into his congregation, giving them that long hard stare. And as he was giving them that impenetrable gaze, he saw an older man sitting in the second pew from the front, who hadn’t put his dentures in that day, but was hanging onto his every word! So the old priest thought he really give it to him.
The Priest is rolling through all the evils, and he's building to the climax of the sermon and says in that loud Irish accent,
AND THERE WILL BE WEEPING AND GNASHING OF TEETH!And before he can get his next words out, the old man’s hand goes up into the air like he wants to ask a question. So he looks at him
he stares at him
and finally says, “well go ahead man, what’s your question?”
And the old man says, “what if you don’t have teeth?”
Have you ever been derailed before?
This is where we are picking Jonah’s story up in this post. He’s got this great head of steam going, and he is working himself into five different kinds of a tizzy, but God derails him.
And for good reason.
Remember where we are right now. Jonah was an average man, doing an average job. We think of being a prophet as an important profession that not many people did. But the reality was that it was fairly common. We only tell the stories about the important ones.
Jonah had done his one big thing that had gotten him known, but he didn’t want all of the spotlight. He probably thought that he was done. But then God calls out to him and sends him to Nineveh to go preach hellfire and damnation, and maybe also some repentance.
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| Map isn't to scale. It's used to show how far Jonah was wanting to go |
God knows what Jonah is doing, so he sends a big fish to go give Jonah some time to clear his head…..from the belly of the big fish.
God’s purpose in this isn’t punishment, but clarity. He is working to set Jonah on the right path for him to go forward. Jonah needed this because, the path he was on would lead him to: bitterness, anger, apathy, and the list can go on.
For Jonah, his best days were behind him. All he had left was anger, pity for himself, or just nothing. None of that was healthy for him. He no longer had a purpose.
God sees this, and this is important, God sees this and is working on the long plan to help Jonah overcome this, and not just Jonah, but all of his people.
Throughout the Old Testament God is laying the groundwork for this kind of compassion and mercy. It's hard enough for us to accept in the New Testament, but would have been harder if God hadn't been doing this work.
We’ve all known people like this haven’t we? People who are angry all the time, who never see anything good in the world, who hide from everyone because they don’t want to leave the house and the place that they know? We’ve known them. And maybe, we’ve even been them.
This is what God is confronting Jonah with. The mystery in the Book of Jonah is all about what is causing Jonah’s anger and his misplaced righteousness.
Take a look at vs 4 (Jonah 4:4) from our reading.
If you ever want to derail me from when I’m angry and working up a good head of steam, this is the question that is most likely to get me there.
Is your anger a good thing?
It might not be, but in the moment it sure feels good doesn’t it?
What role is Jonah’s anger taking here? It’s sin. Plan and simple it’s sin. Here’s the crazy part though. It didn’t start out that way. It started out as the Ninevite's sin. They were just as awful, evil, and scary as Jonah thought they were. But, he eventually went and did just what God called on him to do.
He went and preached repentance to the Ninevites, and they did! It worked! They repented, they were changing their ways! Whether due to belief in God or fear of God, that doesn't matter. Jonah had succeeded in his mission.
But Jonah wasn’t through. Jonah wanted retribution. Jonah wanted revenge for all that they had done. He didn’t want to accept that they’d been forgiven, that they’d changed, and that God was going to retract his punishment of them.
Jonah couldn’t handle it. How badly did Jonah want them “to pay” for what they’d done?
This is how badly he wanted it. To the point of death.
Jonah couldn’t conceive of a world where they could be forgiven, where God would have that much compassion and grace. It was beyond him to be able to do it. And God was calling him out on it.
Does that sound familiar?
Do you know someone who would hold onto that kind of anger? Do you have your moments when you are holding on to that kind of anger?
Have you ever watched someone, who was still alive, but who had given up their life in pursuit of “justice?” Whatever that means for them, or for revenge, or even sometimes just out of petty spite against someone else?
Have you watched them hold a grudge long beyond what might have been healthy? Have you seen family members not talk for so long that they don’t even remember what they’re fighting over?
This is Jonah.
How many of us would argue that this is healthy for anyone? It’s not is it?
This is where, no matter what brought it on, the sin becomes the person who can’t let go. Because in that moment they are doing more harm to themselves, we are doing more harm to ourselves, than is being done to us by someone else.
While they might be, while Jonah at this point in the story, is still alive, the potential for their life has been taken away. They have lost their life at that point, they’ve just not stopped breathing.
God loves Jonah to much, loves us to much, to watch us do that to ourselves. So he calls Jonah out on it. But he is doing more.
God is setting things up for us. He is getting not just Jonah, but the Israelites in the Old Testament, and us in the New Testament ready to accept what he is going to give.
There’s two groups at work here.
God forgives the first and they change. Which is incredibly hard. And God encourages the second group to forgive so that they don’t become the first. And that is a real possibility. At some point the sin we don't let go of becomes original sin that reaches out to others.
God is telling Jonah, and reminding Jonah, that he is God. He has the power to do this. That given the opportunity, God will redeem his creation. If we truly believe that God created us all, and that he looked out on all of his creation, us included, and said that it is good; and if we truly believe that God loves us, then we have to accept that God can redeem us, and not just us, but all people.
God perfected this when he sent Jesus into the world, to show us that he can do this. To show us in a way that maybe Jonah would have understood better.
The change that takes place is from the merciless hope for revenge that we see in Jonah to the one who is filled with mercy in Jesus Christ.
Do this for me this week. I want us to go out and derail people. Not because we can yell louder, or because we can be more forceful in our actions. But I want us to go out and derail people through the mercy we can show, through the unexpected ways that offering and receiving grace turn someone’s world upside down.
Go out this week and take the power out of the vitriol in the world, not by trying to top it, but by living, and breathing, and sharing, and telling about the love we find in Jesus Christ, that is given to us through God in heaven, and through whom we can find hope for a life that would otherwise cease to have meaning.
Go and do this in Jesus’ name. Amen
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