This is one of my favorite stories in the whole Bible. It is just a great story. It is a story that I heard countless times when I was growing up. I'm fairly certain that it rolled around in Sunday School at least once a year. But there were often some omissions and distortions in the story that I heard as a child. One of those distortions was that it was always Jonah and the Whale. And I can't tell you how many times I've heard someone say well it wasn't really a whale the Bible actually says it was just a really big fish. As if somehow that makes this story so much more believable. "Oh it was just a really big fish well now that makes perfect sense. I'm sure it is a factual piece of history now." But despite that piece of information there were many other ways that this story was not told in full. And even in our lectionary reading for today we only get a part of the story. As a child I heard the basic beginning of the story.
It goes like this. Jonah is just laying around minding his own business when out of nowhere God says "Hey get up and go to Nineveh." "You know Nineveh, that great city. You know the one where the Assyrians live. Those who are not like the Israelites. Go there and tell them to get theirs acts together. Because it has come to my attention that they are engaged in some wicked behaviors." And so Jonah did exactly that.
Okay well he didn't exactly do that. Instead he did exactly the opposite of that. Instead of heading north to Nineveh, he headed south to Tarshish. Basically he was gettin' the heck out of Dodge. There was no way he was going to that Nineveh. Imagine the Tenderloin and then double it. They weren't going to listen to him and honestly they might kill him once he got there. So he was not going to Nineveh and he was going to try and get away from God as well. So he went down to Joppa where he was able to get on a boat that was headed to Tarshish. He paid his money and he and the crew were off. Surely God would never be able to find him there. But he was wrong. A big ol' storm came up. A storm so big that the crew thought the boat would be ripped in half. If you've ever seen that tv show "The Deadliest Catch" or even just a trailer for it, the storms on that show are what I imagine. Think any big storm movie you have seen and that is what this storm must have been like or perhaps even worse. And so they started praying, each one of them to their own gods. But to no avail the storm continued to rage. They started throwing stuff overboard, cargo, anything that wasn't absolutely necessary, anything that might lighten their load and ensure their survival. But still the storm went on.
And where was Jonah during all of this? Well I'll tell you where he was--he had gone down below to lay down and he had fallen asleep. I guess he thought this was some kind of pleasure cruise. It's as if he had been looking for the slot machines and when he didn't find them he thought well maybe I'll just take a nap instead. And he went to sleep. I mean he had to be hard and fast asleep since this massive storm didn't wake him. That is the sleep of someone who does not feel guilty about anything. And so the captain comes down and can't believe what he finds. So he wakes Jonah up and says "Why are you sleeping? Fool." Alright I added the fool part, but I'm guessing a captain on a ship would have said a lot worse than that. The captain wakes him up so that he can pray to his god too. "Pray for our safety man. This storm is going to kill us all." "Pray like you've never prayed before. And perhaps if your God isn't too busy, you know has a moment or two to spare for us, then we might not die out here on the sea."
And the storm continued. All the sailors thought that surely this must be someone's fault. Surely they are all being punished for something someone did. So they did what makes oh so much sense they started casting lots to see who it was. I'm imagining the ancient version of either spin the bottle or rock/paper/scissors. And when they did this the lot fell on Jonah. So they all look, look at him with a little bit of fear in their eyes and probably even more so anger as they all wondered what this schmuck, this stranger, must have done to warrant this kind of punishment. They start screaming out questions. "Why is this happening to us?" "What did you do?" Where are you from?" "Who are you?" And what amounts to "Who's your daddy?" So Jonah explained everything to them. Who he was, where he was from and what he had done. And they said, "Alright, now what? What should we do to make this stop, to save our lives." Jonah knew. The only way to make this stop was to get him off the boat. But the sailors were not about to throw someone overboard. They might have been afraid but they weren't that afraid,…yet. They thought well maybe if we just row harder and faster we can escape the storm. But they couldn't. They couldn't outrun this storm and they were left with no other option. So with a prayer that they wouldn't be held responsible for the death of this man they threw Jonah overboard. And the storm stopped. This certainly turned the life of the sailors around. These sailors who had been worshipping their own gods were now converts. This would be their God too.
And what happened to Jonah? He was swallowed by a big fish. That’s right a big fish. The Lord sent a very big fish to save Jonahs' life. And it says that Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. Now I have to imagine that immediately Jonah was not all that excited to be in the belly of a fish. Think about it. Just think about what fish smell like from the outside. I'm guessing from the inside they really stink. So day one and day two must have really sucked. But it gave Jonah a long time to think. To think about what he had done, where he had ended up. He thought he was going to get away scott free and not have to follow through on God's call, but instead he was in the belly of a fish. This is not how he imagined his life playing out. So finally on day 3 he had it figured out, or at least figured out for the time being. And so he prayed. He prayed a prayer of gratitude. "O God you were with me." "I thought I would die and instead you sent this fish to save me. Blah, blah. Blah." "I am a changed man. I will do what you have asked me to do." And then when the prayer was over God spoke to the fish and said alright let him go and that is what the fish did. The fish threw up Jonah out onto dry land. Now to the Jewish audience hearing this, Jonah as vomit would have been hilarious. Here was someone who was a follower of the law, a follower of the God of Israel. Someone who had kept kosher all his life and now he was not himself kosher. If only he had listened to God to begin with he would not have ended up in this situation. And I imagine they might have been even thinking, I would have followed God. I would have gone to preach to those awful, wicked Assyrians.
Jonah is on dry land, laying in fish vomit, well being fish vomit. God says again, "Get up and go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim the message that I tell you." And that is what Jonah did, although, I'm guessing he couldn't understand why God kept saying that great city. Nineveh wasn't that great. But he would go. Because he was rededicated to God. He was God's messenger. So he went a days walk to Nineveh and when he got there, he told them this, "Forty days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown." And then he just stood back and crossed his arms and waited for Nineveh to get theirs. He was going to enjoy this. Those dirty, nasty Ninevites were going to be destroyed. But something happened that Jonah did not expect. He didn't expect partly because he thought the Ninevites were beyond hope, but also he had not done the most convincing job of proclaiming the word of the Lord. He hadn't really sold it so to speak. But they heard something because they got their repentance on. I mean from the top down. The king decreed that they would all enter into a time of repentance. Even the animals were going to seek forgiveness. They were all going to fast and hope and pray that God did not destroy them. And you know what, that is what happened. God saw the authenticity and the honesty in their desire to repent and turn from their wicked ways and God did not destroy Nineveh.
And that is where the story that I was told in Sunday School ended. But that is not where this story ends. Because one would have thought that all would have been ecstatic at the salvation of the Ninevites. But everyone was not overjoyed. Jonah was angry. Jonah essentially said to God, "I told you so. I knew this would happen. I knew that you were gracious and generous and that you would spare the lives of these people, these Ninevites. That's why I didn't want them to come. I would rather die than live in a world where the Ninevites are spared." To which God responded "what? Really? You are going to be angry with me for this?" So Jonah goes out to the desert to pout. And he was just gonna watch, watch what these Ninevites did with their spared lives. And then a bush grew up that gave Jonah shade and for a day Jonah was very happy about the bush. And then, and then and I think this is the best part, the next morning when Jonah woke up to sit beneath his nice shady tree a worm had come along and killed the tree. The sun was hot and Jonah once again, cried to the Lord, "Just kill me." This is classic Jewish comedy. This is the Jewish mother crying, "why don't you just kill me already? Here I’ll do I for you, I’ll just stick my head in this oven." And that is when God said this "You are concerned about a bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow, it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, a great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left…?" And that is how it ends. It doesn't end with Jonah getting it or even an answer. But we know the answer and the hearers would have known the answer? There is no one who is unable to received God's grace. Not the sailors who worship other Gods, not the people of Nineveh, not even Jonah. God will never stop offering us moments to accept and receive grace. Not one time, not two times, not 27 times. Never.
This week we saw the inauguration of a new president. A new president that invited us to look not to fear and hatred but to hope. A president who offered an open hand to our enemy, to our Ninevites, if only they unclench their fists. And a president who invited Rick Warren to pray at the inauguration. Now I was prepared to not like this man and to be overjoyed with Rev. Lowry. However, I found that while I was kind of put out with Rev. Warren I also found that he was seeking to include all people in this prayer. Now I'm not sure he completely did that but he tried. We all have our Ninevites. We all have our Rick Warrens. And despite our desire, God keeps inviting and calling us to offer them grace and redemption. Let's not venture out into the desert and pout, but instead let's walk into the city, and celebrate that God's grace is for all. Not just those that are like us or even not just for those who like us. Grace happens, again, and again, and again. Amen.
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