Jonah and The Big Fish
(I did not preach this weekend. So, I am sharing a sermon I preached in 2022)
Jonah and the Big Fish
Jonah 3
Let’s start this sermon at the end of the story. God asks Jonah, “Should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that 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 many animals” (Jonah 4: 11)?
Don’t forget about the animals.
This question is being presented to Jonah as he sits baking in the desert sun while throwing himself a pity party over the fact that God’s mercy is more than he can handle.
Jonah is unwilling to live without his old beliefs intact. He refuses to let God transform his anger into love, and he would rather die. From a place of self-loathing, Jonah says, “It is better for me to die than to live” (Jonah 4:8).
Hang out with God long enough, and you will learn that God’s mercy, not God’s judgment, represents the biggest threat to our religious ordering of the world.
Friends, I have a whale of a story to tell you today. It might challenge how we try to lay claim to God and God’s gift of grace if you are brave enough to hear it.
The story begins with God telling Jonah, “Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me” (Jonah 1:2). Jonah is like, and no, thank you! He hops on a ship in the opposite direction. He is determined to put as much water between him and Nineveh as possible. He might have been a prophet, but he wouldn’t waste his gifts on the ruthless Ninevites.
I can’t blame Jonah. I wouldn’t want to go to Nineveh if I were an Israelite. It would have been like being an American immediately after September 11th, being asked to track down Osama Bin Laden to preach to him instead of killing him.
Nineveh is the capital of Assyria, the nation that laid waste the northern kingdom of Israel and held the southern kingdom of Judah as a vassal for almost one hundred years. Assyria was more than an enemy. And it was a brutal force that robbed Jonah’s people of their livelihood. Jonah is told to go into enemy territory and preach God’s judgment.
Later in the story, we learn Jonah’s real reason for being so reluctant. After the Ninevites repent, Jonah says in prayer, “O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing” (Jonah 4: 2).
Jonah understands God to be merciful. He isn’t ready for God to be merciful to those he doesn’t like. Jonah is not prepared to be part of God’s club if it includes the Ninevites. Jonah is not upset that God is merciful. He is upset that God’s mercy extends to all.
It is worth repeating: Hang out with God long enough, and you will learn that it is God’s mercy, not God’s judgment, that represents the biggest threat to our religious ordering of the world.
What will you do when you learn that God’s mercy outweighs your judgment? What will you do when confronted with the fact that God’s character to be compassionate extends to those you don’t believe deserve God’s compassion?
Jonah got on a boat. He tried to put a sea of water between his convictions and God’s call to step outside his old beliefs and love people he determined should not be loved. Running away seems safer than letting God’s compassion shatter his long-held convictions.
But you just cannot outrun God. So, Jonah ends up in the belly of a fish. Or, as Ms. May Bruner corrects us in the video, “It is a whale!”
After three days and nights of severe indigestion, the big fish pukes Jonah on dry land. He walks to the city's edge, covered in seaweed and smelling like fish vomit, to deliver a message to the people of Nineveh from God. He gives the wimpiest sermon, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4).
And that was all it took. The sermon had such an impact that even the livestock was covered in sackcloth. The king of Nineveh gave a decree, “Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands” (Jonah 3: 8). The cows repent; they turn their mooing to the Almighty!
God heard the cry of repentance, changed His mind, and forgave the people.
And Jonah? Jonah gets mad, depressed, and wants to die.
The crux of the story is not the revival that breaks out on enemy territory. Instead, it is about Jonah’s reaction to the revival.
What is wrong with a merciful God? Everything is wrong with it when God’s mercy for me is also God’s mercy for them. When you learn that the God who gave you a second chance is the same God who gives them a second chance, it changes how you think about them.
And you are left with a choice. You can run away with your old beliefs intact, hoping you don’t become fish food, or be open to the possibility that God’s compassion is more profound and broader than you first imagined. You can loathe in self-pity or let God transform your anger into love.
In Flannery O’Connor’s last short story, Revelation, the scene opens in the waiting room of a doctor’s office where a smug Ruby Turpin is chatting with another woman. Ruby is self-righteous. She sizes up the people sitting around her, judging each of them and letting her conversation partner know why she is better than the rest of the white trash, blacks, freaks, and lunatics in the room.
The daughter of the person she is conversing with is Mary Grace. The young lady is overweight, her face is covered in acne, and she is unflattering.
Mary Grace can no longer take the self-righteous banter from the so-called Christian lady, Ruby Turpin. She throws the book across the waiting room, hits Mrs. Turpin over the left eye, and lunges towards her. The young girl screams, “Go back where you came from, you old wart-hog!
Stunned, Mrs. Turpin returns home and wrestles with the Lord, angry and confused. “What do you send me a message like that for?” she rails at God. “How am I saved and from hell, too?”
At the end of “Revelation,” after she’s wrestled with God and shaken her fist at God for allowing her to suffer injury and insult at the likes of the lunatic Mary Grace, Mrs. Turpin has a revelation—a vision. In this vision, she sees all the saints—including the poor, the white trash, and the blacks she has disdained all her life—marching into heaven. Behind them, she spots herself and her husband, not first but last, yet joining joyfully in the chorus of saints “shouting hallelujah.” As a result of her painful humiliation, Ruby Turpin exchanges self-righteousness for true righteousness.
The book of Jonah ends without any resolution. We don’t know what Jonah finally does. Does he finally come to terms with the expanse of God’s grace? Does he acknowledge that God’s mercy is greater than his judgment?
Can Jonah live in a world where God’s mercy extends to even those he would rather not live in the world with? We don’t know.
But then again, I could be Jonah, and you could be Jonah. We all have our own Nineveh. Will we stop running and let grace catch up with us?
I mean, this is God. Where do you think you are going to hide anyway?
I want you to consider who the Ninevites in your world are. Who are the people that you find difficult to love? Or feel unlovable? For whom are you acting like a Jonah? Maybe the Lord invites you to stop running and let grace catch up. Amen.
Discussion Questions
Why do you think Jonah resisted God’s call to go to Nineveh? Can you relate to Jonah's reluctance to show compassion to those he deemed unworthy?
Who are the "Ninevites" in your life—those you find difficult to love or believe are unworthy of compassion? How might you begin to see them through the lens of God's mercy?
Jonah tried to run from God's call. Are there areas where you feel you are running away from what God asks you? What might it look like to stop running?
Reflecting on the story of Ruby Turpin from Flannery O’Connor’s "Revelation," how does the journey from self-righteousness to true righteousness resonate with your spiritual journey?
The sermon suggests that God’s mercy threatens our religious ordering of the world more than His judgment. How do you understand this statement, and do you find it challenging?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, Transform our anger and judgment into love and understanding. Help us to see the world through Your eyes, recognizing that Your mercy knows no bounds and extends to all of Your creation.
May we always remember that our greatest strength is found in Your mercy. Let us walk in Your grace, offering forgiveness and love to everyone.
In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
Benediction
May the boundless mercy of God surround you, the transforming love of Christ fill your hearts, and the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit guide your steps. Amen.