“Surprise!”

Jonah 3:1-10

July 17, 2005

The story of Jonah began with a call. The word of the Lord had come to Jonah to go to Nineveh and speak out against it for their wickedness had come up before the Lord. The call was straightforward and to the point. Jonah was to go to Nineveh as God’s prophet, as God’s messenger. But Jonah fled. And so for the last two chapters, God has had to deal with Jonah. This runaway prophet had to be prepared for God’s purpose. In the end, Jonah had learned some hard lessons about the futility of trying to flee from a pursuing God and about those he thought of as outsiders. In the end, Jonah had experienced God’s grace at work, not only in his life but also in the life of those not like him, and he, like those outsiders on the ship, had been saved from the clutches of the deep.

And so we left last week with some questions left to be answered. Would Jonah’s person experience of others not like him and the work of the mercy and grace of God in his life be enough to turn him around and become God’s prophet? Will this runaway prophet now become the faithful prophet and answer God’s call and go to Nineveh? Has Jonah finally grasped the vision and purpose of God’s concern for the Ninevites?

Let us pick back up with the story. Read Jonah 3:1-10.

It seems that no sooner had Jonah been spit out of the big fish that God called Jonah again. You can imagine Jonah sitting there on the dry land sopping wet thanking God for saving him when suddenly he is called a second time to go to Nineveh. Well, Jonah may be a little slow to learn, but he is not stupid. He does not need to be told a third time to go to Nineveh. And so Jonah gets up off the ground, wrings out his wet clothes, and goes to Nineveh.

As the reader, we wait with anticipation to hear what Jonah will say to the Ninevites. Surely Jonah has learned much about what God and even about himself. Jonah has experience the outreaching presence of God both external and internal. He has experienced the nobility and compassion and courage of those not like him, those foreigners who he had only disdain for in the beginning. Surely, he has learned about God’s grace and mercy in his deliverance through the big fish. Jonah had plumbed the depths of loss and absence of God, and discovered that God had not abandoned him after all. God had found him even in the depth of human brokenness and disobedience and saved him.

But alas, it seems that Jonah has not learned a thing. When Jonah arrives in Nineveh, he walks for a day into the heart of the city and speaks out against it. But his message is as cold as the water in which he had been flung into, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” Nothing more is said. For all that Jonah has learned and experienced, he is still the same old Jonah. He learned nothing from his own suffering. He learned nothing from his encounter with others and with the God of grace. His own experience of grace should have kindled mercy in him toward others, but his message is only one of judgment. In spite of the storm, the actions of the mariners, his rescue from the big fish, and his own knowledge of God’s mercy, Jonah has not changed his view of outsiders. They still only deserve Jonah’s contempt and God’s punishment.

But something extraordinary happens. When the Ninevites hear Jonah’s message, they believe God, proclaim a fast, and everyone puts on sackcloth. The word for believe in Hebrew does not mean that the Ninevites merely believed Jonah’s prediction to be true and repented to save their own necks, it means that the Ninevites responded in faith to Israel’s God. The Ninevites did not just believe God, they believed in God. The belief they had was the same kind of trust and reliance upon God that Abraham had which God had reckoned to him as righteousness.

The Ninevites repented and turned from their wicked ways toward the God of Israel. Even the king of Nineveh responds. He too comes down from the throne, removes the symbols of his kingship, and covers himself in ashes. He too makes a statement about who is the true king of kings and lord of lords. He too has made a statement about the one whose authority he is under. He even makes a proclamation that not only all people, but all animals shall fast and put on sackcloth and cry out to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from their violence. He even ends his decree with a word of hope that maybe God will change God’s mind at the expression of humility of the Ninevites and turn from his anger and not let them perish.

Jonah’s message had only been a word of judgment about Nineveh’s overthrow, the same word used in connection with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the wicked cities upon which the Lord rained down upon it brimstone and fire. There was no compassion in Jonah’s message, no mercy, and certainly no grace. Jonah had gone to the city not out of faithfulness, not out of care for those separated from God, but out of reluctance. Jonah does not care for the people of Nineveh. He still only wants to see their destruction. He still only wants them to get what they deserve, which is to be wiped clean off the face of the earth. But that is not what God wants.

With one of the most remarkable passages in the Bible, we get the greatest surprise of this whole story. When God saw what the Ninevites did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed God’s mind about the calamity that he said he would bring upon them, and he did not do it. God literally repented out of compassion and care for these people and turned from God’s judgment upon them. From the beginning God had cared for the Ninevites. God cared enough to send a prophet to them.

But, Jonah has failed to grasp the significance of his own near death experience. When he had turned from God and went his own way, and realized the error of his ways and promised to make vows and sacrifices to God, God did not destroy him, but instead saved him. He should have learned then that God was giving him the vision of what God’s plan was for Nineveh. Jonah should have leaned then that God’s very nature is one of mercy and compassion toward those who are outsiders. He should have learned then that God’s very nature is one of love and a willingness to receive and bless all who turn to God in humble repentance and obedience, no matter what their race or nationality or circumstance in life.

Maybe the real question for all of us insiders is do we care? Do we care enough for those who are outsiders to go and give them a message of hope, or will our message be one of only judgment? Do we care enough for those not like us that we are willing to put ourselves at risk to bring God’s message of reconciliation, or do we prefer the safety and comfort of our own kind? Do we care enough to be Christ’s ambassadors in the world, as we remember that we the church exist for the sake of others, or have we claimed God’s grace, mercy, and compassion only for ourselves?

The surprise of this story is really no surprise at all. Surprises are things that happen that we do not expect to happen. The deliverance of the Ninevites is only a surprise is you are Jonah, but its not a surprise to those who truly know the nature and character of God. Too often, we see someone who turns his or her life around and has a new relationship with God and we are surprised. Too many times, we see someone change from their ways and we say to ourselves, “I would have never thought…” The deliverance of the Ninevites is not a surprise to those who themselves have experienced the work of God in their lives for it is the power of God. Salvation is what God wants and wills and does for people just as God has done for us. Amen.