We’re continuing our sermon series on Humor in
the Bible. Today we’re looking at the story of Jonah.
Now, Jonah is one of those Bible characters that a lot of
people have heard of. They’d say, “Oh, yeah, Jonah. He’s the guy that got swallowed by a
whale.” Now, as you heard, the Bible
does not actually say a whale, it says a huge fish. But whatever. A lot of people at least have some idea what
happened to Jonah.
Now, as fewer people know, the reason Jonah was swallowed
by a huge fish is that God had called him to go Nineveh and preach against it
because of the people’s sins. Jonah did not want to do that, so he ran
away. But of course, you cannot run away
from God. If you think about it, that
idea alone could be an example of humor in the Bible. The idea that we
could run away from the all-seeing, all-knowing God. The idea that we could hide from God, that we
could go somewhere that God would not know about it. A pretty funny idea, when you think about it.
It did not work for Jonah, of course, any more than it
would work for you and me. God kept after Jonah. Getting swallowed by the fish was just part
of God’s plan to get Jonah to come back and do what God wanted him to do.
That’s where we pick up the story. Jonah eventually
goes to Nineveh. He tells them that God
is going to wipe out the city because of their sins. And, surprisingly
enough, the people of Nineveh listen to Jonah.
The king himself calls on the people to repent of their sins and ask God
to forgive them. And God does it.
And that’s where the story starts to get funny. I
mean, okay, the idea of getting swallowed by a huge fish is kind of funny
already. And the verse right before our reading today, where it says,
“The Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land”--that’s kind
of funny, too, in a gross sort of way.
But think of this. Jonah told the people of Nineveh
what sinners they were, and the people actually listened! And they
actually repented of their sins! And
they asked God for forgiveness! I mean,
that’s pretty much every preacher’s dream, right? Everybody, even the
king, listening to you, and asking for forgiveness, and promising to change
their ways? You’d think Jonah would’ve
been on top of the world when that happened.
But Jonah was not happy at all. In fact, we’re told
Jonah was very angry. He knew what he wanted God to do. He did not want God to forgive Nineveh.
He wanted God to punish Nineveh.
He said to God, see? This is why
I did not want to come to Nineveh in the first place. I knew you would
never go through with it. I knew you’d
never do it my way. I knew you’d forgive
these people. That’s not what I wanted
at all. I’m mad. I’m mad at
you. I’m so mad at you I wish I was
dead.
What’s that sound like? It’s a little kid throwing a
temper tantrum, right? You never let me have any fun. You never let me do what I want. I was
gonna have fun watching you destroy Nineveh, and now you’re not gonna destroy
them. You never let me have my way on anything.
And then there’s the deal with the gourd. Jonah’s
sitting just outside of town, hoping to see Nineveh get destroyed. Jonah’s
using this plant for shade. It’s
referred to as a gourd--we don’t really know what kind of plant it was.
But it gave Jonah shade, and he liked that. But then the plant died, and Jonah was left
in the hot sun with a strong, hot wind.
And again Jonah throws a tantrum. God, I at least
thought you could do this one little thing for me. I came all this way to
Nineveh. I did not want to do it, but I
did it. And I told the people what you wanted me to tell them. And then you went back on your word and did
not wipe them out like you promised you would. And now, all I wanted was
one little plant to give me shade. And
you could not even do that for me. There
was one little thing I felt like maybe was going right, and you took that away
from me. You could not even let me have that one little thing. I wish I was dead.
Think about that. Jonah
was sitting there, hoping God is going to wipe out this city of a hundred
twenty thousand people. All those people dying does not bother Jonah at
all. In fact, he thinks they deserve
it. But he’s upset because God kills off
this plant! I mean, how ridiculous is that? And God, again very patiently, points that
out to Jonah.
Now, I’ll grant that this is not laugh-out-loud funny.
But it is pretty silly, right? I
mean, here’s this guy, this grown man. We’re not told how old Jonah is,
but he’s clearly not a kid at this time.
He’s an adult. And here he is, this grown man, basically throwing
a fit every time things don’t go exactly the way he wants them to go.
Going so far as to say he’d rather be dead every time he does not get his
way I mean, the only thing missing is
for him to say he’s going to hold his breath until he turns blue. You can
just imagine him, waving his arms, stomping his feet, whining and crying and
saying “You never do things my way” and basically making a fool out of himself.
It’s easy to see how childish Jonah is. But think
about this. Have you ever had a time
when you thought you knew exactly what God should do? You had no doubt
about it? And then--God did not do
it? How did you react? Did you just accept it? Or did you get upset? Did you even,
maybe, get angry?
And have you ever had a time when you felt like things were
not going the way they should, and then one more thing went wrong? It
might not even have been a big thing, but it came on top of a whole bunch of
other things that were not going well?
How did you react to that? Again, did you just accept it? Did you just say, well, okay, no big
deal? Or did you get upset? Did you even, maybe, get angry? And did you even, possibly, get angry with
God?
I said last week that we make a mistake when we think we’re
better, or smarter, or more faithful than the people we read about in these
Bible stories. Here’s another example of that. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had times
when I’ve gotten pretty upset when things were not going the way I thought they
should. I’ve gotten pretty upset when a bunch of things were not going
right and then one more thing went wrong.
I do not usually just accept those things calmly. I get mad about them sometimes. And
sometimes, I even get angry with God for letting them happen. Maybe some of you do that, too. I don’t know.
But when we do, I’m pretty sure that God sees us as being
just as silly, just as childish, as Jonah was. But the good news is the
way God reacted to Jonah. God never
returned Jonah’s anger. God never got
upset with Jonah. In fact, God shows incredible patience with Jonah. When God heard Jonah go on all these rants,
there were all kinds of things God could’ve said in response. But God
never said any of them. God stayed
perfectly calm throughout the whole thing.
God just asks Jonah a simple question.
God asks Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
“Is it right for you to be angry?” Do you really
think, Jonah--do you really think, Jeff--that you have the right to be angry
with me just because I did not do what you wanted me to do? Do you think
it’s right for you to be mad at me just because I did not do things your
way? Do you really think you have the
right to tell me what to do? Do you really think you know better than I
do?
We know the answers to those questions, of course.
But sometimes, in our anger, in our foolishness, we react like Jonah did.
We say, “Yes! It is right for me
to be angry! I’m so angry I wish I was
dead.”
And God again does not get angry. God does not get
upset. God continues to show incredible
patience. God tells Jonah, you’re just concerned with this one little
thing that affects you. I’m looking at the big picture. Yes, the little things are important. But if it’s right to be concerned about the
little things that just affect one person, should we not also be concerned
about the big things that affect lots of people?
We talk about having a personal relationship with God, and
that’s right. We should have a personal relationship with God. Jonah had a personal relationship with God.
Jonah’s relationship with God was strong enough that even when Jonah
disobeyed God, even when Jonah got mad at God, even when Jonah threw a tantrum
at God, God still loved him. God still stayed patient with him, and God
continued to work with him. That’s
important.
But God sees all kinds of things that we cannot see.
God knows all kinds of things that we cannot know. God has all kinds of plans and purposes that
we know nothing about. That’s one of the great things about God. God is great enough to take care of things on
a cosmic scale, to take care of the entire universe, to take care of things in
the past, the present, and the future all at once. And yet, God can come
down to our level and have a personal, individual, one-to-one relationship with
each one of us, with you and with me.
God can do both of those things at the same time. That’s more than just important. That’s
incredible.
God knows how imperfect we are. God knows how
ridiculous and silly and childish we can be. And yet, God loves us
anyway. God loves us so much that even
when we rant and rave at God, God still very calmly and very patiently keeps
working with us. God calms us down and reminds us that we’re not the only
important person in the world. We’re
still important--everyone is important--but the world does not revolve around
us. Maybe the reason things did not happen the way we wanted them to is
because there was some other consideration that was more important at this
moment. That can be true whether we’re
aware of that other consideration or not.
Jonah thought he knew more than God. Sometimes we
think we know more than God, too. But we
don’t. So when things don’t go the way
we want them to, let’s trust God. And let’s be grateful that, no matter
how childish we are, God will keep loving us and keep working with us.
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