Jonah 3:1-5, 10
The kingdom of God is at hand, repent or you are all going to die!!! Why aren’t you
putting on sackcloth? Maybe it would help if the church would provide sackcloth at the narthex
and each of you can take one as you come in for worship. I can even coin it as the “sackcloth
ministry”, this would certainly be pleasing to God, don’t you think? After all, that’s what the
people did after Jonah’s preaching, and God relented from his wrath. Well, sackcloth will
probably do little to your spirituality, except maybe keep you awake the entire service because it
makes you really uncomfortable, but is there more than just putting on sackcloth, or ashes for
Ash Wednesday, or anything else that we do here?
The book of Jonah is one of my favorite Old Testament books. Primary reason is because
it’s very short and easy to understand. There are no strange visions like the other prophets that
require some extra interpretation. And the other reason is because this book is filled with ironies,
things that you would not expect simply come up again and again. Right at the beginning you see
that happening. A prophet is supposed to receive the word of God and follow it. God tells Jonah
to arise, go, and proclaim to Nineveh. One would expect the prophet to arise and go, but what
does he do? He arose and went to the opposite direction of Nineveh. We are not given the reason
for his conduct until chapter 4, all we know in chapter one is that he is running from the presence
of the lord, just like Adam and Eve, who tried to hide in a bush, which was exactly where God
was.
He then goes on the ship for Tarshish and God caused a great storm in the sea. Again one
would expect the prophet of God to be on his knees praying for his life like everybody else on
the boat, but no, he sleeps like he hasn’t slept for a week. It is reminiscent of Jesus who also
happened to be found sleeping in the boat during a storm. It was so severe that the disciples
thought they would die. Again, one would expect this prophet of the one true God to wake up
and pray and calm the storm, but instead, he tells them to toss him into the sea. He was so
determined not to preach to Nineveh that he would rather die. At first the sailors were reluctant
to toss him out, but the storm was so bad that they had to do it. Here’s the interesting part, these
seemingly unbelievers, gentiles were more pious than the man of God. They even prayed to God
before they hurled him into the sea. Nevertheless, through this frightful and yet wonderful
experience, these people came to believe in the one true God.
Jonah probably had no intention of going outside of his boundary, or as we call it today,
the comfort zone. He was quite happy where he was, ministering his own kind, the Jews. God
calls him to Nineveh, he flees. Certainly this is rebellion against God, yet in this process,
unknowingly to Jonah, God brought faith to these gentile sailors. This is a good reminder to us
today that faith and perseverance is always, exclusively the work of God. Man, being sinners, do
many silly rebellious things, and sometimes it causes some damage to the church, such as pastors
who preach false doctrines, priests who do despicable things, members who do outright evil
things against their fellow brothers and sisters in the church, but ultimately, the church does not
belong to them, it is God’s church. Even when people in their weaknesses, like Jonah, sin and
fall short of the glory of God, but God still takes care of his people and may even use these
opportunities to increase faith. Of course we do pray that our pastors and members live godly
lives, but the point here is that we need not be discouraged by the evil and apparent hypocrisy
within the church.
However that does not mean we let false teachings to be propagated or let the wicked do
their own things, rather, we who have the light are to remind and sometimes we may need to
rebuke them so that they may return to orthodoxy. That’s the pattern that God has set before us
in this little book. Yes, Jonah acted contrary to God’s command, in fact, what he did was worse
than the gentiles around him, but God still continued to use him. It’s not that God ran out of
prophets but it was to teach Jonah an important lesson. It is a lesson greater than being obedient
to the law, because the most important thing that God looks for is repentance, not only for the
Jews, but everyone, even Jonah himself.
So here in our text for today, the word of God came to him a second time. It’s the same
message and no doubt, Jonah had learned his lesson, that it was futile to run away from God.
Even if he tried to kill himself, God would not let it happen. He even had to use a fish to save
Jonah from drowning. The bible doesn’t tell us why God used a fish instead of a boat or
something else, but probably so that Jonah could have that 3 day experience that would point
people to a greater prophet who would also be buried for 3 days.
So now he’s in Nineveh, probably still quite reluctant, and he preaches law to the people.
He didn’t even preach any good news but the entire city was turned. They fasted and put on
sackcloth, even the animals had to do it. When God saw what they had done, he relented from
the disaster that he said he would do. This may seems strange to us if you think about it. We
often say that God keeps his promises and that what he says he will surely do it, so does that
mean that God is being inconsistent here? Does it mean that God doesn’t actually do what he
said he would do? Here, one must distinguish between promises of God and threats of God. In
this case with Nineveh, it is the latter. God threatens to bring disaster to the people because of
their evil ways, but he promises his good will to those who turn from their wicked ways, and
that’s what happened on that day.
However one must understand what it means to turn from evil. A surface reading would
seem that these people stopped sinning and did good so that God looks at them and see their
righteousness. That’s actually NOT what it means. The word to turn in the Old Testament is the
same word used in the New Testament for “repent”. What God actually saw was the people
repenting of their evil ways. It’s not that they stopped sinning because that’s impossible. It’s like
trying to stop the smell of a durian fruit. Anyone who has been around a durian fruit will
understand how awful it smells. It has the worst smell that one can imagine and people eat these
things. Unfortunately, my mom and my wife and most of my friends eat this fruit. My mom was
the only one in my family (before I got married) to eat this awful thing, and so she had to wrap it
in plastic wrap, seal it in a container, and put it in the freezer. But even when she has done all
these things, you could still smell it when you open the freezer. That’s how bad this thing is. If
you have to stop this fruit from smelling, then it has to stop being what it is. In the same way,
sinners cannot stop sinning because that’s our nature and it stinks before God. But in repentance,
when we see our sins, our sinfulness, our rebellious ways, our weaknesses, when we are sorry,
then it becomes a pleasing aroma arising before God. So yes indeed, God said that he would
bring disaster, but that is a threat to ultimately bring them to repentance. When they do repent,
then the promise is sure, forgiveness is always ready to be given. On the other hand, if they do
not repent and continue to reject God, then naturally they have chosen a path of self-destruction.
God doesn’t want to kill anyone, that’s not his nature nor his will, but when people continually
reject, rebel, deny his goodness, then that is already death and hell for them.
Indeed God does many amazing things in the story of Jonah, particularly the fish that
swallowed him. Scholars over the years have tried to decipher exactly what this fish is. The bible
doesn’t tell us except that it’s a sea animal, and I guess that’s good enough for us. But I think the
more amazing high points of the book is the fact that people were converted left and right when
this prophet rebels against God and not even preaching the gospel. Jonah did not even
proclaimed any good news or promises to any of these people and yet they believed and
repented, first with the sailors, then the people of the city.
If God can do such a great miracle and sign with a rebellious prophet, how much more
can he do with someone greater than Jonah, namely Jesus the Christ. Jesus himself used this
story to proclaim his message. He was challenged by the people of his time to show them some
signs, but he replied that all they will ever get is the sign of Jonah. Certainly he was pointing to
the 3 day experience. Just as Jonah was in the fish for 3 days, so also the son of man will be in
the earth for 3 days. But he also proclaimed that just as Jonah was a sign to the people of
Nineveh, so he also will be that sign to his own people, and even to us today in the 21st century.
Jesus’ message is as simple as Jonah’s: the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the
gospel.
For the people of Nineveh, it was fasting and putting on sackcloth, but we have
something better now through Jesus. We don’t need to put on sackcloth because through baptism
we have put on Christ, he clothed us with a robe of righteousness. Every time we repent, every
time we remember our baptism and the promises attached to it, we are being renewed and even
strengthened to godly and righteous living. The idea of fasting and putting on sackcloth is to
make us aware of our sins and sort of restrain ourselves from our sinful desires and to subject our
flesh to the spirit. These outward exercises may be beneficial, but again, we have something far
greater than these. The Lord ’s Supper was given to us for exactly this reason – to forgive and
strengthen our faith so that we may live not according to the flesh but by the spirit. And so
repentance, as we always stress, is not a one time event, but continual, daily. The people of
Nineveh were spared that time, but where are they now? Coming to church is not your pious
tribute to God, but it’s an opportunity to hear again and again God’s word of threat and promises,
so that finally we may repent and believe and be saved.
The kingdom is at hand, repent and believe the gospel! No, we will probably not have
this sackcloth ministry, but we will continue to have the word and sacrament ministry. So put on
Christ and eat of his body and his blood.