I rarely preach about the first reading— usually taken from one of the Old Testament books— but today’s first reading cannot be overlooked. It is a whopper of a fish story— the story of Jonah.
Most of us learned about Jonah when we were little. We heard the story about Jonah being swallowed by a whale. We drew pictures of that event which revealed this man sitting in the belly of the whale. Imagine that! I fish so large that a human being could live within it! Wow! I’d like to see that fish!
But, in reality, the story of Jonah is not a fish story. It is a story about repentance. Here’s a summary of the Book of Jonah which, by the way, is only 47 verses long.
Jonah is a Hebrew who is called by God to preach repentance to the great city of Ninevah. Ninevah was the capital of the Assyrian Empire. They were mortal enemies of Israel. So, Jonah gets up after the Lord has directed him to go to Ninevah and tell them to repent of their sins and he promptly gets on a fishing boat— not to go to Ninevah but to get away from God. Jonah does not want to go to Ninevah. He does not want those terrible people to repent because he wants God to destroy them. They are, after all, the enemy.
But Jonah doesn’t realize that you can’t run away from God. When a storm threatens the boat and the fishermen they realize that it is Jonah’s God who is angry at him. So they throw Jonah overboard. Jonah agrees to this— probably hoping that if he dies, God will leave him alone. But God has other plans. God sends a huge fish to swallow Jonah. For three days Jonah is sitting in the belly of this creature— half digested, I suppose— probably wondering how he got into this mess. It is an important time for Jonah who begins to think about what God has asked him to do. Finally, God gives the fish a sour stomach and it vomits Jonah up on the shore. Guess what shore? Ninevah. Then God tells him, again, preach repentance to the city of Ninevah. Jonah realizes that God means business so he begins walking through the city saying, “Forty days more and Ninevah will be destroyed!” To his utter surprise, after one day of walking with this message of doom, the King of Ninevah orders the entire city to repent. They all put on sackcloth and ashes and beg pardon from God for their sins. When God sees that they have heeded the message of repentance he changes his mind and decides not to destroy them.
But that’s not the end of the story. Jonah is mad when Ninevah repents. Remember, they are the enemy and Jonah would love nothing more than to see them destroyed. Now that they have repented, God will have mercy on them. So, he goes up to a hill and sits there pouting before God. He’s sitting in the hot sun so God raises up a large leaf to give Jonah shade. That helps Jonah a bit. But then God causes the leaf to wither and Jonah is really bummed out now. Finally God speaks to Jonah and says, “if you are so concerned about a silly leaf should I not be concerned about the 120,000 people of Ninevah?”
That’s the story— all 47 verses of it. It is a story of conversion. But not about the conversion of Ninevah. It is a story about the conversion of Jonah. Jonah, the reluctant prophet, who did not want God to have mercy on Ninevah. The reluctant prophet who ran away from God— or tried to. The reluctant prophet who pouts about the good fortune of those he doesn’t like. It is Jonah who needed to be converted from the way he was thinking. And his three days in the belly of the fish and his success in Ninevah and his brooding under the large leaf were all ways that he came to be converted in his mind and heart. Jonah had a very mistaken view of God— that somehow God hated sinners and that he wanted to destroy them. But God teaches Jonah that he would prefer that sinners repent and live rather than be destroyed. Jonah learns an important lesson about God and how much God loves all his children and wants the best for them.
Like Jonah, we are sometimes reluctant prophets. We don’t always want to speak words of God’s love and compassion to those we think unworthy. We don’t always want to embrace God’s call to preach repentance to others. At times, we revel in the misfortune of our enemies. We look forward to divine punishment being visited upon those who commit heinous crimes. But herein lies our misunderstanding of God. We do not understand God.
We must learn that God wills that all repent and be saved. God’s will is that people turn away from their sins and enjoy mercy. We learn that our enemies are not necessarily God’s enemies and that those we find unworthy are still worth much in the eyes of the God who created them and gave them life. Just because we choose to execute a criminal doesn’t mean that God wills it. Just because we wage war on our perceived enemies doesn’t mean that God approves. Just because we think we are better than others does not give God reason to side with us. God is gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and always ready to relent from punishing. We should want God to exercise those divine qualities towards all people.
The Book of Jonah is also about God’s persistence. It is about God’s unrelenting pursuit of those who need mercy. Even when someone stands in disobedience to God’s will, God continues to call— a second time, a third time and more. Jonah himself enjoyed God’s patience. Even when he ran away and sought death, God rescued him and invited him to reconsider his offer. God would have done the same with the Ninevites and he does the same with us. Many of us are here because of God’s patience and persistence in calling us.
We are still several weeks away from the beginning of Lent with its theme of repentance and mercy. Jonah stands as a reminder to us that, as we anticipate Lent, repentance and mercy are never out of season. Just as Jonah spent three days in the belly of the big fish— Jesus laid three days in the tomb before rising to new life so that we, too, could enjoy new life. Just as Jonah preached “forty days more and Ninevah will be destroyed”-- Jesus fasted and prayed forty days before calling his first disciples to repent and follow him so that we can do the same. God calls us today to enjoy His mercy and forgiveness by repenting of our own sins and turning towards His will. May we all respond to this invitation and desire that it be extended to all our brothers and sisters.