In normal times, Jonah comes across as being utterly ridiculous. He is grumpy. He doesn’t want to do what God wants him to do. He runs away. He almost causes a shipwreck. He complains. He gets angry. When Jonah finally relents and does what God wants him to do, he spits out a few harsh, threatening words. He hopes for damnation to fall on his enemies. He wants God to destroy them with fire and brimstone. When God doesn’t do it, he gets so mad he wants to die. He ends up caring more about a silly, little bush than he does about the spiritual well-being of a great city of more than 120,000 people. He is resentful. He sulks. He is glum. He is a ridiculous character. God on the other hand shows compassion throughout the story and works in playful ways toward a vision of restoration, reconciliation, and renewal. God’s expansive compassion is expressed in ways that make us laugh. Not only is God compassionate and good, God is every bit as funny as Jonah is ridiculous.
I hate to admit it, but at the beginning of this crazy election week, I found myself in an emotional stew of grief and anger every bit as ridiculous as that of Jonah. The drawn-out election was part of it but there was more. We received the sad news this week that Nancy’s cousin, Naomi Sollenberger, had died of COVID. It was a tragic loss for the family. She was a genuinely good person and we loved her. I was also saddened by an email I received from a colleague in Honduras about the widespread damage and loss of life caused by Hurricane Eta. I was distressed as I watched the daily count of covid cases in our country soar well above 100,000 per day. All of this together left me feeling anxious and hopeless. I was in grief. I was angry. I was complaining. I was ranting and raving. Through it all, I realized there is more Jonah in me than I care to admit – perhaps I should not be so quick to judge him.
I talked about my plan to preach about Jonah this week with a neighboring pastor. She said, “I certainly identify with Jonah. I feel like I’ve been swallowed up and swished around in all of this week’s toxic digestive juices only to be belched out soaking a puddle of vomit.” Yuck. Her graphic and rather gross description of what this week has been
like for her made me laugh. Yuck. How has this week been for you? Without a doubt, many of us have experienced this as a week of yuck and we wonder how on earth the mess will ever be cleaned up.
Well, perhaps a great fish story just might be what we need this morning. The story of Jonah is certainly one of the greatest fish stories ever told but as you know fish stories abound. I’ll never forget the time our family went fishing for crabs. We used spoiled chicken bits to attract them, enough to fill a crate which we left in our cabin. Somehow
the crabs broke free of their prison and sought out hiding places in every room. We had a time finding them and then avoiding their angry claws raised up and ready to do battle with us. That generated screams and excitement enough. But evening settled on us with an uneasy feeling. We couldn’t remember how many crabs there were. Had we found all of them? We had to go to bed that night not knowing for sure if all the crabs were back in the crate. Woe to the person whose bare toes might get pinched in the middle of the night by a rogue crab bent on revenge. It was a frighteningly ridiculous situation! Jonah was no less ridiculous and the story is full of God’s playful humor. Like those crabs, Jonah thought he might run away from God. He bought tickets to board a ship that would take him away from God’s land even though he knew that God ruled the sea as well. Of course, God plays tag with him and comes after him with a great wind. Like kids knocking each other down in the game of tag, God’s wind and storm threatened to tip the boat over and swamp it. The sailors begin tossing all the cargo overboard in an attempt to stay afloat. Where was Jonah? He was sleeping, just what you would expect from someone who’s being ridiculous.
The sailors prayed to their gods for deliverance to no avail and in their superstitions, they cast lots to see who had brought this disaster on them. The lot fell to Jonah but the funny thing is that they should have already known that because Jonah had already told them he was running from God. So they wake him up and ask what should be done.
“Throw me overboard,” he said. Ridiculous, the sailors said. They prayed to God to spare them guilt for throwing this man to his death. But it seemed that God was in a particularly playful mood, like kids who enjoy throwing each other into the deep end of the pool. Throw him in and as soon as they did the storm abated.
In a great twist of irony, Jonah, in his disobedience, is on his way to becoming the greatest missionary of all time. All of the sailors become believers and offer sacrifices and prayers to God. This tragedy seems destined for a comic ending of laughter. In fact, I can imagine God roaring with laughter at what comes next. God sends a great fish to come to save Jonah from death by swallowing him up. It was not a whale, as some mistakenly assume, it was a fish. Any fish story worth telling has to have a really big fish and this was no exception. This fish beats them all. This fish was so big it could swallow a man whole. Jonah received lodging free of charge in this five-star hotel belly for three days and three nights.
If you found the tension of waiting for election results distressing day after day, imagine spending that much time in a fish belly. Not surprisingly, Jonah starts praying, or we could more accurately say he starts complaining to God. In his complaint, I’m surprised Jonah didn’t mention the poor air quality of the stomach gases he was breathing but he
did complain about the weeds wrapped around his head, all of which is disgusting. He is so ridiculous. Even in this predicament, he does not repent. Instead, he blames God for driving him away and for casting him into the sea. Even as his life began to ebb away, he did not have a death bed conversion. That lack of repentance would seem to disqualify him for any grace and mercy. But as we’ve seen God has a playful and expansive compassion. Once Jonah remembered God, God smiled and whispered into the fish’s ear, I guess fish have ears. In any case, the fish is more responsive to God’s call than Jonah ever was and did what God commanded and spewed Jonah out on the dry ground. Again, yuck.
Well, at this point in the story, we see that while God was certainly playful and funny and full of amazing grace compassion, God also had no intention of giving up on his plan. God’s great vision was to overcome the polarization and animosity that gripped the people. God had a plan to bring all the people back together through repentance
and restoration and renewal. On this, there would be no compromise. Jonah was given a second chance to get on board with the plan. He was sent into the great city of Nineveh to warn them that God meant business, they were to turn away from their violent ways and get with the program. Imagine Jonah, little Jonah standing like one lonely protester on the steps of the US Capitol Building preaching to the air. Nineveh was the powerful capital of the Assyrian Empire. Jonah was to speak on the streets. It seemed like an impossible task. Surely no one would listen. Jonah’s “time out” in the fish belly, however, convinced him to go this time. He walked a day’s journey into that great city. The city was so big it would have taken three days to walk from one side to the other. After walking partway in, he shouted out: “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” His sermon was all of eight words long. It was by far the shortest sermon in the history of the church. He made his little speech and then he left – but in all of history, there has never been such a great response to a sermon. Not even Billy Graham ever had such a profound impact.
All the people of that city believed God and all of them great and small put on sackcloth and ashes and proclaimed a fast. Word got to the king who did the same. Imagine our president, all of our seniors and representatives, and all the governors of our 50 states suddenly believing God and taking immediate action to end all forms of violence, exploitation, and injustice. The king declared a three-day fast. The king ordered everyone in the city to “cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways,” he decrees, “and from the violence that is in their hands.” Oh, where is Jonah when we need him? Come preach to the United Nations in New York City. Come preach in Washington D.C. The
king heard the message and extended the fast not only to all the people but also to all the animals. Yes. Did you catch that? Even the animals were to put on sackcloth and ashes. This is a very funny story designed to leave us laughing.
Imagine Nineveh repenting, the city described by the Prophet Nahum as a city of bloodshed, enslaving the nations through debauchery. This city government had overseen the brutal conquest of Israel and had reduced Judah to a dependent, vassal state. The Prophet Nahum looked forward to the destruction of this horrible city saying, “All who
hear the news about you (will) clap their hands over you. For who has ever escaped your endless cruelty?” (Nahum 3:19). The harm they were causing was not ok. There was certainly comic relief in imagining this cruel people repenting even putting their animals in sackcloth. I can’t imagine trying to wrestle our cat into sackcloth. She would resist hissing and fighting with claws and teeth. I’m sure I would need medical attention afterward from all the scratching and biting. I wouldn’t dare put her on a three-day fast either: can you imagine making a spoiled cat go three days without food and water! I don’t even dare forget her evening treat without unending cat wailing until I remember and respond. Imagine the hated Ninevites putting their cows and ducks in sackcloth, as well as their chickens and donkeys. The maddening thing, from Jonah’s perspective, is that God was touched by all this sackcloth and fasting and relented and Nineveh was spared.
The book of Jonah is not intended to be read as history. History tells us that Nineveh fell in 612 B.C. to the Babylonians and the Medes. The ruins near Mosul, Iraq have been designated a UNESCO world heritage site. Nineveh was in its glory days a beautiful city of parks and gardens. It was the intellectual center of a vast empire. But as is true for empires, its wealth and power had been built through violent enslavement and cruelty and so those who suffered rejoiced at its fall.
In light of all this, the book of Jonah is quite remarkable. It was written by people who had endured all that suffering, who knew well the injustice, the violence, and the cruelty. Yet the writer of Jonah, with humor and exaggeration and laughter, humanizes these enemies of his people. The writer imagines their humanity, their potential for repentance, the possibility of restoration of blessing in relationships.
It is the role of prophets to imagine hopeful possibilities. In this imagination, surprisingly, even this grumpy, reluctant, disobedient Jonah who wants to hold into old grudges, comes out of this as the greatest missionary of all time. He converted not only all the sailors on that ship that nearly drowned, but also the entire nobility, the soldiers, the
common people, and even all the animals in that violently powerful city of Nineveh. These very same people, who had been so cruel in their violent conquest of Israel and their brutal subjugation of Judah repent of their violence, every single one of them, and humbly turn to God. It is a fantasy, of course, it is great prophetic imagination that reminds us of very real and beautiful possibilities beyond our polarized and hardened divisions. Its cracks open the hardness of our entrenchment and anger to allow something of the glory of God’s vision to shine through. God’s glory can break through what seems impossible to us.
Jonah found this imaginative, compassionate God to be maddening. He was still full of fire and fury toward these bitter enemies of his people. After his little sermon, he marched out of the city to watch. He hoped to see hellfire and damnation rained down on those people. When it became apparent the fire from heaven was delayed, he built
himself a little shelter. Still mad. Still hoping for vengeance.
God, ever playful and loving, caused a bush to grow up to provide the hot-headed prophet with a little shade – to cool his temper perhaps. Jonah appreciated the bush. But Jonah still hadn’t repented. He didn’t repent in the belly of the fish and he didn’t repent in the cool of this bush. The sailors on the boat had repented. The Ninevites had repented but not Jonah.
God didn’t give up on him either. God must be mischievously loving because God sent a very obedient worm, a worm ready and willing to do God’s bidding. God appointed that worm to attack the bush so that it withered. We get worms like that all the time in our garden. They attack our zucchini squash and it kills them every time. Jonah was hopping mad. The Ninevites survived and his little had bush died. He wanted to die too. Life is so unfair but God said to Jonah, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And 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 also many animals?” (Jonah 4:10-11).
That’s how the story ends. It ends with a question. Shouldn’t I care about those who are your polarized opposites?
I found this question and this fish story to be healing for me this week. I needed the humor, the exaggeration, the ridiculousness to get me laughing and in a better frame of mind. Laughter is so healing and fortunately, we have a playful God who is really funny sometimes.
But this story is also dealing with very real, raw, honest emotions. Our experience of injustice and perceptions of fear stir up in us deep emotion and then that can lead to resentments and hardened positions – polarization. We make ourselves into “us and them.” We exaggerate the rightness of our side and the wrongness of their side. We become suspicious of the motives of others. We paint the world in stark differences. We oversimplify complex matters. We may even begin to call others names and distort the truth about them. We forget to respect the dignity and the humanity of others. We forget the vision of God for re-creation, renewal, and restoration of all things. God lovingly chides Jonah and us into seeing better possibilities. Oh, isn’t it just like God to be so maddeningly compassionate and visionary when we so desperately want to be polarized and angry? Yet God never judges Jonah for his desire for vengeance. Such feelings are real and legitimate, especially where there has been injustice, cruelty, and violence. God understands that wrongdoing has to change – repentance with sackcloth and ashes is needed – maybe even enlisting the support of all the animals. It’s that serious. But vengeance is not the answer. God is firm and focused on a vision of re-creation. Toward that end, God shows expansive compassion allowing even bitter, cruel enemies to put sackcloth on themselves and their animals – the way a mother puts diapers on her baby. God plays in a way that makes all things possible. God stirs to life the humanity in others, and in us. Above all God makes us laugh, and when we start laughing, it’s almost impossible to stay mad and entrenched in wrong.
So there you have it. Jonah pouting under a little, withered bush. That’s all he cares about while God stands in front of him doubled over in laughter at the thought of Ninevite animals in sackcloth. How long will all the polarized “us and them” folks be able to keep hearts hardened and faces straight before such divine laughter and joy? We won’t be able to hold back forever. God will make us burst into laughter. God will playfully, lovingly, and firmly chide us into seeing and turning toward better possibilities. We will laugh with God and in holy laughter there is hope.
Irv Heishman Is co-chair of the On Earth Peace board and co-pastor of the West Charleston Church of the Brethren in Tipp City, Ohio. He and his wife Nancy were mission coordinators in the Dominican Republic for nearly eight years. This international experience, including Spanish language skills, informs his passion for intercultural ministry and for enjoying mutually enriching relationships with immigrants and refugees. In his spare time, he delights in spending time with his granddaughter and growing organic food in his garden.
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