Gordon McPhee

                                                Mark 1: 14-20

HE’LL NEVER GIVE UP ON YOU

Introduction:

Well, I think you know me by now. When we come to a scripture reading that is really familiar, an old Sunday school tale, as we have in our Old Testament passage this morning from Jonah, I just can’t leave well enough alone. I have this pet peeve about how we typically interpret Bible stories in one comfortable way, usually the way we learned it as children. We want to know how it applies to me and my church community, and how it can help us do better. But sometimes, and I would say often, these stories are far more about God and who He is and what He’s doing, than they are about us and what we should be doing. And although it’s good to consider what God is asking us to do and be, we’re missing the crux of the matter if we’re not conscious of how Jesus is talking to us; revealing who He is, and how that affects our relationship to God, and each other.

So today, I’d like us to consider more closely the 120,000 people in Nineveh who repented and were saved, the objects of God’s concern, that we usually gloss over as we focus on Jonah. In fact, I think you’ll see that Jonah and Nineveh is a single story revealing different aspects of one subject, God’s faithfulness. His willingness to never give up on anyone.

Sermon:

Today in our Old Testament reading, we touch on the story of Jonah; just a snippet from chapter three in which we are told of the final end of God’s work of repentance over the great city of Nineveh. By itself it doesn’t tell us very much. Jonah, who had to be told twice by God to do this, walks into the city, tells them God will destroy them in 40 days and they repent, so God lets them off. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the rest of the story is very familiar, so it won’t take long to recap.

Chapter one is God’s first call to Jonah to go and preach to the great city of Nineveh, “Up on your feet and on your way to the big city of Nineveh! Preach to them. They’re in a bad way and I can’t ignore it any longer.” Jonah rebels, heads off in the opposite direction. God waylays him with a huge storm, he admits his guilt, is thrown overboard to drown but God saves him sending a huge sea creature to swallow him.

Chapter two is Jonah’s repentance and reconciliation with God, “When my life was slipping away, I remembered God, … I’m worshiping you, God, calling out in thanksgiving! And I’ll do what I promised I’d do! Salvation belongs to God! Then God spoke to the fish, and it vomited up Jonah on the seashore.”

In Chapter three of our reading this morning, God calls Jonah again, “Up on your feet and on your way to the big city of Nineveh! Preach to them. They’re in a bad way and I can’t ignore it any longer.” Sounds just like the first call doesn’t it, except for Jonah’s response, “This time Jonah started off straight for Nineveh, obeying God’s orders to the letter.” The Ninevites repent, God recants and forgives them and Jonah, God and the Ninevites lived happily ever after. So why do we have chapter four?

Chapter four begins, “Jonah was furious. He lost his temper. He yelled at God”. By the way, not something I’d recommend except under the most dire circumstances. So, things aren’t all hunky-dory in the story. Jonah in fact wasn’t all that repentant when he returned to do what God commanded. Listen to what he says, “God! I knew it—when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen! That’s why I ran off to Tarshish! I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness! So, God, if you won’t kill them, kill me! I’m better off dead!” He’s a little upset.

And this is where I think we begin to veer off to the real point of this story. If the book of Jonah was a nice evangelical story about God’s grace and salvation, we could easily have stopped at the end of chapter three. We’ve seen how Jonah, the character we usually identify with as ourselves, suffers because of his disobedience, is redeemed by God’s grace after he confesses and repents and goes on to lead the great city of Nineveh, 120,000 souls, to repentance and salvation. But in fact, that’s not the story that’s being told.

In our story, God knows the people of Nineveh are in trouble. Before they are too far-gone God wants to give them an opportunity to mend their ways, He says, “Preach to them. They’re in a bad way and I can’t ignore it any longer.” They’ve forced His hand, He knows He must act, but He still has hope. God sees that with the right encouragement, they may repent. The next part of the story, the calling of Jonah, shows us the lengths God will go to to accomplish His act of mercy to the people of Nineveh.

He didn’t give up on Jonah and just try someone else, prophet B when prophet A fell through. Or give up on the whole enterprise because Jonah was too much work. God had seen the people of Nineveh; He knew what they needed and He wasn’t going to give up on the plan because Jonah made it difficult. God created this huge storm that the sailors of the ship Jonah was in, probably the best sailors in the Mediterranean as they were on such a lengthy, 3,000-mile, route from Joppa to Tarshish, so it would have to be a really, really significant blow, do everything they can to save the ship before finally throwing Jonah overboard. God doesn’t quit there. He’s prepared a huge sea creature, whale if you like, large enough that Jonah can survive inside it for three days and nights while he reconsiders his position and when he’s repented the whale spits him out onto dry land, presumedly somewhere Jonah can get help and start back on his way to Nineveh.

This, so far, is completely a story about the lengths God is willing to go to accomplish His purpose of giving the people of Nineveh an opportunity to repent. How far He will go to ensure nothing thwarts or stands in the way of His grace, mercy, or plan of salvation for people. We know it’s not about Jonah’s repentance because as we see in chapter four, he really never did. He realized there was no way to circumvent God’s will, to obviate God’s command, but he certainly wasn’t a willing participant in God’s work of salvation for Nineveh. Despite Jonah’s obvious obdurate attitude, God made his plan to save the Ninevites work.

There is an allegorical nature to this story as we look at Jonah’s experience and the Ninevites. Jonah’s prayer of contrition from the belly of the whale could easily be the prayer of the Ninevites. Like Jonah, they ate no food nor drank any water for as long as was necessary for God to enact his judgement. They sent up a cry for help to God hoping he would deliver them, just as Jonah did. And God delivered both. But at that the similarity ends.

Of the Ninevites it says, “they had turned away from their evil lives.” But of the instrument of their saving, Jonah, we have no such favour given. Jonah’s last words to God are a stubborn attestation that he has every right to be angry, “angry enough to die.” And my inclination is to step aside before the lightening strikes. But it doesn’t. God simply explains to Jonah the parable of the shade tree and His right to “change what [He] feel[s] about Nineveh from anger to pleasure, [a] big city of more than 120,000 childlike people who don’t yet know right from wrong, to say nothing of all the innocent animals?” (Jonah 4:11) Unfortunately, we never know if Jonah got the point. And that is particularly the point I want to make.

We don’t want to be like Jonah, acquiescing to what we think God wants because He’s bigger and badder and we just can’t get away. Rather that we are childlike Ninevites who, although we “don’t yet know right from wrong,” listen, and trust God, and turn away from our evil lives. Jonah, who is portrayed as a devout Israelite and a prophet is contrasted with the great and evil city of Nineveh, which is in a bad way. And yet, we see God’s faithfulness, claiming ownership and responsibility for both Nineveh and Jonah alike.

God goes to any length to work out his intention of salvation for Nineveh, even in the face of reluctant and misdirected servants like Jonah. So, the question is, what would make you think God is ever going to give up on you. There’s nothing you’ve done, or will do, that will thwart His intention to reach out to you and change your life. And what about your children; your friends, coworkers or neighbours. Do you think they’re too far gone? They’ve had their chance and obviously didn’t make the right choice and God’s given up on them.

Well, here’s the really good news, although it can be a little disconcerting. Even if you’ve given up on some of the people in your life, like Jonah gave up on the Ninevites, God hasn’t, and willing or not, He’ll find a way to use you to reach out to them. Their salvation in Jesus Christ isn’t dependent on whether you think there is any hope or not, only on God’s intention to help them. I think it goes a lot easier if you’re on board with this. Jonah’s experiences were all self-induced and not very happy at all, even at the end. But God doesn’t seem to have given up on poor Jonah, and I don’t think He’ll ever give up on you or I or the many friends, family, and neighbours He puts in our lives. I think God really loves it when we give Him a reason to change His mind about us, and He’ll never give up helping us to do that.

Amen