We are here in the first week of Lent and the collection of first readings so far this week have emphasized the Word of God. On Monday, the Word comes from God through his prophet Moses where he instructs the people about the meaning of God’s intentions couched in the Ten Commandments. In yesterday’s first reading we hear from the prophet Isaiah: “So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11) I find that such a hopeful pronouncement that there will be a day when God’s word will be fully realized in each one of us. We will fully understand God’s intention and purpose in the Commandments and fully integrate that into our very being and in the life we live.
That brings us to today’s first reading from the Book of Jonah. We are picking up the storyline well into the narrative. Here is a summary of the action so far: (a) the Word of God came to Jonah, (b) who ignored it and ran away seeing how far he could get from Nineveh and God, (c) got on a ship headed west – then there is the whole storm, thrown overboard, swallowed by whale and eventually vomited on the beach, and (d) finally heading east to Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, mortal enemies of Israel. “The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: ‘Set out for the great city of Nineveh and announce to it the message that I will tell you.’” (Jonah 3:1-2)
Johan sets out to Nineveh, a journey of as much as 900 miles assuming he was ‘beached’ near Joppa. Walk or ride, Jonah has lots of time to think about everything. Still, you have to wonder about the nature of Jonah’s commitment to God’s plan. Sure, he has been rescued, but it is not clear, one way or the other, if his attitude towards Nineveh has changed. It is still to be seen how prodigal this child of God is. There is an old expression, “your attitude determines your altitude.” It is one thing to accept the gift of rescue from the watery grave, but will there be a significant change in attitude that will allow the full height of altitude to be reached?
Interesting possibilities but consider Jonah’s proclamation: “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.” Eight words in English; only five in Hebrew. Short, sweet and to the point. Delivered with passion? With a 21st-century teenager “whatever” attitude? Intended to change hearts and minds? Intended to be so unenthusiastic that destruction of Nineveh is inevitable? Did he say more?
I think it is important to return to the idea of Jonah as the run-away prophet, now saved, but is he committed to the mission? At the beginning of the story, Jonah may want no part of Nineveh or its king, but more than that, he does not want God to forgive. He wants divine retribution upon them for all the evil the Assyrians had done. I would suggest that he accepts rescue from God, but in no way wants that same grace extended to the Ninevites. I think it possible, perhaps likely, that Jonah is engaging in a little prophetic sabotage. He does the minimum, hoping they will ignore him, not repent, and thus not find forgiveness or grace. Besides, the world would be a better place without the Ninevites. This hypothesis is consistent with the trajectory of Jonah’s behavior before the great fish, and, as we will see in Jonah 4, consistent with the behavior there.
“So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.”
But then, the power of the words of the prophet were never about the prophet.
“Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.” (Jonah 3:4) What was the reaction of the Ninevites to Jonah’s proclamation? “When the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.” (v.5) It does not seem as though it took a whole lot to get Nineveh to repent.
Abraham interceded for Sodom
but Jonah couldn’t have cared less
if Nineveh had harbored one
relatively innocent inhabitant
or even one hundred and twenty.
They all looked alike to him—
seeing he hadn’t tried to see them.
But God’s vision is better than twenty-twenty.
(Thomas John Carlisle, The American poet and Presbyterian minister, from his commentary on Jonah)
Nineveh got a single, possibly unenthusiastic prophet – and the response is instantaneous. “They proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth. When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes.” (3:5b-6) It is as though the Word was so powerful, that it “went viral.”
This Lent – who are your Ninevites and what Word can you share with them? It’s not about you. It’s about unleashing the power of the Word of God into the world.
Something to think about be you prophet, reluctant prophet, sinner or saint.
Image credit: Jonah and the Whale, Folio from a Jami al-Tavarikh (Compendium of Chronicles), Metropolitan Museum of Art | PD-US