Epiphany 3

A little boy was asked what we learn from the story of Jonah and the whale. His answer was, “People make whales sick.” Well, that’s one thing we can learn from the ancient story of Jonah. People do make whales sick. But there are other lessons in this book as well.

Many sermons have been preached from Jonah on the futility of running away from God. As someone has said, “You can’t ever run that far!” Of course, they’re right. Most of you already know that the primary purpose of this most famous of all fish stories is to reveal the greatness of God’s love for all people, Jew and Gentile alike.

The last words of the book are some of the most beautiful in all the Scriptures. Jonah wants God to destroy the people of Nineveh but God says to Jonah, “You have pity on a gourd which you did not plant, which grew up in a night and perished in a night; And should I not  spare Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who cannot discern their right hand from their left?”

God’s universal love. That’s the primary lesson of the Book of Jonah. But there’s another. It’s about a God who is not afraid to change his mind. That’s an interesting thing about God. He’s not a rigid God. You’ll remember on one occasion, the great man of faith, Abraham, argued with God about the people of Sodom. God was going to destroy that city because of its great wickedness. Abraham succeeded in getting a pledge from God that He would not destroy the city if as many as ten righteous people could be located there.

Unfortunately, there weren’t ten righteous people in Sodom, but at least God was swayed by Abraham’s arguments. That’s not an isolated event. On another occasion, God chose a man named Saul to be the first king of Israel but soon God realized that Saul was not worthy of such responsibility. God changed his mind and had Samuel the prophet anoint David to be the new king of Israel. The God of the Bible was not afraid to mark out a new direction.

Consider the predicament of Jonah. God gives Jonah the assignment of preaching to the people of Nineveh. Jonah is to tell the people of Nineveh that God is going to destroy the city because of their wickedness. Then an amazing thing happens. All the people of Nineveh repent. From the king in his palace to the lowly man sweeping the streets, they all turn from their sin.

When that happens, God changes his mind. He decides not to destroy Nineveh. This embarrasses Jonah beyond belief. He has told the people of Nineveh that God is going to destroy them. Now God is not going to do it. Jonah feels utterly humiliated. Besides, he didn’t like the people all that much anyway. Angrily he says to God, “I knew it! I knew that you were that kind of God.”

Jonah is so upset that he goes out and sits on a hillside overlooking Nineveh to mope. He’s angry enough to sit there until he dies. What do you do with a God who changes his mind, who says he is going to destroy people and then lets them off the hook? Is God like a permissive parent who can’t follow through on a punishment because his heart is too tender? What are some circumstances that might prompt such a change in the mind of the Almighty?

Well, prayer seems to change God’s mind. Isn’t that why we pray, most of the time, in order to change God’s mind? To be sure, some prayers are not like that. Sometimes our prayers are prayers of thanksgiving. Sometimes they are pleas for forgiveness. More often than not, however, we pray for God somehow to change his plan.

We might also conclude that repentance changes God’s mind. Nineveh repented and God decided not to destroy the city. We repent and God changes his attitude toward us, right? Obviously, we all stand in constant need of repentance. One four-year-old boy fashioned his prayer after what he thought he heard in church in the Lord’s Prayer: “And forgive us our trash baskets,” he prayed, “as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets.”

We all have to admit that we have trash in our baskets. We have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. None of us denies that. And we know that sin is a barrier to our relationship with God. Indeed, sin is brokenness, alienation. The longer we stay in our sin, the more difficult it is for us to turn to God.

There’s an interesting footnote from history concerning Mithridates, king of Pontus and a renowned man of letters, a century before Christ. Mithridates guarded himself against being poisoned, a favored means of assassination in those days, by gradually acclimating his body to large amounts of poison. It worked. However, later when in despair he decided to commit suicide, he found that his plan had worked too well. No poison would kill him, and he had to order a slave to stab him to death. Sin is like that. After a while it becomes such a part of us that we grow numb to the good things God wants to give us. That’s why the repentance of one lost soul brings such rejoicing in Heaven.

Repentance is important. But do any of these things really change God’s mind? Perhaps it’s not God’s mind that changes, but our mind. You see, Jonah missed the point. Jonah heard judgement when God had intended mercy. It was never God’s purpose that Nineveh be destroyed. It was God’s will that Nineveh recognize its need for repentance.

Jonah would have done well to remember the second part of that little boy’s prayer: Forgive us our trash baskets, as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets. This sentiment is the thread that is woven through the entire Bible. Read Jonah’s story in light of John 3:17 about Jesus’ purpose for coming into the world.

“For the Son came into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.” That is always God’s will, from the Old Testament to the New. Here’s the problem with a lot of pop theology: It’s the condemning God that is put before the world, not the forgiving God.

So it is with prayer. Richard Trench, Anglican Archbishop of Dublin back in the 19^th century, once said that prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance, but laying hold of God’s willingness. Let me say that again: Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance but laying hold of God’s willingness. He is the God who knows our needs and whose will is ever directed to His children’s good.

We cannot help but pray when things need changing. That’s a human response to danger and heartache. But we need to understand that, even while we are praying, a loving God is already at work in all things, working to the good for those who love him.

This is to say that what we need to pray for is not that He will change His plan, but that He will change us so that we will trust Him more. It’s understandable to pray that God will change circumstances, but it’s far better to pray that, regardless of our circumstances, we will be victors through him who loves us and gave his life on our behalf.

God’s love for us is unchanging. It is we who need to change. Jonah learned that lesson while brooding in resentment over God’s saving such an undeserving city as Nineveh. As Thomas Carlyle put it: “And Jonah stalked to his shaded seat and waited for God to come around to his way of thinking.” Then Carlyle adds, “And God is still waiting for a host of Jonahs to come around to His way of loving.”

It was not God who needed a change of mind, but Jonah. That’s our greatest need, too, to bring our lives into such harmony with the love and purpose of God that his plan is our plan.