Sermon - Epiphany 3
2024 Epiphany 3 Jonah 3:1-5, 10; 1 Corinthians 7:29-35; Mark 1:14-20
Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning. Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them that, by patience and comfort of Your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Most of us are familiar with at least part of the story of the prophet Jonah. The Sunday School type stories I have seen generally tell the story of Jonah’s call from God to go to Nineveh, his attempt to flee from God and His call, and then getting swallowed up by the whale or fish, his repentance, arrival in Nineveh and the people’s repentance. What is usually left out is chapter 4 where Jonah is indignant and angry that God chose not to destroy evil Nineveh. Chapter 4 ends with God having the last word.
While Jonah has only four chapters, it has had a tremendous impact on the church. The story is a beloved Bible story told to every new generation. The Bible story is also visually represented in paintings and stained glass. Jesus references Jonah in Matthew 12 and Luke 11. And, when we move beyond the Sunday school story, and take a closer reading, we see that those four chapters of Jonah are a sophisticated piece of Scripture worthy of a thorough examination. At some point soon, I hope to lead a Bible study on Jonah.
For this morning’s purposes, I want to focus on the reading that was read and connect it with the Gospel reading for today.
In all three lessons, we detect a certain urgency in God’s Word. God’s Word is always to be pondered, contemplated, and as the prayer I used describes it, inwardly digest. But the sense that we have today is that there is also a time to act. And if you act wrongly, you are going to shortly have another opportunity to act correctly. Such is the case with Jonah. The first sentence of the Old Testament Reading greets us with, “Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time…”
Such is the gift of God. The Lord is persistent with us. He is certainly persistent with Jonah who initially had a different idea. Jonah learned the hard way that there is no running away from God. One cannot hide or outrun God. Jonah learned first-hand the truth of Psalm 139:
O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.
God held Jonah until he demonstrated contrition and repented. Now, with this second word from the LORD, Jonah begins his 500-mile journey into a hostile gentile land to announce God’s judgment upon them and urge them to repent.
Clearly the Holy Spirit was at work on the people as Jonah preached. The Holy Spirit worked through the proclamation of the Law. Faith was created. The people and leadership of Nineveh should have, at best, ignored Jonah. At worst, Jonah should have been arrested, incarcerated, or killed. But, what should have happened did not happen. Instead, the people heard God’s judgment for what it was. They received the urgency of Jonah’s preaching and words. They heard God’s warning of impending doom. They believed the judgment. They acted on what they heard. They repented not only with their hearts and words, but they also showed their contrition and desire to repent in a way consistent in that culture. The people abstained from food. They wore sackcloth to demonstrate their lowliness and repentance before the all-powerful LORD God who can destroy them.
Just as God had mercy upon Jonah when he repented, the LORD has mercy upon the people of Nineveh. As the ESV says it: “God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.”
If there is ever an undeserving city, an undeserving collection of people, an undeserving nation, these people inhabiting the capital of Assyria were it. Yet, the LORD, in his infinite mystery, chose to save the wicked. He tamed a vile beast. He gave Nineveh a second chance at a life that simply was not merited.
As Jonah’s story is told, generations of the faithful have reflected on the wildly unpredictable grace of God. God chooses to have mercy upon the most unlikely of candidates.
I image that when Jonah returns home and preaches about the great saving event that he participated in, he adds the humbling insight that just as Nineveh is undeserving of God’s mercy, so is he, and so is, quite frankly, Israel.
When Jonah first received the call to preach, he disobeyed God and ran in the opposite direction. Then, after God chose to accept Nineveh’s repentance and not destroy them, Jonah sinned again by being angry that God accepted their heartfelt pleas for mercy. It is not ok for Jonah to be self-righteous about God’s mercy toward Nineveh. Quite frankly, according to God’s righteousness, Jonah trespassed mightily against the LORD, and he should have been destroyed too with no hope of everlasting life with God. Jonah did not trespass just once in these four chapters, but twice. The first time is when he tried to go to Tarshish. The second time was after God chose not destroy Nineveh. Jonah became angry with God because the LORD showed mercy to a group of people that Jonah despised. First of all they are unruly Assyrians, second, they are Gentiles. For crying out loud! God can’t be for the Gentiles! Can he?
For those with eyes to see and ears to hear, Jonah is behaving just like Israel. Israel is called out of slavery in Egypt, formed as a nation, and given a distinctive set of instructions by which to live as God’s people, so that they can be a powerful witness for God to the rest of the world.
God says so in numerous places, but I will only cite Deuteronomy 4:5-8
5 See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 6 Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ 7 For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? 8 And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?
Yet, how often did Israel choose to take God for granted, resting lazily in the promise of the covenant, trusting in the outward sacrifice of animals and harvest without also attending to the inner sin through contrition, repentance, and confession. The Bible tells us that there are whole periods of time when the people just flat out forgot that the LORD God was their God. How many times does the Bible tell us that Israel forgot God and worshiped human made gods or worshiped the gods of their neighbors? Yet, despite their sin, despite falling far, far short of the glory of God and the expectations that God set forth through the Law and the prophets, God continues to reach out, God continues to call His people to repentance through the preacher so that they can have faith in the one true God. God desires to show mercy.
Then, in the fullness of God’s time, Jesus, the God-man comes to proclaim the Good News of God. Here, again, we sense the urgency of the situation. God’s own Son is walking amongst the people saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” God continues to be persistent with His people. God sent Moses and the Law. God sent the prophets. Now comes Jesus, God’s own son. When the Son comes, he represents the Father. He speaks what the Father wants him to say. The Father sees a people who are dead in their trespasses. Many do not know it yet. The Son will show them their sins. The Son comes to bear their sins upon a cross because Jesus is the Christ. Jesus is the righteous one who will die for the sins of others. He will be falsely accused and be lifted upon the cross so that his righteousness can be conferred upon the unrighteous so that the Father will not see a sinner but on account of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, the Father will see their faith in Jesus and declare them righteous. Through the Son, God’s mercy will extend to all people, every nation, and tongue.
As Jesus preaches, the Holy Spirit is at work through the Word, creating faith. The Holy Spirit moves people to do that which they normally would not do.
Four men are at work. Fishing is their livelihood. This is how they feed their families and support their community. We can only assume that Simon, Andrew, James, and John are all responsible, hard-working men. We should assume also that they are invested in their families and their communities. Yet, here comes Jesus. They sense the urgency of the situation. Faith is created in them. They trust Jesus. They follow Jesus into a life that they could not have dreamed of. They did not do as Jonah did. They did not run. They had faith in Jesus and immediately left their work and followed Him.
Jesus continues to call us to him. He continues to call us to faith. When we sin, he calls us to repent. We take stock of our sins. We are saddened and sorry for our lack of faith. We confess them to the Lord and to one another as is beneficial for healing of relationships. We receive the forgiveness of God that comes because of Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross. As we are given a second chance because of God’s love for us, we respond with obedience to God’s instructions by living with love for God and love for our neighbor.
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The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. AMEN.
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