Jonah and the Unmistakable Truth

The Word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, “ Get up, go to Ninevah, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.”  […] But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry.  He prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord!  Is not that what I said while I was still in my own country?  That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and ready to relent from punishing.” (Jonah 3:1-2; 4:1-2)

Last week I started preaching on the story of Jonah by examining the God of Jonah.  What we see through Jonah’s eyes is that God is absolutely unmanageable (I borrow this word from Priscilla Shirer in her study Jonah: A Life Interrupted).  Jonah learned the hard way that he can’t control God: God is the Unmanageable God.

But I don’t want to pick on Jonah too much.  After all, his story has been told to generations because it contains this unmistakable truth: there is a Jonah inside each of us.  And just like that whale swallowed Jonah whole, so have I swallowed whole the cultural myth that I am in total control.  This myth leads to human arrogance.

Human arrogance is the attitude that I can control my world, your world, and their world because I am the center of the world.  Everything proceeds from me, everything was created for me, and what doesn’t serve me or meet my approval is worthless to me.  Arrogance is defined as “an attitude of superiority, an overbearing manner, presumptuous claims or assumption.”  When the prophet Samuel explained to Saul (1 Samuel 15) why God was removing him from the throne, Samuel said that arrogance is the same sin as idolatry: a stubbornness to hear and obey the Word of the Lord.  That was Jonah’s sin too.  He heard the Word of the Lord, he just didn’t obey.  He put himself on the throne and worshiped his own need to be in control.  That’s idolatry.  Anything can be an idol if it becomes more important than God.  Anyone can be an idolater. 

If I know what God expects of me; if I know what God’s word says about a subject; if I know what God wants me to do with my time, my money, my relationships, my life; and I refuse to obey God, then I have an attitude of superiority.  I am being rebelliously stubborn in my relationship with God.  I am being arrogant about the free-will that God has given me.  I have put myself on the throne of my life…and I have attempted to de-throne God.  But God, the unmanageable God, won’t be de-throned. 

The unmistakable truth is this: God has made a way for every person to be saved.  God sent first the law, then the prophets, and finally the Son to point to and make open the narrow road that leads to life.  You and I are NOT the gatekeepers of the road of salvation.  Jesus is!  Somehow we have the notion that God has knighted us Heavenly Hall Monitors.  Our duty is to dispense grace and mercy as we see fit.  If that is our attitude, we are confused.  God has given us grace and mercy with the command to also show grace and mercy to anyone who has need for grace and mercy (that’s everyone).  Jesus said, “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.  For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be measure you get (Mt 7).”

This is not a verse encouraging us to excuse other people’s sin.  It is often used that way: don’t judge me!  Rather, this is a verse reminding us to tell other sinners what do with their sin: trade it in for God’s mercy and grace.  Keep listening: “For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”  Jesus doesn’t want us to be heavenly hall monitors or gatekeepers of the narrow road.  Jesus wants us to be signposts to the One who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  My life is to point to the Way, not be a stumbling block on the way!

The world doesn’t need to be convinced of it’s sin.  The headlines do that.  The media does that.  Our mama’s do that.  I got guilt!  The world needs to be convinced there is a Savior!  It is presumptuous for us to believe that God wants us to point fingers of shame at sinners.  Which is what makes this sermon tricky.  How do I preach against spiritual arrogance without exposing my own?  Maybe that’s why Jonah went to Tarshish.  Going to Tarshish is easier than confronting your own sin.

Am I sinner?  A saved one, but yeah.  Am I a hypocrite?  More times than my hypocrisy will allow me to confess.  Am I arrogant and prideful?  Let me just say, it takes one to know one.  Am I perfect?  Not today, but thanks to Jesus, I’m on my way.  If any person would be convinced by my words about their need for a Savior, it won’t be because of my greatness.  It will be because I have become convinced of my own sin and I have humbled myself at the foot of the cross.  And in that posture I point my life toward the One who gives Life…I lower my head so that others have a view of his Sacred Head.  The unmistakable truth for my life and your life and their life is that I don’t have to decide who gets mercy and who deserves grace.  I just get the honor of extending the invitation.