On Monday of next week, we will read a portion of St. Luke’s Gospel that will speak of Jonah. In that passage Jesus will chide the people for their lack of repentance after listening to his words. Jonah has been referred to as a proleptic figure that points to Jesus because he spent three days in the belly of a great fish just as Jesus spent three days in the grave.
As we read from the Book of Jonah today, we reach the point at which Jonah and God argue about the Ninevites who repented after hearing the preaching of Jonah. Jonah is angry because God relented in the threat to punish the people. Using the words of the Sinai Covenant, Jonah “accuses” God of being “a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, rich in clemency, loath to punish.”
This is the point of the whole Book of Jonah. The sacred writer uses this tale of Jonah to illustrate the true nature of God’s relationship with us. The graciousness and mercy of God is so easy for us to forget when we are confronted by the reality of sin. There are some who feel that God should strike down the evil doers rather than giving them the change to repent. When confronted with the example of Jonah by Jesus, the listeners become so angry that they even threaten Jesus. We have heard Jesus ask us to love our enemies, to forgive those who sin against us. We even say the words each time we pray the Lord’s Prayer which Jesus taught. God’s mercy is one thing when we stand in need of it. It is quite another when we are dealing with those who we think of as enemies.
The Hebrew Scriptures try to prepare us for the preaching of Jesus by reminding us that what God desires is mercy and compassion, not only for ourselves but for all of us. Jesus came for the forgiveness of sin. The story of Jonah reminds us that there is a little bit of him in every one of us.