God calls out to Jonah and commissions him to preach to the city of Nineveh. He rebels against God and refuses to do God’s bidding. He tries to run away. No one can outrun the power of God.
Today and for the next two days, we will hear almost all of the Book of the Prophet Jonah, a short story that does not conform to the usual parameters of a prophetic book. Instead of recording the oracles of the prophet, the Word of God, this book tells us a story of a reluctant prophet. Jonah stands alone in this category as all of the other prophets accepted God’s call to preach as directed by God.
As the story develops, we will discover that there are other things that set Jonah apart from the mainstream prophets. For today, we are simply asked to ponder the fate of a man who does not do the will of God as he was asked. I am sure that there is no one here who is unfamiliar with the story. Some even find it somewhat endearing. Others regard it as nothing more than a fairy tale. Unfortunately, not so many stop and ask themselves about the motivation behind Jonah’s reluctance to preach to the Ninevites.
Nineveh was a large city. It was also a Gentile city. In addition, the people of Nineveh were sworn enemies of Israel. Jonah refuses to go because he wants nothing to do with his enemies. He would rather see them perish than be saved.
The enmity of Jonah for the Ninevites is still present among the people of Jesus’ time. When Jesus invokes the sign of Jonah, he displeases his Jewish audience who would rather not be forced to remember the repentance of the Ninevites and God’s resulting mercy toward them. Like so many others in the many years that have followed, they would rather see God destroy their enemies.
Jesus comes and tells us to love our enemies, to pray for those who would harm us. Only then will the power of God’s mercy actually soften our hearts. As we celebrate the death and rising of Jesus in today’s Eucharist, let us remember the words of Jesus as he hung on the cross, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.”