Jonah's "Wail"
Sermon, March 8, 2000 (Ash Wednesday)
Text: Jonah 3 and 4
The Lenten season is the time of the church year when we are called to especially remember the passion and death of our Lord; to remember THAT He suffered and died, and WHY He suffered and died. Often the faithful observe some form of self-denial during this season to help keep uppermost in mind the ultimate self-denial provided for the atonement of our sins and the redemption of our souls. This special season of repentance, sacrifice and remembrance, which begins today, ends with the Easter vigil. Originally, in the 1st century A.D., Lent was a period of forty hours, in keeping with the forty hours Jesus' body was in the tomb. The forty hour observance would end with an Easter celebration at approximately 3:00 A.M. Sometime during the third century, the forty hour observance grew into a six-day observance; the six days being an extension of that original forty hours. These six days then became known as Holy Week, and were for the faithful days of strict abstinence, prayer and self-denial. A few centuries later the six day observance grew into a thirty six day observance, as a tithe of the 365 days of the year. By the early eighth century, during the reign of Charlemagne, four more days were added to the 36 to make the present season of forty days; the additional four days consisted of Ash Wednesday through the first Sunday in Lent. It is thought that a period of forty days would be more appropriate, as the number "forty" was a meaningful and significant number throughout the Scriptures: How many days did Jesus fast during His temptation in the wilderness? Forty. How many days and nights did the floodwaters cover Noah's world? Forty. How many days did Moses spend on Mt. Sinai? Forty. How many years did the Israelites wander through the wilderness? Forty. How many days did the Ninevites have to repent, fast and pray? Forty. How many winks do Presbyterians grab during the sermon? NONE, I hope!
The name "Ash Wednesday" was given by Pope Urban II in the year 1099; before this, the first day of Lent was known as the "Beginning of the Fast." The use of ashes as a symbol of repentance and humility before God has a long biblical and ecclesiastical tradition, symbolizing in part our ultimate dependence upon God. Ashes were a symbol of dust, and there is a bit of a play on words in the Hebrew vocabulary here: if I remember correctly (roughly transliterated) Dust is Aphar, and Ashes is Ephar.
("Ashes to ashes, dust to dust..." is much more poetic in Hebrew.) The ash serves as a reminder that without the sustaining power, grace and breath of life-giving spirit which comes from God, we are but dust and earth. Ashes would be sprinkled, or people would sit among ashes, or ashes would be imposed on the forehead (imposition is the common practice today), all as an outward sign of humility before God. The ash-bearer is acknowledging, "I know my place before thee, O God; I am but dust and ashes apart from Thee." A sort of paradigm of this special season of repentance and sacrifice can be found in the book of Jonah; here we also see the use of ashes as an outward sign of humility before God. Please turn to Jonah chapter 3.At the end of chapter 2 we read that Jonah's "whale of a ride" ended with the great fish rather unceremoniously blurping Jonah onto dry land. It's as if Chapter 3 opens with God implying, "Now that I have your attention, Jonah...". The Lord goes on to tell His reluctant prophet, (verse 2) "Go to the great city of Nineveh, and proclaim to it the message I give you." Nineveh was a very large city (the capital city of an enemy nation, by the way) geographically located in what is now northern Iraq. To give you something of an idea of its size, and perhaps a bit of an insight as to why Jonah was reluctant to go there, the population of Jerusalem at that time was about twenty-five thousand. We know from the end of chapter four that the population of Nineveh was at least 120,000
(and perhaps much larger); or roughly five times the size of Israel's greatest city. Jonah finally went to this large city, which we are told was some three days journey in breadth, and proclaimed the very direct, no-frills and concise message (verse 4): "Forty more days, and Nineveh shall be overturned!" Now, there may well have been something about Jonah, as he strode with determination toward the center of the city, looking neither to the right nor to the left, that drew many to him... perhaps it was his intense demeanor, his dress, or his "gastric juice tan" from the fish's belly...or perhaps there was much, much more than personal charisma and intrigue involved. Whatever the reason (and I think verse 5 succinctly hints at the reason), the response of the Ninevites was immediate, it was profound, it was extensive. When Jonah finally stood and proclaimed, "Forty more days and Nineveh will be destroyed," it seems the news spread like wildfire and was widely received. The immediate reaction of the people was to enter into a season of self-denial and repentance.Each and every Ninevite went into this "season" of repentance; as mentioned, this is sort of the Old Testament paradigm for Lent. They proclaimed a fast
(we give up sweets, they gave up food!), they put on sackcloth. The king followed suit, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down among ashes. He then proclaimed a national observance of fasting, wearing of sackcloth, prayer and repentance. He even proclaimed that all domestic animals in the land were to observe this season! (A brief word about the sackcloth: It was the original "hair shirt", if you will, it was kind of a coarse goat hair...unlike the smooth silkiness of angora mohair, this was itchy, scratchy stuff. It was usually worn over another garment, at times like this, though, it was worn next to the skin.) I want to note something very simple, yet very profound, in verse five: The text says, "The Ninevites believed God." It wasn't so much that they believed Jonah, as it was they believed God. The Ninevites heard God's word, they believed it to be God's word and not just Jonah's opinion, and they responded accordingly, they acted on what they believed. If we are to believe present-day statistics, something like 93% of Americans believe in God, but believing in God really is not the issue. There's a big difference between believing in God and believing God. The crucial issue is: Do we believe God? The people of Nineveh believed God, they took Him at His word and responded accordingly, and God was gracious in return. Remember that this is a pagan, non-Jew nation; yet, they did something that even the prophet Jonah did not do without extreme coercion: they believed and obeyed God. Implied, of course, is that they already knew quite a bit about this God they believed. They cannot believe Someone they don't already believe in. There's a sermon in itself in this, and I'll touch on this thought again Sunday, but note that Jonah didn't "bring" God to the Ninevites, it is obvious that God was already there. If God is indeed God, then it stands to reason that He is alive and active throughout His entire creation. Missionaries then and now do not necessarily bring God to the "outside" world; God has been there dealing with all peoples for some time. The missionary role, the prophet's role, the church's role, is never more and never less than to interpret the presence of God in people's lives, to help others perceive and understand the reality of the God who is already there!We see in Chapter 3, verse 10 that God relented and spared the Ninevites. Well, at the end of Chapter 2, we read that out of the mouth of the whale came a Jonah; here at the beginning of Chapter Four, we read that out of the mouth of Jonah comes a wail! Jonah was angry! Instead of being grateful that so many apparently responded to his preaching, he was upset that God was going to spare them. In his anger, though, Jonah does one thing correctly that he did not do earlier in the book...he prays. He directs his complaints to God, rather than trying to just avoid him altogether by running run away from him; perhaps he, ah, learned a lesson about the futility of the latter. Even though it is a bitter prayer, at least his attention is directed to where it should be directed! And in doing so, he does receive an answer. (For what it's worth, God's words in verse 4 might be better translated "Are you right to be angry?" rather than "Have you any right to be angry?")
Why is Jonah angry? We can only make educated guesses. Perhaps it was because Nineveh had been a constant source of threat and trouble throughout Israel's past; Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, which was Israel's most hated enemy at the time. If God would just wipe out this city, Assyria wouldn't bother Israel again for a long, long time, if ever. Perhaps Jonah thought now that God has spared them, Israel could expect nothing but more trouble from the Assyrians eventually. Why didn't God just do away with Nineveh as He warned, and spare His people further difficulties down the road? Or, perhaps Jonah was being a cynic...even though the Ninevites repented, maybe he wondered how long this "conversion" would last; this might be evidenced by the fact that Jonah camped out nearby (verse 5) to see what would really happen to the city. After all, he could have reasoned, this repentance isn't genuine, it won't last, he's seen these "foxhole conversions" before...after the crisis is over, they'll more than likely just go back to living their old ways again. Or, perhaps there was a touch of personal pride involved: "Now that God's not going to 'do' anything, these witless pagans will probably mock me as that fishy old man who was always preaching doom and gloom." Or, perhaps Jonah was simply exhausted and emotionally drained; people often let their worst come out when they are in that state...after all, think of all he had recently been through: He had been on the run, he had been overtaken by a nearly fatal storm, he was thrown overboard into a raging sea, he spent hours of confined darkness in the belly of a fish, he was vomited by that fish onto the beach, he had a long journey to Nineveh and a long journey into Nineveh, and he had the emotional drain of repeating a dire message again and again. Perhaps he was thinking, "And it's all because of these ignorant, ungrateful, godless pagans that I've had to go through all of this...its all their fault. They deserve what's coming to them. Get 'em, God!" And when God didn't "get 'em," Jonah got mad.
Whatever the reason, Jonah was not happy. The Ninevites were spared, and Jonah was upset. God goes on to use an interesting teaching tool to show Jonah just how ugly his anger is. God causes this vine or plant to sprout and grow to such a height as to give Jonah shade from the merciless desert sun; then God employs a worm to chew the roots of the vine, thus causing it to suddenly wither. God then "turned up the heat," if you will, with a scorching east wind...and Jonah expresses anger about the death of the vine and the loss of some degree of personal comfort. It is more than likely that the type of plant here is a castor oil plant; it is indigenous to the area and grows very quickly to a height of fifteen feet...so, you might say that God gives His embittered prophet a strong dose of Castor Oil to make His point. God points out how Jonah seems to care more for this soulless plant than he cares about the lives and souls of 120,000 people, and also underscores His care and concern for those He created.
The season of Lent, as mentioned before, is a time of spiritual self-examination as well as a time for special prayer, repentance and sacrifice. It is a time to take inventory of our spiritual stock. Perhaps some of you may see yourself in the prophet Jonah. Jonah, a man who had once enjoyed a good relationship with God, one who at one time had been eager to serve God, one who shared a sense of God's compassion for others, but because the things God was asking of him seemed just too much to bear, he decided to abandon God. God, however, would not abandon Jonah. Through the events described in this little book, Jonah returns to the God he had sought to leave, he returns to the duty he had neglected, he does those things that God had originally called him to do, and he and at least 120,000 people directly benefit! As we can see, Jonah's not perfect, he is still "under renovation," but he returns to God and is used by God to be a channel of blessing to many.
Or, perhaps some of you may see yourself in the Ninevites. The Ninevites, who were somewhat aware of God's reality, but never paid all that much attention to Him, and are now really "hearing" His words for the very first time, perhaps because of the impending crisis in their lives, or perhaps because they are realizing for the first time their very real need of God. May we all learn, as the Ninevites learned, as Jonah learned, to believe God, to respond to God, and may we, too, find that God is quick to forgive and eager to bless. The message of the Scriptures, and really, the ultimate meaning of this Lenten season, is that God loves Jonahs and He loves Ninevites equally; through the grace of God secured by the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, all are given another chance to return and experience His blessing.