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The Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost
O God, who declarest thy almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Mercifully grant unto us such a measure of thy grace, that we, running to obtain thy promises, may be made partakers of thy heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 21)
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The Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost
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Scripture citation(s): Jonah 3:10-4:11; Matthew 20:1-16
A Sermon by
Fr. Mead
on
Jonah 3:10-4:11; Matthew 20:1-16
✛
Jonah's Anger
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And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry… Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry?
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
In the nineteenth century, biblical scholars roundly debated whether the Book of Jonah was to be taken as an actual history of a prophet or as a legendary parable about a prophet.
One of the sticking points, of course, was the whale or great fish which God appointed to swallow Jonah during his flight from duty and then to regurgitate him in three days. Biblical scholars of the “historical” stripe produced evidence that fish large enough to do the job were still swimming in the Mediterranean.¹
But the story of Jonah and the whale is by no means the most amazing thing about this extraordinary book. There are two even more amazing things about it. The first is that the book was written at all. The second is that the book was not only preserved; it was always firmly within the Canon of the Hebrew Prophets. Jonah’s status as the authoritative, inspired Word of God was never seriously challenged in Israel. The healthy, honest self-criticism of Israel and of an Israelite prophet in the Book of Jonah is truly wondrous, and in order for us to appreciate the wonder, we need to know a few things about Nineveh, the city to which God sent Jonah to preach its imminent overthrow and which, when it repented, God spared.
Nineveh, situated on the Tigris River in the area of what is now northern Iraq, was the capital of the Assyrian empire. The Assyrians were known as the most ferocious conquerors in the ancient biblical world. They were feared for leading off their captives with hooks through their noses and mouths, for flaying their victims alive, and for leaving them impaled and suspended on sharp poles; these deeds are proudly recorded for posterity in their stone ruins. Assyria threatened and invaded and conquered northern Israel in the eighth century before Christ; the ten northern tribes were thereafter forever lost to history, with Judah and Jerusalem left alone in the south.
The Book of the Prophet Nahum provides us with the expected judgment of God on Nineveh, a judgment which came 150 years after Jonah: “Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and booty – no end to plunder! The crack of whip, and rumble of wheel, galloping horse and bounding chariot! Horsemen charging, flashing sword and glittering spear, host of slain, heaps of corpses, dead bodies without end… Nineveh is laid waste; who shall bemoan her… All who hear news of you clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil?” (Nahum 3:1-19)
That is no doubt what Jonah wished for as well. The reason he fled from God, together with the episode on the ship and the great fish, was that, as he said, he knew God might have mercy if the Ninevites repented, and this he could not stand to see.
That is the issue in the Book of Jonah. The message Jonah gives is completely elementary: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” There is no preaching of the religion of Israel or its monotheism or ethics; Jonah simply delivers the message of doom. Word of this reaches the king, who, along with the people, believes the word, fears God, and draws a straightforward conclusion: Pray, fast, cover yourself with sackcloth and ashes, and “turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent…?”
This is just what Jonah feared. He was furious. “Do you do well to be angry?” asked God. “Yes indeed, angry enough to die,” replied Jonah. Then follows the little bit about the protective plant and its shade, the hot sun and sultry east wind, and the worm which attacked and killed the plant, Jonah’s shelter. This adds insult to injury. The exchange is repeated. God: “Do you do well to be angry?” Jonah: “I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.”
God then has the last word with Jonah: You were glad about the plant and its shelter which I gave you and for which you did nothing; then you were angry when it died. Shouldn’t I have at least that much concern about Nineveh and its 120,000 people who hardly know right from wrong, not to mention all the cattle?
The Book of Jonah was written (we should truly say inspired), included among the biblical prophets, and received as the Word of God, to show that God is sovereign. He belongs to no one, not even his chosen people and his selected prophets. We belong to him, and so do our enemies. He has mercy as he pleases, even when it offends our sensibilities. The Ninevites, for all their brutality, false religion, and ignorance, heeded the warning and repented. God saw that and stayed his hand.
In these dark days when the differences among men seem to be so formidable and dangerous, as they were also in Jonah’s day, we need to remember the message of this extraordinary book. The act of a human being choosing to turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hand is, in our fallen world, the most hopeful and creative way forward. Our desire for God to punish those who hurt or threaten us is understandable. But the objects of our anger belong to God just as we do. He will deal with them as he will, truly, in both justice and mercy, even if it doesn’t suit us.
Jesus was making the same point today in his parable of the laborers in the vineyard. It is a parable of the kingdom of God, in which the “day’s wage” is eternal life. Those who were called early in the day, like the Israelites and the prophet Jonah, received the reward of eternal life. So did those called in the middle of the day. Those called at the last minute, like Nineveh or the good thief on the cross, also received the wage through repentance. “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me,” says the owner of the vineyard, “or do you begrudge my generosity?” This is just what God said to Jonah: “Do you do well to be angry?”
My brothers and sisters, I believe the message is that we should not resent the mercy of God. If God has been merciful to us, which he has been, why should we resent his mercy on others, especially if God gives them the grace to ask for and receive that mercy? To invoke yet another famous example, why should we be like the older brother in the story of the Prodigal Son, who resented his father’s love and joy at the restoration of the younger brother?
Not one of us has earned or merited the grace of God. To each one of us, this grace has come as a pure gift. Love is like that. We do not have to fear that because God loves this one or that one, he therefore loves us less. Jonah was offended at the sight of his dreaded enemies repenting and receiving mercy from his God. He did not see what God saw in them. All Jonah saw in them was darkness. Perhaps he had forgotten the darkness God had once seen, and forgiven, in him.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
__________
¹For example, Dr. Edward Bouverie Pusey, one of the fathers of the Oxford Movement and probably the greatest English scholar of Semitic languages in the nineteenth century, made just this point in his commentary on Jonah.
