Eager to Forgive (Jonah)
Stephen Terry
Commentary for the May 11, 2013
Sabbath School Lesson
“Then Peter began to speak: “I now
realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every
nation the one who fears him and does what is right.” Acts 10:34-35, NIV
As human
beings, we can come to understand our relationship to God in terms of familiar
bonds. We can see that we are God’s children by virtue of the biblical account
of the Creation Story.[i]
Although God did not bear us in the womb and give birth to us in the usual
manner, the Bible still sees this as a form of familial descent.[ii]
We are all grandchildren of the same grandparent, albeit many generations
removed.
That
relationship is also re-affirmed through the kinship we experience through a
salvific relationship with Jesus. Peter tells us in Acts 2:38 that we receive
the Holy Spirit when we become reconciled to this normal genealogical relationship.
What does that mean? It simply means that the Holy Spirit is the bond which
attaches us to God as His children.[iii]
Just as we can see indicators of relationship between individuals through eye
color, hair color, body types, and various other attributes, so we can see the
relationship to God through the activities of the Holy Spirit expressed in the life
of every child of God.
I am often
amazed at the diversity within the family of God. But when I understand the
familial relationship is through the Holy Spirit, I can also understand that
color, gender, ethnicity, and culture are all irrelevant to that relationship.
Interestingly, this very diversity that exists within the Christian faith is
strong evidence that genetics, which definitely provide adaptability for
survival, have little to do with God’s genealogy. Else, we would see favoritism
of genotype demonstrated by a prevalence of that type within the faith
community. While this may be the case within local fellowships, once we expand
our view to a global one, we cannot escape the abundant diversity among the
children of God.
This
confronts us with an obvious question. Please pardon the pun, but since we are
all, in a sense, relatives of God, whether reconciled to Him or not, just how
relativistic is God in his relationship to us? Does God demand uniformity of
belief and practice from His children? Is He capable of expressing Himself
differently to different people and still remain God of all? And what model
does this provide for us?
Perhaps our
biggest barrier to understanding the answer to these questions is our own
perception of God, both culturally and ethnically. According to one ongoing,
online poll,[iv] sixty
percent of those polled see Jesus as Middle Eastern. However, twenty percent
see Him as White, Asian, Hispanic or African. If we are only able to see Jesus through
the prism of our own culture, could this possibly affect our perception of God
and how He relates to us and others? For instance, if we see God/Jesus as
African, will we tend to see only African values as legitimate expressions of a
genuine relationship with Him? Is God simply an expression of our culture, or
does He exist outside of it?
Most know the
effect this type of thinking had on the converts that resulted from the
missionary proselytization during the European colonial period. Since the
missionaries were from Western cultures, they imposed many of those cultural
norms on their non-Western converts. To this day, many males around the world
who aspire to the gospel ministry affect the wearing of white shirts and ties
as a sign of their Christianity, even when these items are not native to their
cultures. One cannot help but wonder if the gospel message had been brought to
the United States by Africans, would Americans be wearing African dress as outward
evidence of Christian commitment?
When we
bring these cultural perspectives to the book of Jonah, perhaps we can then
understand Jonah’s reluctance to take a message of repentance to the city of
Nineveh. For Jonah, God dwelt in Jerusalem,[v]
and He was a Jewish God. Nineveh, however, was not Jewish but Assyrian. Although
they recognized many deities, the name of the city means “Seat of Ishtar,” so
it seems that they were primarily worshippers of that goddess.[vi]
So why would a Jewish prophet find an audience in such a city? When we also
consider that this mission assigned to Jonah was during the height of the Neo-Assyrian Empire[vii]
when the Assyrian kings were greatly expanding the city and also their
influence throughout the Middle East at the expense of Israel, Judah and other
surrounding kingdoms, the mission seems all the more strange. Maybe these
factors, among others, were what sent Jonah running in the opposite direction.
When we also
see that this is the general region that God had originally called Abraham to
leave behind and follow Him,[viii]
we come to understand something else about God. He does not appear to burn any
bridges behind Him. He continues to care about and reach out to those who may
not care about Him. Worship Ishtar and be at enmity with God’s chosen? God will
still try to reach out to you.[ix]
This appears to be something Jonah had difficulty understanding.
We also have
difficulties seeing the character of God in this respect, today. Sadly, we find
it easier to understand a mother’s unconditional love for her son or daughter
who has been convicted of a felony and is sentenced to prison than to
understand God’s love for the lost. When a mother defends such a child, we say “Of
course, she is his mother.” But God is our advocate as well. His love does not
fail when we do.
When we fail
to identify with that love and love the unlovely, we can begin to see the walls
of the church as a barrier against those “others.” The very gospel intended to
reach them with a message of hope and salvation becomes a wall of exclusion.
Like Jonah, we want nothing to do with their contaminating influence. Perhaps
we reason that they won’t listen anyway.
Fortunately,
for many of us who have been those “others,” God does not see things that way.
He knows that there are still those whose hearts would turn toward Him if they
only knew of His love. Ergo, we, as God’s children, are tasked with taking that
message of love to those citadels where they worship gods who are not gods and
in ignorance, tear down and destroy the image of God in themselves. God was
willing to die, Himself, rather than see mankind destroy itself.[x]
We find it difficult to comprehend that kind of love, but it draws us. It pulls
on our heart strings, even if we turn from it. Jesus expressed that love is
such a way that, even today, we can feel the tears in His voice.[xi]
While God’s
love is so intense and everlasting, we, like Jonah, tend not to understand its
nature. Although we may ask, “Why does God allow so much evil in the world?” we
fail to understand that His chosen agency for remedying that evil is us. We are
to carry His message of love, hope, and reconciliation into that evil mess and
proclaim it from one end of the city to the other.[xii]
Today, as in Jesus’ day, this is a great commission and many are eager to hear
that message. The problem is not whether or not hearts are willing to repent
but whether or not there are those who are willing to enter Nineveh and call
them.[xiii]
When Jonah
became willing to carry the message of salvation to a people who seemed as far
as they could possibly get from being willing to listen to that message, he
found his own salvation as well. Perhaps, this is the essential message of the
parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew, chapter twenty-five.[xiv]
Perhaps salvation can only be found in our willingness to take that same
salvation to others, even at great personal cost to our own well-being. After
all, this is what Christ did for us.
Is any human
degradation so offensive to us that we cannot minister to it? How degrading was
it for Christ to leave the purity of heaven and wallow in the filth and poverty
of Nazareth in order to proclaim God’s undying love for us? Are we in fear for
our lives and so fail to step outside our homes to share God’s love with the
world? In spite of the knowledge of His own coming death, Jesus willingly came
anyway.
Some might
say that Jesus was God and could resurrect Himself. Do we then doubt our own
resurrection as God has promised?[xv]
If like Jonah, we find more security in the belly of a fish than in the cities
of this world, we are missing a blessing. However, the God that loves us so
much that He wants to proclaim that love even in the midst of wickedness beyond
imagining also proclaims that love to us, as well, even in the belly of that “fish”
where we have hidden away from His call.
