Going to Nineveh
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
January 22, 2006
Jonah 3:1-5, 10; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20
Jonah 3:1-5, 10 The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, ‘Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.’ So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, ‘Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’ And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.1 Corinthians 7:29-31 I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.
Mark 1:14-20 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’
As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’ And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.
I. BEGINNING—THE TEXT
When we list the great prophets of the Hebrew Bible, Jonah never seems to come up on the list. We’ll name Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Elijah, Samuel, Elisha, Amos, Hosea, Micah, even Zechariah, long before we think to name Jonah. It’s curious: among the prophets mentioned, he is perhaps one of the most effective ones out there.
We read in Scripture that Jonah goes to Nineveh to preach and proclaim repentance. Nineveh was an “exceedingly large city” we are told—a three day walk across–capital of the Assyrian Empire. And he walks a day’s journey into the heart of the city and proclaims a message of repentance. And the whole city repents. The king orders a solemn fast and God changes his mind about what he had planned to do to Nineveh. Now, that’s what I call effective. That, my friends, is preaching.
II. THE REST OF THE STORY
But it serves us well to remember what comes before and after this remarkable example of evangelism. The story of Jonah begins quite a different way:
Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, ‘Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.’ But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
So, just so we’re all following along: Jonah is told by God “Go at once to Nineveh, that great city…” and Jonah springs into action and heads in the other direction, going to Tarshish gets on a boat and tries to sail away as far as possible from the presence of the Lord.
You may remember the rest of the story from Sunday school. A great storm comes up and the sailors are afraid. Each prays to his own god to no avail. Then they cast lots to determine who among them is causing this trouble. The lots fall upon Jonah. When he admits that he is fleeing his God, the maker of heaven and earth, they are afraid and they toss him into the sea, whereupon he is immediately swallowed by a ‘great fish’ for three days and three nights.
In the belly of the fish Jonah prays to God and God speaks to the fish and it spews Jonah out upon dry land.
Now, the moral of the story thus far might be summarized as follows: When the Lord says ‘Go to Nineveh’, go to Nineveh. But as we read further, we realize that that alone is not the message of this text.
III. JONAH’S RELUCTANCE
Because, thus far we are not really aware of why it was that Jonah should seek to evade God’s orders so much. Why was it that when God said go to Nineveh, he went in the opposite direction? We get a glimpse of that in the chapters following the text we read today.
But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.’ And the Lord said, ‘Is it right for you to be angry?’ Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city.
At last Jonah’s motive is clear: he resists going to Nineveh not because he’s afraid the Ninevites won’t listen to him. He’s afraid that he’ll go and the Ninevites will listen to him and repent. And that, as a good Hebrew, is the last thing he wants.
Assyria was a major threat to both Israel and Judah and terrorized both. It would be Assyria that would destroy the Northern Kingdom of Israel and send all its people into exile, never to be seen again. The armies of Assyria threatened Judah with destruction only to be forced to turn around return home mysteriously during the siege of Jerusalem. These were not a people an Israelite was likely to be favorably inclined toward. Jonah knows that if he goes and the Ninevites repent that God will spare them and that is what he is afraid of. And when it happens, he says to God, “I knew you would do this! This is why I didn’t want to go in the first place.”
So God “appoints” a bush to come up over where Jonah is and give him shade and it makes Jonah happy. Then the next day, God appoints a worm to attack the bush and kill it and it dies. Then God appoints a sultry east wind to cause Jonah discomfort and Jonah is upset:
But God said to Jonah, ‘Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?’ And he said, ‘Yes, angry enough to die.’ Then the Lord said, ‘You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labour and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?’
That is how the Book of Jonah ends: with an unanswered question. A question really meant for us.
IV. OUR RELUCTANCE
Because we often share the same kind of reluctance that Jonah shows. We are called to minister to the marginalized, to the dispossessed, those on the fringes of our communities and our society. For most of us, the only thing worse than reaching out to such people and not having them respond would be for them to show up.
Just think what would happen to our nice little community if we were to reach out to the lonely, the socially awkward, the obnoxious, the self-involved, the depressed—all those who are at the fringes of our common community here on this campus? It might make us uncomfortable.
But that’s what the Gospel is supposed to do.
V. THE GOSPEL LESSON—FISHERS OF HUMANITY
I think it is telling that Jesus called fishermen to be his first disciples. Listen again to that story from Mark:
As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’
There is something important to note about Simon and Andrew, James and John. These men are not fishermen like Brad Pitt’s character in A River Runs Through It. They are not standing in a river with a fly lure for hours fly fishing hoping for a fish to jump up and take the lure. These men fish with nets. Nets that do not discriminate.
Nets that take in fish regardless of size, color, kind, taste. Indeed, the reason so many people are upset with commercial fishing of tuna is that the nets do not discriminate between tuna and dolphins. Nets are cast wide and take in all kinds.
That is the model of fishers of people that Jesus is lifting up—a model of those who reach out to all people, regardless of status, regardless of kind, regardless of whether we would find them acceptable or not.
God makes mockery of our standards of acceptability—we mourn over things we did not make—like the death of a bush that gave us shade, and yet we mourn not over the deaths of individuals we don’t like, yet who are dear to God.
Jesus made no such distinctions. Jesus ate with tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners. Jesus ate with them in their homes and accepted them for who they were. He invited them into relationship with God by first being willing to enter into relationship with them himself. In effect, he teaches us how to be fishers of people by following him. “Follow me and I will make you fish for people” and truly, it is by following him that we fish for people best.
VI. END
We have spent a lot of time this year talking about hospitality—as well we should. The church of Christ should always be welcoming to all who would come and seek out its fellowship. And yet, hospitality is not a passive thing. It is not only being accepting of those who walk through the sanctuary door. It is in reaching out to those to whom kindness is a stranger, and acceptance is a rarely encountered friend. That is our task.There is enough loneliness, enough doubt, enough anxiety, enough awkwardness on this campus to keep us busy for a while.
And it’s worth remembering, that we’re not always the most worthy recipients of God’s grace either. We sometimes forget that. Like the older brother of the prodigal son, or the day laborers who worked from the morning, we sometimes forget that we too are recipients of grace, invitees ourselves.
We may not always feel comfortable reaching out to the marginalized. There are some Ninevehs we don’t want to go to. But we hear the voice of Christ walking along the Galilean shore and saying, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people.”and the voice of God asking us “And should I not be concerned about them? … Get up, and go to Nineveh”
