Jonah
1:1-17
Like other
stories we have looked at (David & Goliath, Daniel in the Lions’ Den), the
story of Jonah is often read in our children’s Sunday School classes or shared
as a Bible story in Vacation Bible School. We adults do not linger long over
this story. Perhaps it seems too incredulous? A man swallowed by a fish? Yet,
we find a profound truth in this ancient story.
Jonah
runs from God’s call to preach in Nineveh, is caught in a storm on the sea,
tossed into the sea and swallowed by a fish. He prays to God, is spit out on
land, and goes to preach in Nineveh. The Ninevites repent and the city is
spared, and Jonah is angry because they didn’t get what was coming to them. He
pouts, sits outside the city frustrated. The story seems to have no clear
conclusion and ends with God asking him if he really has any right to be angry.
Too often, the story is presented as a morality tale: Obey God or suffer the
consequences. Is this really message of the story?
One of
the reasons I think we do come back to this story again and again is that we
find ourselves there in the person of Jonah—we sense a call from God, and we
run away. We aren’t all called to preach a message of repentance to large,
pagan cities. More often, we sense a nudge from God to do some act of kindness,
and we turn our attention to other things. We sense a whisper from God’s
Spirit, and we close our ears and do nothing. Whatever shape our “running away”
takes from whatever “call” comes to us, too often we turn away from God’s
invitation to join in God’s work of redemption, healing, and salvation.
A
significant piece of this story is found when Jonah is on the ship headed to
Tarshish. The storm comes upon the ship and everyone is in fear for their
lives. Jonah is the one who is running from God, but his act of rebellion is
affecting the people around him. Even though we often talk of faith as being “a
personal thing,” this story from Scripture shows us, reminds us, that how we
respond to God can and often does impact the people around us—family, friends,
coworkers, classmates, neighbors.
Most of
us at some time or another have run away from God, ignored God’s prompting in
our lives. We have become Jonahs. And, like Jonah, the place to stop and begin
our journey anew in the right direction is in prayer. Jonah prays, and God sets
Jonah again on the right path. That act of prayer opens Jonah—and others—to
what this story is really about: grace. Jonah experiences grace. The sailors on
the ship experience grace. Nineveh experiences grace. This is how God is, and
we see the very same thing in the Gospels when Peter turns away from Jesus.
When he turns back, he finds grace.
This is the message of Jonah: No mater the storms of life, no matter how far we go, no matter anything, God’s grace—the unearnable, undeserved love and favor of God—awaits us when we turn our lives again to God and join God in the work of changing, saving, redeeming, healing, befriending the world around us.
What have you been
running from? What ‘nudge’ have you ignored? What whispers have you closed your
ears to? Today, stop running, pray, and join God in the joyous, life-giving
opportunities God has for you.
Sunday, August 31, 2025
“Lessons in Grace”
Watch/Listen: HERE
