Jonah 4:5-11

What is your answer?

Jonah is one of two books in the Bible that ends with a question (the other one is Nahum.) God asks Jonah, “Should I not be concerned about this great city?” The book doesn’t record Jonah’s answer. Does Jonah come to embrace the truth that God is full of compassion? Does Jonah welcome the Ninevites’ repentance and rejoice that the preaching of God’s word has borne fruit in their lives? Or does he continue in his stubborn self-righteousness and lack of mercy? We don’t know.

Why does the book end this way? Why doesn’t it give us the satisfaction of knowing how the story ends? Because God wants to pose the same question to each one of us. God wants us to consider whether we are ready to forgive and welcome everyone whom he forgives and welcomes. Or whether, like Jonah, we will cling on to our self-righteousness and look down on those who have come late to the party of repentance and faith.

Last time we looked at the storm within Jonah’s heart. We saw the contrast between God’s character and Jonah’s. God is compassionate, merciful, loving, forgiving and patient. Jonah was self-righteous, selfish, angry, vengeful, idolatrous, prideful, and untrusting.

Here in verse 5 we read, “Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city.” 

It seems that Jonah was still expecting, and hoping, that God would pour out his wrath on the city of Ninevah, whether fire and brimstone, military invasion, or plague and pestilence. Even though the Ninevites had repented, Jonah thought that they were still worthy of God’s judgement. It’s easy to be critical of Jonah, but often we are little different. When we hear of murderers or terrorists turning to Christ, we are sceptical of their motives and reluctant to embrace them as brothers. We are pleased that they intend to live the remainder of lives in a peaceful and productive way, but often we are reluctant to forgive former way of life. We think that somehow they need to pay for their previous crimes. But that is the scandal of the gospel: God is ready to forgive the gravest of sins and welcome forgiven sinners into his kingdom. God wipes the slate clean: he forgives our sins and chooses to remember them no more. None of us can gain God’s favour by our good living. We are all affected by selfishness, greed, and even hatred. We are tainted by what people used to call the corruption of sin. None can gain God’s favour by the purity of our own lives: we are dependent on his mercy.

Here’s a mystery: how can God extend mercy to guilty sinners, while at the same time maintaining truth and justice. Praise God that he gave his own Son, Jesus who died for us on the cross. Jesus took on himself the pain and penalty of sin so that we can go free. As one old hymn puts it, the cross is the place “where heaven’s love and heaven’s justice meet”. And another hymn puts it this way: “And Heaven's peace and perfect justice, kissed a guilty world in love.”

But God was not satisfied to leave Jonah in his vengeful self-righteousness. God had intervened dramatically when Jonah’s life was in danger. And God had shown great mercy to Jonah when Jonah had resisted God’s word and run in the opposite direction. Now God wanted to work on Jonah’s character so that it became more like God’s own character. So God provided a vine (verse 6), and a worm (verse 7), and a scorching east wind (verse 8). These were like a parable, acted out in the events of life, to bring Jonah to his senses. God wanted Jonah to realise that just as he, Jonah, had received God’s mercy it was the right response to extend that mercy to others.

We are living in strange times, as the Corona virus threatens not only our way of life, but life itself. Some see this as God’s judgement on a sinful world. That may or may not be the case. It’s certainly a wake-up call to us in the developed world as we expect a remedy to every disease and a solution to every problem. But whatever it is, let’s not distance ourselves from the world. We too are tainted by the corruption of sin. We have received God’s mercy; let’s be merciful to others. Let’s take on the character of God: compassionate, full of mercy, loving and forgiving.

How will we respond to the question that God asked Jonah? Are we ready to embrace God’s character and show his mercy to the world?