Sermon Cloud

What is justice?  What is mercy?  Can the two co-exist?  I’ve been wrestling with these questions this week.  Because I found out this week that a well-respected person in the community has done some terribly wicked things to a very dear friend of mine.  My friend and I sat in a restaurant and as he told me the evil that this person had done his eyes filled with tears.  And my heart filled with anger.  My friend was hurting because of this person’s heinous sin.  I was hot.  I still am.  I want this person to be judged for what he has done to my friend.  I want his evil to be exposed so that the community will see him for what he really is.  And I want this to happen now.  I cannot stop thinking about it.  And I don’t think it’s coincidental that this very same week I had to prepare a sermon on the third chapter of Jonah which I had titled weeks ago -- “the God who shows mercy.”  Because of what happened to my friend my mind is pre-occupied with demands for justice and judgment.   And because of the hours I spent preparing this sermon my mind is also pre-occupied with thoughts of God’s mercy.  So I keep feeling this tension between my want for justice and my need for mercy.  Can any of you relate to this?  This tension between justice and mercy?  That’s what we’re going to talk about today as we open up to Jonah chapter 3.  But first I want us to talk about these concepts at our tables.    

QUESTION:  What is justice?  What is mercy?  Can they co-exist?  Explain.   

Introduction/Review

Today is our third week studying the book of Jonah together.  I don’t know about you but as we study I’m discovering that the book of Jonah is more exciting and more beautiful than I ever knew.  Before now I had always heard Jonah taught as a book about Jonah.  So I was taught to approach this book as little more than a moral tale about how we should not disobey God like Jonah did and how, if we do, we might end up in the belly of a big fish.  If that’s all the book is about then there’s really no reason for us to spend four weeks discussing it.  But what makes the book worth talking about for four weeks and worth getting excited about is the fact that the book is not about Jonah.  The book is named after Jonah, but the book is about Yahweh, the Lord.  It’s through the experience of Jonah that we get to see who Yahweh is and how he interacts with his creation.   

In chapter 1 we saw that Yahweh is the God who pursues.  We saw that Yahweh relentlessly and tenaciously pursues those who do not deserve it and we rejoiced to see that Yahweh’s relentless and tenacious pursuit is not be thwarted by human disobedience.  We saw all of this through the experience of Jonah.  In the first verse of Jonah we were introduced to Jonah as a true prophet of the true God.  But as soon as we were introduced to him as a true prophet we saw this true prophet fleeing from the true God.  Yahweh had called him to preach to the Ninevites, who happened to be the arch-enemies of Israel, Jonah’s country.  Jonah knew that if he were to preach Yahweh to the Ninevites they might repent and Yahweh might have mercy on them. And he wanted no part of that.  He wanted his murderous and violent enemies to be judged for their wickedness.  So instead of preaching to them he fled his responsibility.  He rushed to the port, paid his fare, and boarded a ship toward Tarshish.  This was in the opposite direction of Nineveh, it was considered to be the other end of the earth. It would be like God calling you to preach to Camas and you boarding a plane to New York.  Which I could understand on some level, because Camas is a frightening place.  But our flight won’t stop God’s pursuit.  Jonah thought this would be enough to get away from Yahweh’s call on his life.  But he greatly underestimated the God of pursuit.  Yahweh pursued him onto the sea by sending a great storm that threatened to kill him and the pagan sailors who he hitched a ride with.  Yahweh continued to pursue him by using the pagan sailors to provide Jonah with several opportunities to proclaim Yahweh.  Yahweh continued to pursue Jonah by using the pagan sailor’s casting of lots to bring Jonah face to face with his guilt.  And it didn’t stop there.  Yahweh continued to pursue him until Jonah was brought to a moment of truth – a decision had to be made.  He was going to die in a matter of moments.  He had to choose whether he would die with the sailors on board the ship or whether he would choose to die on behalf of the sailors.  At the last minute Jonah turned back toward Yahweh and told the sailors to toss him into the sea.  They did.  And at that moment the storm stopped.  It was then that we saw that Yahweh was not only pursuing Jonah, he was also pursuing these pagan sailors.  After the storm calmed they prayed to Yahweh, made sacrifices to him, and vowed to follow him.  Together we thanked God that in spite of our ignorance and stubbornness and disobedience Yahweh remains the God who pursues.

In chapter 2 we saw that Yahweh is also the God who saves his people.  As Jonah sank toward his certain death in the middle of the sea Yahweh continued to pursue him even then.  He did this because he desired to save him.  And he did.  Though Jonah had done absolutely nothing to merit salvation or rescue or God’s intervention Yahweh sent a great fish to swallow Jonah whole.  The fish appeared to be an instrument of judgment but was in fact Yahweh’s choice instrument of salvation.   Yahweh allowed Jonah to live within the belly of the fish – it was terribly uncomfortable and frightening – but it was salvation.  And Jonah knew it.  God had miraculously intervened in his own creation to save his reluctant prophet. Like the sailors before him, Jonah turned to God in prayer, promised to make sacrifices, and vowed to follow him.  He did this because he recognized that salvation is of the Lord. As Jonah proclaimed this Yahweh confirmed it by commanding the fish to vomit Jonah onto dry land.  And this is where we pick up today in Jonah chapter 3.  Let’s read that together and see that Yahweh is not only the God who pursues and the God who saves, he is also the God who shows mercy. 

God Shows Mercy to His Prophet

We don’t have to get any farther than the first verse of this chapter to discover that Yahweh is the God who shows mercy.  Verse 1 says, “the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.”  Even after everything we’ve read God mercifully called on Jonah a second time.  And he didn’t change his task because of his sin, he called him to the same thing.  That is so unlike us, isn’t it?  If we were God Jonah wouldn’t have even gotten this far – he would have perished at sea.  But if we were generous enough to save him we surely wouldn’t call him once again to be our mouthpiece, would we?  We’d probably think, “Look, man, you’re killing me here.  First I tell you what to do and you disobey me.  Then when I place you next to these sailors you act like you don’t even know who I am.  Then I was kind enough to save your life, even though you didn’t deserve it.  After all of that there’s no way I’m sending you to Nineveh.  It’s really clear to me right now that you’re just not the man for the job.  So head on back to Israel and I’ll get with you after I find somebody I can rely on.”  That’s how we’d do it, because that’s the way of man.  But that’s not the way of God.  Yahweh is the God who shows mercy.  And we see that right way in verse 1 as he shows mercy to his disobedient prophet.  Yahweh comes to Jonah a second time and says, “Go to the city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” 

The first time Jonah immediately ran the other way.  This time Jonah immediately obeyed.  Jonah is given a second chance to participate in Yahweh’s mission and this time he plays his part.  What changed?  Why does Jonah obey this time?  It’s not so that he can be saved.  Jonah has already been saved.  It’s not to earn God’s favor.  God has already shown him favor.  It’s good he’s not obeying for those reasons, because those are the wrong reasons.  It might be that he’s now obeying for the right reasons.  Maybe he is finally willing to join this side of God’s mission because he has just experienced what it is like to be on the other end of God’s mission.  He was disobedient but Yahweh pursued him.  He deserved death but Yahweh saved him.  Maybe his experience with God’s mercy motivated him to obey God by proclaiming his mercy to Nineveh.  That should be our motivation for loving others and proclaiming the Gospel and offering mercy.  But as I have been learning this week it is only when you really understand your own wickedness that you can truly understand God’s mercy.  By now Jonah is starting to recognize his own wickedness and, as a result, is beginning to understand the profound mercy of God.  But sadly that’s not going to last.  Because even though Jonah now does what God asks of him we find out later that he was still hoping that Yahweh would destroy Nineveh in judgment, rather than have mercy on them.  So perhaps Jonah’s motivation was more one of gratitude than one of agreement.  Perhaps Jonah still didn’t want Yahweh to extend mercy to the Ninevites but because of the mercy God extended to him he was willing to obey him, even if he disagreed.  Sometimes we might find ourselves in a similar situation.  We don’t always understand the mind of God or the ways of God but we ought to obey him nonetheless, because he has shown himself merciful to us. 

And that’s really what this story is about.  It’s not about Jonah’s response, though we can certainly learn from Jonah’s good and poor choices.  It’s about Yahweh’s mercy.  Yahweh is the God who shows mercy.  And here we see how far that mercy extends as he has mercy on his prophet.  On his prophet!  We see here that Yahweh doesn’t just have mercy on the ignorant.  Yahweh has mercy on those of us who know better.  Yahweh has mercy on his disobedient followers.  Hallelujah!  He came to Jonah a second time.  Today God comes to us a second time.  We have disobeyed.  We have resisted the call to follow him and go on mission with him.  We have been more concerned about our life and our people than we have been about Yahweh and his mission.  We’ve been more concerned about our comfort than about the salvation of others.  Through the story of Jonah Yahweh confronts our sin and he also invites us to receive his mercy.  Thank God that he had mercy on Jonah because I am Jonah – you are Jonah.  We are the disobedient prophet.  And as Yahweh had mercy on Jonah I rejoice that he has mercy on us.  He still accepts us and invites us to join him on his mission to reconcile creation to himself. 

QUESTION:  When this story is read in Jewish synagogues the congregation responds with the confession – “We are Jonah.”  In what ways do you identify with Jonah?

God Has Mercy on His Enemy

God has mercy on his people.  But what we see next is that God also has mercy on his enemies.  This whole story began because Yahweh wanted to pursue, save, and have mercy on the city of Nineveh.  Remember that Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, the evil Empire with a horrific reputation.  They were feared by the whole world because of what they did to their military opponents and civilians alike.  They dismembered them while they lived, sometimes taking out their tongue or their testicles while they were conscious or even peeling off all of their skin as they watched.  They held parades where the friends of the deceased were forced to carry their friend’s heads on long poles as a display of their humiliation at the hands of the Assyrians.  Basically, they were horrible people!  They were violent, they were murderous, they were proud, they were wicked.  Jonah did not want to preach to them because he wanted Yahweh to judge them for their wickedness and especially for what they had done to his people, the Israelites.  These were the arch-enemies of the Israelites.  That made them the enemies of God’s people.  That made them the enemies of God.  And God calls Jonah to preach to God’s enemies. Through Nineveh we see that Yahweh is the God who shows mercy even to his most violent enemy.

With some reluctance Jonah obeys the Lord and joins his mission to pursue his enemies.  The text tells us that he went to Nineveh, this evil city, and began to walk through the city, preaching the message Yahweh gave him.  I cannot imagine what he must have felt as he entered the city gates.  Here he was, face to face with the people who have rejoiced over murdering his countrymen.  He was now in their territory, alone, and he was about to open his mouth and publicly confront their wickedness.  Jonah must have been anxious about how they would respond to his message.  Would they reject him?  Would they ignore him?  Would they torture him and murder him?  Or would they repent and receive mercy from God?  I think of all these options Jonah was hoping that they would ignore him.  And you would think that they might.  Because I’ve read dozens of books on preaching and according to every human principle this was a terrible sermon.  For one, it was ridiculously short.  It was only one sentence long.  In fact, in the Hebrew language the entire sermon was only 5 words!  In light of that I’m sure some of you would like it if Jonah were your pastor instead of me, but that’s a conversation for another day.  His sermon was only one sentence long!  On top of that it was a fire and brimstone message.  It was a message of doom and destruction, “forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” There’s no clever introduction, no funny jokes, no inspiring stories, not a single reference to Michael Scott or Chris Rock – just a 5-word message of coming judgment.  It’s the last thing you would expect these arrogant and violent people to respond to. 

But they did.  Not only did they listen but they believed the words of God and they repented.  The whole city recognized that Jonah spoke for Yahweh, they recognized their wickedness and their need for God’s mercy.  So they fasted, they put on sackcloth, and they turned to Yahweh in repentance and in humility.  As we’ve seen the past few weeks the book of Jonah is filled with miraculous stories, including the story of the big fish.  But this is truly the greatest miracle in the entire book.  Noah preached for 120 years and not one person repented.  Jeremiah preached for 40 years and no one listened.  I preach every week and the city of Portland couldn’t care less.  Jonah says 5 words and the entire city repents.  What is this?   This is nothing other than the mercy of God at work, even on his enemies.  

Upon first look Jonah’s five-word sermon seems like a message of doom and gloom.  But everyone involved, both Jonah and the Ninevites, knew that with that message of doom came the possibility of hope.  The mere fact that Yahweh sent Jonah to warn the Ninevites of coming destruction revealed that Yahweh was willing to have mercy on them if they would turn toward him and away from their wickedness.  The Ninevites knew very little of Yahweh, but they knew enough.  They knew enough to know they deserved the judgment and condemnation of God so they threw themselves upon the mercy of God.  They cried out to him in repentance and their fasting and sackcloth symbolized this. 

The people of the city did this on their own without word from their king, which in the Assyrian culture is nothing if not significant.  The Assyrian kings were gods themselves.  To respond to Jonah’s message in this way was to publicly proclaim that Yahweh was a greater God than their king.  This is bold and shocking.  But even more shocking is the king’s response.   The king, who saw himself as deity, heard the words of Jonah and immediately rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust.  He believed the words of the true God and he humbled himself in repentance.  The man who made himself out to be god bowed to the true God.  The king was not simply going through the motions.  He was truly humble and repentant.  We see the fruit of that repentance immediately as he issues this five-fold proclamation.  First he calls for an intensification of the fast the people had already begun.  The people had chosen not to eat, but he commands them to not even drink.  And he required the same even of the livestock, which would put the health of their economy at extreme risk.  Second he commanded that all the people continue to dress in sackcloth, the clothing of slaves, to symbolize their humility before Yahweh.  Third he commanded that all the people cry out to Yahweh with urgency.  Fourth he commanded all of the people to give up their evil ways and their violence, the very things the Assyrians prided themselves for.  Fifth and finally he proclaimed why all of this must be done with sincerity and with urgency, “Who knows?”  he asked, “God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” 

Does that sound familiar?  That is nearly the same sentence spoken by the pagan sailors in the first chapter.  They urged Jonah to call out to Yahweh hoping that he might have mercy on them and stop the storm that threatened to tear their ship to pieces.  Later, when the storm finally stopped they were converted from pagan worship to Yahweh worship.  The same thing is happening here with the Ninevites.  They have been converted from self-worship to Yahweh worship and they too cry out to Yahweh hoping that he might have mercy on them.  Just like the sailors in chapter 1 and Jonah in chapter 2 the Ninevites recognize that Yahweh is the true God and that they are beyond hopeless apart from his intervention.  And so like them they threw themselves on his mercy. 

I wish my preaching could be half as effective.  Jonah preached a five-word sermon and completed a three-day job in one day.  At no point did he have to explain to the Ninevites why they needed to repent or why they needed God’s mercy.  They knew.  At no point did the Ninevites argue with Jonah’s proclamation.  They knew.  At no point did they argue with the claim that they deserved God’s judgment.  They knew.  At no point did they try to justify themselves before God.  They knew that they only had one hope and that was the mercy of God.  By nature you and I argue against God’s judgment and try to justify ourselves.  That the Ninevites responded as they did is nothing short of miraculous.  

But as miraculous as their response is it is not the point of this narrative.  This story is not about how the Ninevites responded.  This story is about Yahweh and how he shows mercy to even the worst of his enemies.  Verse 10 sums it up beautifully, “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.”  Just as God pursued and saved and had mercy on his prophet and on the pagan sailors so he pursued and saved and had mercy on his enemies. 

QUESTION:  Jonah faced the difficult task of offering mercy to those who murdered his people.  How can you offer mercy to those who have hurt you without sacrificing justice?      

God Has Mercy through His Cross

Jonah wanted justice to be done his way.  But what we see through his story is that God’s justice is superior to human justice.  Human justice tells us that wickedness can only be cleansed by punishment.  God’s justice shows us that mercy can cleanse wickedness as well.  God’s justice is a better justice.  And it is exemplified not in the Jonah we read about today but in Jesus the True Jonah.  Jesus is the True Jonah who obediently entered into enemy territory and proclaimed Yahweh to the worst of his enemies.  Jesus is the True Jonah who brought justice to the wicked by showing mercy to the wicked.  He did this by receiving their punishment upon himself.  He did this by receiving your punishment upon himself.  At the Cross of Christ Yahweh’s perfect justice met his perfect mercy.  It is here that Yahweh poured his wrath and judgment onto his innocent Son so that his enemies could receive mercy. 

In Jesus and in his cross we have the fulfillment of all the book of Jonah points to.  Through the experience of Jonah and the sailors and the Ninevites we are introduced to the God who pursues.  In Jesus we see God pursuing us to the point of becoming like us and coming to us.  Through the experience of Jonah and the others we are introduced to the God who saves.  In Jesus we see God not only saving us from death but from his own righteous wrath, which is much worse.  Through Jonah and the others we are introduced to the God who shows mercy even to his enemies.  In Jesus we see God having mercy on us -- his enemies -- by receiving the wrath of God in our place upon the cross. 

So how will you respond to Jesus – the God who pursues, and saves, and shows mercy?  I pray that we will be like the proud king of Nineveh and humble ourselves before God, repent of our wickedness, and cry out for mercy.  I pray that we will be like Jonah and confront our most violent of enemies with the message that Yahweh desires to reconcile his enemies to himself.  I pray that we will repent and call on Jesus and I pray that we will give our lives to telling our friends and enemies alike to do the same.