Mad About Grace

 

 

Scripture

4 But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. ² 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. ³ And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” ⁴ And the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?” ⁵ 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.

⁶ The Lord God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush. ⁷ But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. ⁸ When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

⁹ But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?” And he said, “Yes, angry enough to die.” ¹⁰ Then the Lord said, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. ¹¹ And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”  (NRSV)

Devotion

 Today marks the end of our 4 part series on the prophet Jonah.  So far, we've seen Jonah run away from God's call, thank God for giving him a second chance, and go on to do the bare minimum that it would take to follow God's commands.   Through it all, God has remained gracious and merciful to the erstwhile prophet.  Today, we see Jonah yell at God for offering the same mercy to others.

When the Ninevites' show of repentance convinces God not to destroy the city, Jonah finally admits why he didn't want to go to Nineveh in the first place.  He says that he knew that if the people repented, God would forgive them.  Jonah  wanted God to destroy the capital of Assyria and all its inhabitants.  The very thought that God would make him an instrument of mercy for Israel's oppressors fills him with rage. And so--forgetting all about the mercy that God has just shown him--Jonah says that he would rather die than see the Ninevites live.

Jonah's anger with God here points to an uncomfortable truth.  All too often, want God to show us mercy, but we do not want to share that mercy with others.  Even the most kindhearted of us has at least one person that they would like to see suffer.  Perhaps they have hurt or oppressed us.  Perhaps they have said or done something that is vile.  Perhaps we just don't get along.  Whatever our reasons for despising them, learning that we have played a part in God's plan to show those people mercy can feel like too much to bear.  Like Jonah, we hurl our accusations that such mercy is unfair...that God needs to punish  our enemies.   Then, we retreat to a safe distance, plop down on our bottoms, and wait for God to capitulate to our demands.  We would rather sit and stew until we die than be forced to watch our enemies thrive.

God responds to Jonah's and our anger with an object lesson.  God gives Jonah a large bush to give him shade for a day before having a worm kill it the next day.  As the sun beats down on him, Jonah is very upset about the bush's death.  Then God makes his big point: if Jonah can be so upset about the death of a bush that he had not part in creating or caring for, then imagine how God must feel at the thought of killing over a hundred thousand of his blessed Creations and all their animals.  

The moral of the story is clear: it is God's nature to be merciful.  God can share that mercy with anyone God wants...whether or not we think they deserve it.  What's more, we should be thankful that God doesn't reserve mercy for just those who deserve it, because none of us do.  That is the definition of grace: God's free gift of forgiveness and mercy to people who don't deserve it. We receive grace, because God cannot bear the thought of destroying us.  The last thing that we should do is begrudge the moments when God uses us to help share that grace with others.  Instead, we should be thankful for a God who is more merciful than we could ever be.

We do not get to see how Jonah responds to God's question.  We can, though, think carefully about how we would respond if it was posed to us.  The next time we find ourselves fuming that God has shown mercy to someone we would like to see suffer, let's try putting ourselves in God's shoes and asking ourselves what it must feel like to harm God's beloved Creation.   Perhaps pondering this question will teach us to be a little kinder and more forgiving.  At the very least, it should inspire us to be more grateful for the moments when we get to be instruments of God's grace at work in the world...even when it is shared with our enemies.

Prayer

God, thank you for your grace in my life.  Make me an instrument of your peace and mercy, sharing your goodness even with people who I do not feel deserve it.  May I come to rejoice for your grace at work in the life of each member of your Beloved Creation who you spare from harm.  Amen.