Just Like Jonah

Not Just a Fish Story

The Book of Jonah was written during a time in Israel’s history when they were focusing on some kind of racial/national/religious purity to the point that they wanted to get rid of all foreign influence. Yes, the Israelites were returning from Babylonian captivity to their homeland. They wanted to make their nation great again, and some of their leaders (Ezra and Nehemiah, to name names) thought that they needed to cleanse themselves from all foreigners. They were even willing to separate families, telling those who had taken foreign wives to send them back to their own respective lands.

There were some, however, who said "Wait a minute, not so fast. This does not sound like the God we worship, the God we know to be compassionate and merciful." They had a more universal vision of their faith and how they should live, so there began a resistance movement to counter the hardliners.

In order to address the xenophobic error that threatened to distort the faith  even while attempting to preserve it, the story of Jonah arose to illustrate to the people that the Israelites were not the only ones who could hear and respond to the word of God. Indeed, the story reflects God's compassion for all people and gives us reason to welcome the foreigner in our midst*.

Confronting the Other

In the story, the Lord told Jonah to go and preach to the people of Nineveh. They were foreigners and heathens, after all, in Jonah's mind. His message was that they needed to repent, or God would bring down judgment. Jonah had been reluctant to even meet with these ungodly heathens, but he eventually delivered the message (after some detours, including a ride in the belly of a big fish). Once he had his say, Jonah headed out of town to find a nice vantage point to view God’s mighty destruction upon the people.

Much to Jonah’s dismay, the people of Nineveh actually repented and turned their hearts toward God. The biblical story recounts that Jonah was angry with God for the way it all turned out.  “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.” (Jonah 4: 2, NIV)

Thomas Carlisle wrote a beautiful book, You! Jonah! He recasts the story in a series of poems which can be read in a single sitting. I highly recommend the book. Here is one of the poems from Carlisle’s work:

The generosity of God
Displeased Jonah exceedingly
And he slashed with angry prayer
At the graciousness of the Almighty.
“I told You so,” he screamed.
“I knew what You would do,
You dirty Forgiver.
You bless Your enemies
And show kindness to those
Who despitefully use You.
I would rather die
Than live in a world
With a God like You.
And don’t try to forgive me either.”

Confronting Our Own Xenophobia

In America today, we are seeing a rise in xenophobic fear and recrimination. We are hearing cries to build walls and pass legislation to keep the foreigners out. People of faith seem just as loathe to show kindness and love to a foreigner as Jonah was. We are seeing a huge swath of Christian believers who apparently would rather not live in a world where the words of Jesus must be taken into consideration.

As a Southerner who grew up Southern Baptist, I find it quite ironic that we are hearing a higher ethic from The New York Times and greater compassion from Hollywood than we are hearing from our pulpits on Sunday. We, like Jonah, could learn from those “heathens” on the East and West Coasts, if we but had ears to hear and eyes to see.

We find ourselves in a world where many professing Christians confronted with Black Lives Matter or Hispanic refugees at the border do not want to hear any word about the love of God or the compassion of Christ. Instead, they want to “Keep them Out,” “Send them back,” or “Push them Down.” 

Deep down we surely know, as did Jonah in the biblical story, that God intends peace and compassion, not strife and hate.

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* The book of Ruth was written during this same time period and also illustrated the value of the foreigner by reminding the people that even their great King David had foreign ancestry in his bloodline.

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Image at the top: "Jonah and the Whale,"  ca. 1400 , Iran (At The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City)

Medium: Ink, opaque watercolor, gold, and silver on paper 

                 A folio from a Jami al-Tavarikh (Compendium of Chronicles)

Note from The MET page regarding the painting:

The story of Jonah and the Whale, mentioned in the Qur'an (37:139), was popular in the Muslim world and frequently illustrated in manuscripts of world history. This large-scale painting, however, never formed part of a manuscript. Rather, it may have been used during oral recitation or storytelling. Scholars have also suggested that with its strong palette, monumental figures, and spare composition, this work may reflect a now-lost wall painting tradition. Here, we see Jonah after his release from the belly of the fish. Above him, a gourd vine grows—sent by God to protect him from the elements—and, gliding across the top of the painting, a spirited angel with colorful spreading wings offers Jonah a garment.

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