Is Concerned For All Sinners

God Shows Pity Even To The Pitiless

9.24.23 [Jonah 3:10-4:11] River of Life (18th Sunday after Pentecost)

Imagine someone booked a three-day trip for you. But there’s a catch. It’s to a location the Department of State has issued a travel warning for. They’re urging US citizens to defer all travel there, and those who are currently living there to leave quickly.

But you’re a brave spirit--at least in this imaginary scenario--and you continue to read on and find out why you shouldn’t go. It warns: This place is a city of blood, full of lies and plunder, never without victims! The crack of whips, the clatter of wheels, galloping horses and jolting chariots. Charging calvary, flashing swords and glittering spears! Many casualties, piles of dead, bodies without number, people stumbling over corpses. Endlessly cruel to anyone who crosses its path.

There’s no way you’re going, right? Who in their right mind would? But what if that someone who booked the trip for you was the Lord?

That’s what Jonah was tasked with. The warning was not from the US State Department. It came from Nahum 3. Those were the Lord’s views of Nineveh, 130 years after Jonah. Let’s just say they didn’t earn that reputation in between Jonah and Nahum.

Nineveh was the cornerstone city of Assyria--a nation renowned for their brutality, even today. Ruthlessness and violence were the Assyrian calling cards. One Assyrian king famously summarized his conquest I destroyed, devastated, and burned with fire. I tore down their towns and turned them into forgotten mounds.

Assyria was a powerful nation for many reasons. First, they were one of the first to systematically combine engineering & fighting tactics. They created the first all-weather, all-year army anyone had seen. They wore iron battle armor, knee-high boots instead of sandals, and carried iron spears and swords—not bronze. Their chariots moved in formation. They had a mobile missile platform--a kind of ancient tank. The Assyrians lived for violence & warfare.

But it wasn’t just that they won most wars, it was how they fought. They lusted for blood. For sport, they hunted elephants & leopards. Their kings competed over who killed the most lions. Assyrian brutality would make us shudder today. Beheading their enemies was kind. Assyrian soldiers and kings didn’t hesitate to flay and impale. Whenever they killed they intended to send a message.

The Lord sent Jonah into the teeth of Assyria--to Nineveh. You might remember how he responded to this mission trip. Jonah ran to Joppa and hopped on the first thing sailing to Tarshish. But the Lord turned Jonah around. First, he sent a terrible storm that compelled the sailors to fear the Lord and throw Jonah overboard. As Jonah sank, the Lord sent a big fish to swallow him whole. For three days and three nights, Jonah made his home in the innards of a sea creature. The big fish is what most of us remember about Jonah.

Jonah repented and the Lord caused the big fish to spit him up on dry land. Then the Lord sent Jonah back to Nineveh. Jonah went and proclaimed a very short but memorable message: (Jonah. 3:4) Forty more days and Nineveh will be destroyed.

Then something more amazing than the whole fish thing happens. The Word of God spread like wildfire and this violent city had a real change of heart. (Jonah. 3:5) The Ninevites believed God. Even the king responded. He and his nobles implored a city-wide fast. All of them, from the greatest to the least, man and animal, put on sackcloth and didn’t taste anything. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Nineveh’s repentance was incredible and recognized by the Lord who examines the heart. What a triumph!

But not to Jonah. (Jonah. 4:1) To Jonah, this seemed very wrong and he became angry. Then he prayed an angry prayer. This is why I didn’t want to come. I knew you’d forgive them. If you’ll accept them, cut me off! God what you are doing isn’t fair! It’s not right!

Have you ever thought that way? Have you ever been angry at people who live selfishly and seem to never get caught? In fact, it feels like they catch all the breaks! Why don’t the bad things they do ever catch up with them? Don’t you get furious when you see people who are cutthroat and conniving, ruthless and thuggish and they seem to get away with it? Don’t you look at wicked people in the news or in faraway places and wonder to yourself, why doesn’t God do something about them?

We could find some solace in the fact that he will. God is slow to anger, but many wicked people will feel his wrath for eternity.

But that’s not exactly what’s going on here. Nineveh isn’t wicked and smugly gloating about it. At least not at this moment. They’re repentant . They’re begging for God’s mercy. And yet Jonah still thinks that God showing them his grace and compassion is very wrong. Think about the visceral reaction you have when you hear about a murderer or a child abuser finding God behind bars? Are you glad they’ve been led to repentance? Or does it make you angry? Does it feel very wrong that someone could do all that wrong and not have hell to pay for it? Are you cynically dismissive?

How about when someone hurts you personally? Maybe you grew up in a dysfunctional house. Dad had a substance problem. Mom had a sharp tongue. Your siblings never had anything nice to say to you. Years later they come to you, repentant. It’s easy to be angry. How can years of abusive behavior be forgiven so easily? Not so fast, right? They didn’t even put on sackcloth. They didn’t even offer to fast! It can’t be that easy! That’s not fair!

From time to time, we’ve all thought like Jonah. But this prayer is much more profound than even Jonah realized. He says I know that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger & abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. To Jonah this was a criticism. To sinners this is our only hope.

The very thing that Jonah resented about God in this moment was what he needed most. Jonah was angry, but God was slow to anger and abounding in love. God wanted Jonah to get a glimpse of why. So he gave him a living lesson.

As Jonah went outside the city and seemed to be rooting for fire and brimstone to reign down on Nineveh, God sent something else. A leafy plant. God made it grow up quickly and it brought Jonah joy. The prophet who had been pouting about all that God was doing was happy about this plant. But it didn’t last. The next day, the Lord sent a worm. It chewed the plant so that it withered. Then God turned up the heat on Jonah. It was so hot that Jonah wanted to die. He repeats his melancholy moan about (Jonah 4:8) how it would be better for him to die rather than live. Then God uses Jonah’s anger about the plant to help him see something about God’s love. Jonah didn’t do anything to make this plant grow. He had it but a short time. How could he be so attached to it?

He was attached to it because it was his own and it brought him physical relief and even joy. Anyone who has ever gotten invested in houseplants gets Jonah. But God doesn’t say, you liked the plant. He says you were concerned about it. Literally, you were showing it pity. God is using language that is usually reserved for warfare. Jonah, you have more pity for a plant than you do for people! Understand who these people. I made them, just as I made all mankind. They are wicked. I know that better than you do. But I want them to turn from their evil ways and live. There are 120,000 people living in this city that are fasting and mourning and repentant and they don’t know the Law of Moses. They don’t even know their right hand from their left. How can I be abounding in love if I only love the lovely? How can I claim to be compassionate if I send calamity upon those who come to me in faith?

I wonder if Jonah came around to the concept of God’s compassion. The text doesn’t say. Some will argue that the fact that we have this book at all is a testament to Jonah’s repentance. How could anyone write these things down and not see the error of their ways and rejoice in the abounding love of the Lord?

It’s amazing to me, that the very thing that Jonah complained about, is what all sinners—you and me and Jonah and the Ninevites and every other sinner—must cling to. God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Jonah might have been quick to grow angry, but God was slow. God was gracious and compassionate. His love empowered Jonah’s words, making his sulky, short sermon one of the most powerful and impactful in the whole Bible.

God’s concern for that great city of Nineveh wasn’t an outlier. It was perfectly according to his nature. God’s concern for sinners may not be fair, at least to our way of thinking, but it is fantastic.

God’s concern for sinners is hard for us to grasp. It is the polar opposite of the cutthroat captain who tells his men: Show no mercy! Take no prisoners! It’s the kind of virtue that the kingdom of Assyria typically despised. But the kingdom of God is based on it.

Here’s how God describes our great & compassionate king, Jesus, in Psalm 72. Even though all nations serve him and all kings bow down to him, (Ps. 72:12-13) He will deliver the needy who cry out. The afflicted who have no one to help. He will take pity on the weak and save the needy from death. He will rescue them from oppression & violence, for precious is their blood in his sight.

The one, true God is known for being gracious & compassionate, patient & abounding in love, a God who takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He has earned this reputation. He shows great pity upon Nineveh and Jonah, and people like them today. God continues to deal with wicked and terrible people patiently. He continues to be merciful to people who are terrible ingrates, like Jonah.

God did not grant Jonah’s petition and take away his life. Instead, God sent a better prophet to take away his sins. In so many ways, Jesus stands as a superior substitute for the prophet Jonah.

Like he did for Jonah, the Lord made plans to send his one and only Son behind enemy lines. Like Jonah, Jesus was directed to walk right into the teeth of this violent and wicked world. Like Jonah, Jesus had a succinct and urgent message. But his was different. Not 40 more days and you’re all gonna get what you got coming to you, but Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near.

Jesus surpassed Jonah is so many ways. Jonah was a rebellious preaching. Vindictive & blood-thirsty. He loathed the people he lectured. Jesus was a faithful preacher. Kind & compassionate. Jesus loved the people he lived among. He actively sought out the hurting & the lonely, the marginalized & mourning.

While Jonah served the Lord, he loved himself more than that great city. Jesus’ heart was fully dedicated to the Lord’s work. He came to seek and to save the lost. And when they refused, he wept over the rejection of the great city of Jerusalem. He never took pleasure in the death of the wicked, no matter how they had treated him.

In so many ways, Jesus was the superior substitute for Jonah. Yet, Jesus, who is fully God in flesh and blood, abounding in love, gracious and compassionate, did not smear Jonah’s name. In fact, when the Jonah-types of his day, the teachers of the law, came to him demanding a sign, Jesus refused and instead said this. (Mt. 12:40-41) The only sign I will give you is the sign of Jonah. Just as he spent three days in the belly of a huge fish, I will spend three days & nights in the heart of the earth. And one day, the people of Nineveh will stand in judgment on all who rejected me. They repented when Jonah preached to them. Now something greater than Jonah is here. All sinners have hope because of Jesus.

God showed his grace and compassion in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Because of his perfect life and innocent death, God relented from sending the whole world to hell. When God saw what Jesus did, he turned and smiled upon us. The King of kings humbled himself to the point of death, even death on an instrument of torture. The Lion of Judah was pierced for our transgressions. By his wounds, we are healed. Because Jesus died for our sins, we will not perish. Because God is gracious and compassionate, we are spared. God may not be fair, as we see things, but he is faithful to his Word. He is slow to anger and abounding in love, concerned for all sinners.

It is that great concern, that deep pity, that abounding love that spurs us on today. We proclaim the grace and compassion of God to a world that is wicked, more than we know, with this confidence: The God of abounding love will bless us abundantly, so that we will abound in every good work, including calling all sinners to repentance and to know Christ as the One who is abounding in love for us all. For precious is their blood—and ours!—in his sight. Amen.