2 Messages 1 Response

Contrasting Messages

Today we are four Sundays including today from the start of lent. Lent is a time of fasting and repentance. The scene we see in Ninevah is a good reminder for us that Ash Wednesday is coming.

Our reading from Jonah and Mark give us contrasting messages. One is a message of judgement, doom and gloom, without any sliver of hope. The other is a message of full of promise and hope .

Today we wrestle with the message of Jonah to Ninevah, and the response of the people of Ninevah. In contrast with the message of Jesus who emerges from the wilderness with a proclamation, “The time promised by God has come at last! The Kingdom of God has come near!”

The call of Jesus to those who wish to follow him into the Kingdom, is repent and believe the good news.

Ninevah displays the response Christ calls us to today. As we wrestle with these two messages of God, lets remember his response to the people of Ninevah. Let’s remember in Christ God transforms the message of doom and gloom to a message of promise and hope. Let’s hear and respond the message of God today. “The time promised by God has come at last! The Kingdom of God has come near! Repent and believe the good news!”

Psalm 51:16–17 NRSV

16 For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. 17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Doom and Gloom vs Promise and Hope

Jonah

We find Jonah in the beginning of Chapter 3 getting a second chance to do the work God had given him to do. Jonah in chapter 1 was told to go to Nineveh and announce my judgement against it. Jonah runs from the call of God in the opposite direction.

In chapter 3 Jonah is coming to his own repentance and finally doing what God told him to do. He gets up and goes to Nineveh and delcares the message God has given him.

“Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” No message of hope. No call to turn from their sin. No indication that God has even allowed for an escape from this judgement.

Jonah sits and waits eagerly to see the judgement of God carried out on his enemies.

Jonah 4:1–4 NRSV

1 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?”

Nineveh

Enemies of Israel. Capital of the Assyrian empire. Pagans.

Despite the absence of a call to repentance, the King of Ninevah declares a fast. He calls the people and animals to put on sackcloth and ashes and pray earnestly to God, and turn from their evil and violence.

Jonah 3:9 NRSV

9 Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.”

God

Responds to repentance with compassion. Even in those we may think are undeserving. Compassion and mercy are God’s to extend and not ours.

Exodus 33:19 NRSV

19 And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you the name, ‘The Lord’; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.

Romans 9:14–16 NRSV

14 What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.

In Jonah we get a front row seat to understanding who God is. That he is indeed exactly how Jonah describes him in chapter 4, a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. God is eager to turn back from destroying people. This is the character displayed in Christ.

Romans 8:1–2 NRSV

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

Jesus

Begins his public ministry in Galilee, with a message from God that isn’t full of judgement and destruction.

John 3:16–17 NRSV

16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Jesus opening message in Mark is one of promise and hope. The time promised by God has come at last! The Kingdom of God has come near! Repent and believe the good news!

1 Response

Jonah delivers a message from God of judgement and condemnation, death and destruction. Ninevah, despite not being called to repent, responded with repentance, hoping God would have a change of mind. God does indeed change his mind.

Jesus delivers a message from God full of promise and hope. The time promised by God has come at last! The kingdom of God has come near! Repent and believe the good news!

There is only one response we can have to these messages. The people of Ninevah displayed that response.

Jonah in response sat on a hill side and waited almost gleefully to watch the destruction God of which God warned Ninevah. We the people of God cannot be like Jonah and eagerly wait for the judgement and condemnation of our enemies.

We must be like Christ! Who proclaims a message of promise and hope. May we be a people who proclaim this message of God’s love. May we respond as Christ calls us to respond “ The time promised by God has come at last! The Kingdom of God has come near! Repent and believe the good news!”