What Jesus Says about Jonah

Introduction

Chinese Taxi Illustration - quai vs. kwai.

Sometimes, when we look back on moments of our lives, and additional information that brings clarity does a few things for us.

First, clarity shows us what was lacking.

Second, clarity shows us how it could have been better.

This is why, we cannot read Jonah simply the way the Israelites would have read Jonah. Sure, they would have seen Jonah as selfish and sinful and God as gracious. We can learn those things about God, and they are perfectly reasonable assertions from the text. But, by God’s grace, we have the whole story. And Jesus grants a level of clarity to every story.

The Bible does this throughout. You have heard me say throughout this series, “Jesus is the better/greater Jonah. What does that mean?

We read the Scripture - all of it - to know Jesus. Jesus is the information that Jonah didn’t have. And Jonah is mankind without Jesus.

From the opening pages of Genesis to the final pages of Revelation, we see God’s revelation to us of many things - but mainly who His Son is - the one who will save humanity from their sins.

Even in this text, Jesus tells us that Jonah is a sign for us of Himself.

Just as three days and nights Jonah was in the fish while Jesus was in the tomb.

And by saying explicitely in Luke 11, something greater is here.

Luke 24:27 “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

So, how is Jesus the greater Jonah, and how does that change the way we read this text?

Luke 11:28–32 ESV

But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

Matthew 12:40 ESV

For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Explanation

Jesus is the greater Jonah.

Secondly, both spend three days, literally or figuratively, in Sheol, AND after both spent three days reckoned for dead and fully broken, arose again with their message of redemption.

The stories of Jesus in the storm and Jonah in the storm are almost identical in every detail EXCEPT that Jesus does not offer to be thrown overboard.

Jonah sees the storm and tells the sailors, “This storm will be solved if I am thrown overboard. Make me the sacrifice.” “Destroy me that you may live.”

Now, we might think that Jonah now has one up on Jesus. But if we think that, we would he desperately wrong. For Jesus did not give himself up to the storm in the sea - He is God! He calmed the storm.

No, Jesus came for a greater and more ominous storm. It would be the storm of the wrath of God against all who have sinned against Him. And to solve this problem, Jesus would not thrown Himself into the sea, but rather, he would allow Himself to be lifted on the cross.

He was thrown, not into the raging sea. He was thrown into the sea of the sins of the world. Jesus was not thrown into the sea of Galilee, because He would be thrown into a far more perilous storm.

Thomas Watson, “Jesus lept into the sea of His Father’s wrath to save his spouse from drowning.”

APPLICATION

Atonement - “satisfaction given for wrongdoing”

Revelation 5:9–10 “And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.””

Salvation is not from any mixture of your effort and God’s. Salvation comes from believing in the only one who can close the gap - Jesus.

Jesus lived the life you could not live and died the death that you deserved, so that you might live the life he deserved and encounter death no more.

When I find myself far from God or struggling with a sin or feeling sorry for myself, I need to but think of the cross of Christ. For on the cross, I see the value of Jesus, and I also see the value that He places on me. For every strike and blow, but ultimately the cup he drank of God’s wrath was for me - but He took it Himself.

We sing the hymn Before the Throne often, “Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free, for God the Just is satisfied to look on Him and pardon me.”

Jonah preaches the bare minimum message of impending doom, while Jesus preached the whole message of salvation and bought it with His blood.

Now, here is the problem with bare minimum obedience. Bare minimum obedience is giving to God only what you need to give to Him. It is the difference between obedience and compliance.

Remember that Jonah shares the five word message of God’s wrath and only walks a day into the city. Jonah walked into Nineveh and did the bare minimum.

*funny illustration about bare minimum obedience.

There is a big difference between obedience and compliance. Here is the difference: Compliance sees the law of God as a means to earn approval from God or at least mitigate his anger. Obedience sees the goodness of God’s command and the goodness of the God who gave it, and therefore spends their life pursuing, obediently, the One worth of obedience.

I hear people say often, “How good is good enough?” And its ALWAYS the wrong question. I mean, if I took you back to 2009 and gave you the option to buy bitcoin, how much is enough? If you knew that you were investing in something worth having, you wouldn’t ask the question of how much is enough.

God is an all-consuming fire. He deserves it all, and He takes it all.

APPLICATION

We get out of bare-minimum obedience in three ways.

We place our faith in Jesus. Without Jesus, you will always see Christianity as a set of laws and rules and less as the pursuit of the God of the universe who has revealed Himself to us.

We see God’s promises, commands, laws, and statutes as good.

Psalm 119 is the longest Psalm in the Bible. It has 190 verses and is a true work of poetic art. In it, the psalmist repeatedly talks about how good God’s word, God’s law, and God’s commands are. Get that text and read it and pray it until it sings in your heart.

We begin to see God’s commands less as restraints and more as a way to pursue Him. When you get in your car and you buckle your seatbelt, don’t you constrain yourself so that you can pursue what you want.

We trust the one worthy of being pursued.

We emulate Jesus and not Jonah. Philippians 2:5–7 “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”

Both saw sinners saved. Jonah reacted with hatred and anger, while Jesus rejoiced when sinners believed. Jonah’s legalism found him wishing for judgement and condemnation for the Ninevites, while Jesus death on a cross was His moving towards sinners with grace and compassion.

Jesus as King of Kings

Jesus is both the greatest prophet and the greatest king. He is the Word made Flesh, and He is the rule of the universe by the power of his mighty hand.

Side Note: Notice with me that God is not challenged, harmed, or threatened by the rulers of the world. He does as He wishes.

The ruler of the greatest nation on the known world is saved, redeemed, and calls upon that nation to repent and live righteously.

Instead of lamenting and worrying and getting unreasonably angry about who will be placed in authority over us, let us rejoice in the God that can do as He chooses. Our hope is in Him.

Jonah’s Legalism vs. Jesus Grace

Something fascinating happens the more we read the story of Jonah if we aren’t careful. We read Jonah’s disobedience, stubbornness, racism, spitefulness, and legalism - and we start to not like Jonah very much. And the less we like Jonah, the more we become like Jonah.

The story of Jonah is a startling reminder of how corrupted we become when we think of grace on human terms. Because humans are only capable of a finite measure of grace and mercy.

We will complain about God’s grace to others.

OR, we will refuse God’s grace for us.

Invitation

The central message of Jonah is in Chapter Two when he cries out, “Salvation belongs to our God!”

Jesus has a better word for your story. Your best days can’t touch His goodness, and your worse days won’t avert His grace and loving gaze.