Twisted Justice

Driving home from Colorado Springs last week, Spencer’s wedding.

I had this whole sort of scene play out in my mind, where they spun out and crashed into the median… and they were fine, but their car was wrecked. And now they’re waiting in the snow for their car to get towed...

Who’s in a hurry now, huh? That will teach you a lesson!

Or as a kid, man I knew my sister was going to get in SOOO much trouble, and the almost sick satisfaction when she gets busted. Or the disappointment when she doesn’t get a “sufficient” punishment.

What is it in me that rejoices when “justice” is served?

What do I mean by justice? When I feel like someone gets the punishment they deserve.

Prodigal Father

Last week we read the first half of the “Prodigal Son” story. Jesus’ story of the love of the Father for his lost son. But there’s a 2nd half of that story… the sone who stayed.

The so-called “good” son.

Remember the son had left and squandered his inheritance, spent it all, as if his father was dead. Broke and broken he stumbles back and his father embraces him “my son was dead, and is alive again.”

Luke 15:25–28 ESV

25 “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ 28 But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him,

Why is he angry? He says:

Luke 15:29–30 ESV

29 but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’

What’s the heart of this?

I did the “right” thing and I deserve more than he does. It’s fundamentally comparative. It’s a twisted sense of justice.

The Father shares his heart:

Luke 15:31–32 ESV

31 And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’ ”

You know what it doesn’t say? That this convinced the son at all.

The older son feels righteous. And I think many of us resonate with the son’s feeling of “fairness.” Does the son get a new inheritance? How does this work? Will the “good” son get less now because the other guy was reckless?

The heart of the father is full of grace and forgiveness… he is “lavish” (which is what Prodigal really means). The Father is lavish.

Lavish with the son who was lost.

Also “lavish” with the son who stayed. “all that I have is yours.” It isn’t a zero sum game, for our heavenly Father has infinite wealth to give, infinite grace.

Jonah 3:4–5 ESV

4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

Glorious.

Jonah 3:10 ESV

10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

You are never too far gone to repent and turn back to Him. He is the loving Father who not only welcomes the prodigal back, he is the father looking for those lost sheep, sending His own people out to find them.

Speaking of his own people, how does Jonah receive this joyous news?

Jonah 4:1 ESV

1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.

??? What does Jonah have to be angry about? Wildly successful missionary, what could go better?

Jonah 4:2 ESV

2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.

What a verse.

Here we hear at last WHY Jonah fled. He wasn’t afraid for his own life… he was afraid that God would show grace and mercy to the Ninevites.

That’s messed up!

I knew you were “merciful” God, so I didn’t want to go because I wanted them to get “justice”. I didn’t want them to get forgiveness.

Maybe they hurt Jonah personally somehow, I don’t know, but he gets SUPER dramatic about this:

Jonah 4:3 ESV

3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

So upset that they aren’t getting ‘smote’ by God… I wish I were dead.

Jonah 4:4–11 (ESV)

4 And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”

Hint: the answer is “no.” The LORD said, “woah, slow your roll, man!”

5 Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city.

He… isn’t rooting for it.

So God is going to teach a little object lesson.

6 Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant.

7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered.

8 When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.”

10 And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night.

11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

Why the cattle? I don’t know.

Able to distinguish between right hand and left may mean these are children, or just that the entire city was morally and ethically naive (though not innocent). They are fundamentally ignorant.

And isn’t this the way of our human hearts? We will mourn broken hearted, for a missed opportunity here at home, grieve for a pet goldfish… and be unmoved by the plight of 10s of thousands of strangers around the world.

We feel more when a favorite character dies in a book or movie than at the plight of even our brother and sister Christians in Ukraine… much less the unreached around the world.

That’s not to play on our guilt, it is a light held up to the sinfulness, wickedness, untrustworthiness of our “feelings”.

Jonah’s “Feelings”

At some level, Jonah’s reasons don’t matter.

Maybe he thinks he is righteous and the people of Nineveh are not. And, relatively speaking, he is right.

Maybe he is thinking he is “chosen by God” and they aren’t.

Maybe he’s just racist, against Assyrians, modern day Iraqis.

Maybe he’s a country boy who hates city folk.

But fundamentally, his heart does not reflect the heart of the Father. He argues with God. He doesn’t care for the Ninevites, he even desires their destruction, and he has convinced himself they deserve punishment and he would rather die than live in a world where “they” get forgiven.

Fundamentally, Jonah’s heart if wrong.

Whatever hint there is of this in our hearts needs to be rooted out.

Racism. Classism. Us vs. Them. Political polarism. Anytime you feel yourself chuckle “serves them right” or “they asked for it.”

That isn’t the heart of God for his lost children.

All heaven throws a party when one lost child comes home, no matter how far they have run.

God grieves for his lost children, even as he is angry at the sin and rebellion that steal them away.

This is the heart of God.

May our heart reflect the heart of God.

That’s a prayer we can all pray.

We Follow - God Saves

There is a temptation here.

To focus on our “feelings” about people and seeking that God would change our hearts to reflect His heart.

That’s not wrong. That’s worthy and valuable and necessary.

But, like so many things about the way God works in us, we don’t wait until we are “right” to start walking with God, following in His footsteps, obeying His call on us.

The most amazing thing about the story of Jonah… it isn’t the fish.

And it isn’t how awful a person Jonah is. He really is awful. He is whiny, over-dramatic, unloving, ungracious, probably racist, just awful.

That isn’t amazing. Unfortunately, I bet you know a Jonah. And maybe recognize a bit of that Jonah spirit in yourself.

The amazing thing is this:

God spoke through Jonah.

To the Ninevites.

And they were saved.

God didn’t wait for Jonah’s heart to “get right.” He used him anyway. As broken as he was. As wrong as he was.

Jonah was obedient to God, with more than a little coaxing and redirection, but Jonah was obedient to the Word of God… and God saves. “Salvation is the LORD’s.” Always.

The feelings may or may not catch up.

This is good news. Gospel news.

God saves. And He uses broken vessels like us to do it.

Jonah, the great “missionary” to Nineveh does not have the heart of God for the lost. He doesn’t love as God loves. Jonah obeys - and God saves.

You and I are commanded to go and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. We obey - and God saves. Our feelings may or may not catch up.

If you’ve been following one (or more) of our small groups, or you were here last Fall for the sermon series on God’s Mission, God’s heart for the lost. The book in small group is on God’s Mission and how we can be a part of it here, in our neighborhoods, and around the world.

Good news! God saves.

You already have the command to be a bold witness to Him. To hear His voice and speak what He tells you to speak.

We can say it this way:

Feelings Follow Footsteps

So often, the actions come first.

You may not know yet where “Nineveh” is exactly. There is some “waiting on the Lord” there, some searching and seeking, but you don’t have to wait for the testimony to be perfect, for your heart to already reflect God’s heart, for the stars to align, for everything to be “just right” to proclaim the good news.

God can, and oh by the way, is already working in you and working through you.

If he can save a city through a punk like Jonah. There is no limit to what He can do through you.

Does that mean “feelings” aren’t important?

No, they are part of the human experience, God can and does work through even our sinful hearts.

It means that I can wait on the Lord… and He doesn’t wait until I’m perfect to speak to me.

I can follow in His footsteps, follow His commands… before I’ve got everything right.

It means that there is no barrier to you stepping out to do what God is asking you to do.

Jonah 3:2 ESV

2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.”

Get up, go where and when and how God is calling you. Speak the message He is giving you. The gospel of Jesus Christ.