Wednesday of the First Week of Lent

The sign of Jonah is a bitter pill for the leaders of the Jews to swallow.  The Ninevites were not Jews, they had not received the help and the revelation of God as His own people.  Jeremiah provides an abundance of suggestions about how the people of Israel should go about things in order to repent.  Fasting, weeping, humbling oneself, turning away from wrongdoing, etc, a whole litany of suggestions.  Israel seldom takes that advice.  When Jonah, a resentful, bitter and prideful prophet brings the message of impending doom to the Ninevites, they all immediately and profoundly convert and are spared.

Jonah represents the people of Israel: the message with which they have been entrusted seems to have had a somewhat limited effect on themselves, they are still full of bitterness and pride – not wanting the others to be reconciled to God.  Once the message of conversion, the kingdom of God, is brought by them to the Gentiles, however, an immense, profound, and global conversion is unleashed.  Jesus is the message that Israel begrudgingly bears witness to.  Jesus has become the cause of conversion for a multitude of Pagan nations, and Israel seems to think that it is irrelevant, unimportant, or annoying.

We could also perhaps see in the person of Jonah the elder son in the parable of the prodigal son.  “Taking the outward appearance of godliness but denying its power.”¹  Proximity with the Father becomes an opportunity for venting resentment and anger rather than accepting one’s lot as a poor creature and surrendering oneself into the merciful hands of the Creator.

Quotes:

“So then, as Jonah went from the ship into the belly of the whale,2 so Christ went from the tree into the tomb, or into the abyss of death. And as Jonah was sacrificed for those endangered by the storm, so Christ was offered for those who are drowning in the storm of this world. And as Jonah was first commanded to preach to the Ninevites but his prophecy did not come to them until after the whale had vomited him out, so the prophecy made to the Gentiles did not come to them until after the resurrection of Christ.”²

“We should not despair of those who are still unwilling to correct their vices and do not even blush to defend them.”³

“If that kind of conversion did not happen, was what was said no longer a deceit but already truth. There would have been a destruction that followed for Nineveh. It was up to those who hear.”⁴

1. 2 Tim. 3:5
2. Augustine, LETTER 102.6.4 Ferreiro, A. (2003). Introduction to the Twelve Prophets. In A. Ferreiro (Ed.), The Twelve Prophets (p. 140). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
3. Caesarius of Arles, Sermon 133.3. Ferreiro, A. (2003). Introduction to the Twelve Prophets. In A. Ferreiro (Ed.), The Twelve Prophets (p. 140). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
4. Origen, HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 19.7. Ferreiro, A. (2003). Introduction to the Twelve Prophets. In A. Ferreiro (Ed.), The Twelve Prophets (p. 141). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.