Jonah - By Laura

I feel like I got gypped out of the REAL story of Jonah during my years of attending Sunday School as a child.  I knew all about the whale and the fact that Jonah decided not to obey God, which was the move that landed him in the belly of said whale.  But there are a few plot points I believe are worth noting, that didn't make it onto the flannel board.

1. Jonah didn't run from God simply because he didn't want to serve God or "do mission work." He didn't disobey because he wanted to stay home. No, Jonah heads off to Tarshish, wherever that is, because, as he says, "I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity."  Jonah knows God.

2. Just because Jonah knows God, his character, and what he's likely to do in a given situation, doesn't mean Jonah likes it!  He has a reason to dislike the Assyrian's, whose capital city is Ninevah.  The Assyrians violently destroyed the Kingdom of Israel in 720 BC and deported many of it's people.  Jonah's life is dated around the 8th century BC, just in time to put him in the middle of that mess.  He's bitter, he's scarred, and he's holding out for godly retribution.

3. Jonah is not a liar; he tells the men on the ship exactly where he's going and why.  He's not trying to hide anything.  He knows God has tabs on him.  He's not spineless either.  He's dead asleep in the hold of a ship in the middle of a raging storm.  And, he seems fine with being tossed overboard in order to save the ship.  However, getting swallowed by a whale seems to be too much for him.

4. Jonah prays.  He believes in God and knows Him intimately.  He is learning lessons about grace.

5. God screws around with Jonah, provoking his already angry, fed-up heart with His little vine stunt.  I would be pissed off too.  Sometimes, obeying God looks like trekking through the desert to preach good news to your worst enemies...and God has mercy on whom he will have mercy.  Fortunately, God seems to have mercy on Jonah, taking time to explain His motives and give Jonah a little bit of perspective.  "Ninevah has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well.  Should I not be concerned about that great city?" (Jonah 4:11)
6. Jonah gets used as an example by Jesus, or rather, the faith of the Assyrians of Ninevah is contrasted with the unbelief of the Israelites of Jesus' day.  Read Matthew 12: 38-45 for some hard words Jesus spoke to hard hearts.  


Having taken a closer look at the story of Jonah, I realize that I'm a fan.  He has guts and he knows God.  Apparently, agreeing with God about all the fine print isn't a prerequisite to being used by Him to fulfill his purposes...thanks be to God for that!!! 

Matthew 21-25. thoughts from Lee

Between the Triumphal Entry and the Last Supper, Jesus was busy teaching. His words to me in these five chapters can be summed up pretty succintly: It's not like you thought.

You thought it was about efficient worship. It's not like you thought.

You thought that your service to God was of primary importance. It's not like your thought.

You thought that you deserved your wages. It's not like you thought.

You thought that right behavior leads to "good" results. It's not like you thought.

You thought that you know what "good" means. It's not like you thought.

You thought first was first and last was last. It's not like you thought.


God, you are violently removing assumptions from my heart. You are ruining my system of theology and how I live my life. Help me to receive your Word.

Thoughts on Holy Week

The wounded surgeon plies the steel

That questions the distempered part;

Beneath the bleeding hands we feel

The sharp compassion of the healer’s art

Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.

Our only health is the disease

If we obey the dying nurse

Whose constant care is not to please

But to remind of our and Adam’s curse

And that, to be restored, our sickness must grow worse.

The whole earth is our hospital

Endowed by the ruined millionaire,

Wherein, if we do well, we shall,

Die of that absolute paternal care

That will not leave us, but prevents us everywhere.

The chill ascends from feet to knees,

The fever sings in mental wires.

If to be warmed, then I must freeze

And quake in frigid purgatorial fires

Of which the flame is roses and the smoke is briars.

The dripping blood our only drink,

The bloody flesh our only food:

In spite of this we like to think

That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood—

Again, in spite of that we call this Friday good.

-T.S. Eliot, from East Coker

I love Eliot’s take on Holy Week, the reason for it, and our response. 

Last Thursday, Lee and I went to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  I wanted to see the work of a German artist named Gerhard Richter, who I had read about in the most recent issue of Image Journal.  His work is incredible, much of it is so realistic, it looks like a photograph.  But the piece that struck me the most, was a piece called Blood Red Mirror.  This painting was created by applying red paint to the back of a piece of glass and the result is a colored yet highly reflective surface.  When you stand in front of it, you see yourself and your entire world tinted blood red.  For me, it was a great gift to be reminded on Maundy Thursday of the way that Christ’s death color’s my life.

And somehow, “in spite of that we call this Friday good.”

Spiegel, blutrot, 1991 by Gerhard Richter.

Photo Credit: http://www.gerhard-richter.com/art/paintings/other/detail.php?6876