CONTRAST

I remember the day when my hairdresser made me cry – and it had nothing to do with her handiwork with my hair. She always did well, considering the limited resources that she worked with. As far as I know, she is not a professing Christian. She had just decided to take a fairly troubled 19-year-old into her home. He has had a turbulent upbringing, punctuated by continual abuse, but she and her husband have determined to show him some real love, at great personal cost to them. And this is a long-term commitment. ‘Every time he’s messed up, he’s been kicked out. We want to show him something different.’

Read

Jonah 1:11-15

Matthew 5:1-16

The contrast between the pagan sailors and Jonah is stark. They work hard to save the ship while he sleeps. They do everything they can to avoid turning Jonah overboard, risking their own lives to try to save his. And they prayed – to the real God this time – that they would not be held accountable for the death of a man who might be innocent. The writer emphasises the name of the true God to whom they prayed – He is the Lord, stated three times. The sailors have come to understand the truth about God through this painful storm, but this is despite Jonah, not because of him.

FOCUS

Then they cried out to the Lord. They prayed, ‘Lord, please don’t let us die for taking this man’s life.’

Jonah 1:14

Jonah seemed untroubled by his own sin – and had risked the lives of everybody on board with his wilful rebellion. Sometimes those outside the Christian family shame us. God helping us, let’s be beacon people, living as salt and light in a world that so needs Christ.

Prayer: Lord, bring good people to Yourself and make them godly. And make ‘godly’ people good. Amen.

GOODBYE JONAH, HELLO GOD

The story of a singer in a local dance band is heartbreaking. Her passionately ‘committed’ Christian parents told her that they considered her dead, seeing she is now ‘fraternising with the world’. Nor had they been too thrilled when she took a homeless gentleman (who also happened to be black) to their home for Christmas. I felt raw anger as I watched the tears roll down her cheeks. She had been battered and bruised, and all in the name of Christ.

READ

Jonah 1:15

Matthew 23:13-33

Focus

Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard. And the stormy sea became calm.

Jonah 1:15

Jonah was supposed to be a bringer of blessing – but here, it was only once he was off the scene that the sea grew calm, (an amazing sign to the stunned mariners), and a shipboard revival breaks out. As he is hurled into the massive waves, the smile of God appears from behind the clouds. When a church has developed an abusive culture, where leaders dominate or bully, change is needed. Some leaders use the word loyalty in order to silence dissent, but the Bible never calls us to loyalty, blind or otherwise, but to faithfulness. Being faithful will at times call for difficult conversations and radical changes. I’m not suggesting that bullying leaders should be cast into the sea (!) but challenging or even replacing them might be the first step to a healthier church culture. The apostle John refused to back away from hard conversations about a bullying leader. Writing about the aggressive Diotrephes, he pledged, ‘so when I come, I will point out what he is doing. He is saying evil things about us to others’ (3 John 10).’

Prayer: Father, I pray that all those who exercise authority in Your church will lead with compassion, faithfulness, and servant hearts. Amen. .

Man Overboard

Let’s look at this moment, when Jonah was hurled overboard, from a different angle. Here’s a confession: when I first discovered the story of Jonah, I really didn’t like this part. It seemed like God was being vengeful, petty even: you disobeyed me, Jonah, so now I’m coming for you I want to be careful here, and propose a question rather than make statements. On the one hand, Jonah is finally starting to fulfil a prophetic role again, promising that if he is thrown into the boiling sea, all will be calm. But notice that nowhere does Jonah say that God has commanded that he drown, which has led some commentators to think that perhaps he believed himself to be past the point where he could be forgiven.

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Jonah 1:15

Hebrews 4:14-16

‘He could have sought forgiveness during the storm (as the Ninevites do later) and committed himself to go to Nineveh. But perhaps he believes that too much ‘water had passed under his ship’ by this time. Perhaps he is not sure that his repentance would bring forgiveness. He prefers to believe (wants to believe?!) in a God who only judges and does not forgive.’7

Certainly, Jonah seemed to think that God wanted him in the water! (Jonah 2:3)

Focus

Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard. And the stormy sea became calm.

Jonah 1:15

Later Jonah would struggle with the idea that God could pardon the despised people of Nineveh. Whether the radical proposal to consign Jonah to the waves was God’s plan or not, this much is true: most of us struggle with shame. As we’ll see tomorrow, we need to allow grace to rescue us. Grace is enough.

I love surprising endings. I enjoy those final twists in a film or a book, when something utterly shocking unfolds. It might sound a little irreverent to say it, but as we see a fish under command literally showing up out of the blue to rescue Jonah, we realise that our God really is a shocker.

Rescued By

GRACE

Jonah 1:1-17

Ephesians 3:14-21

FOCUS

Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah.

Jonah 1:17

One moment, Jonah is mid-air above the mountainous waves, catapulted overboard by those tearful sailors – and then suddenly he is safe. When he went over the side, he was a man facing certain death. The grace period for his rebellion had run out – or so he thought – and as he hit the water, there was only terror as the boiling waters immediately overwhelmed him. Perhaps he bobbed back to the surface for a moment and screamed out a final, exhausted prayer. In a storm like this, it would be just seconds before he would succumb. Never in his wildest dreams could he have imagined a rescue bid. He was nowhere near land: the sailors had tried to row there, without success. But everything turns around in a moment for the dead man swimming as a missionary fish shows up for lunch. Perhaps he caught a glimpse of the huge fish (which some commentators say may have been a large shark) approaching him, mouth wide open. The notion that a predator could be his rescuer would not have occurred to him. But that’s the way God is. Grace really is amazing. Can’t figure it out? Let’s accept it, like a lifebelt – or a passing fish – to a drowning man. Prayer: Forgive me for boxing You in, or for resisting Your grace, dear Lord. Surprise me with Your grace today. And help me to pass it on. Amen.