Epiphany 3 – January 21, 2024
National Lutheran Schools Sunday
Today we welcome the children and families of our school, MLCA as part of our annual “Lutheran Schools Week” observance. Messiah operates one of about 2600 Lutheran schools – and our church body still has more parochial schools than anyone else except the Roman Catholic system. And so we have our school children here today to assist us in worship with their voices, and we add to our prayers, especially today, thanksgiving to God for the blessing that MLCA is to our congregation. We pray we are also a blessing to all whose lives are touched by our work together here. Just as we talk about our church as a family, MLCA is also part of our extended family. With great joy we get to know our school families and students and share the love of Christ even as we teach these young people history, grammar, and math.
Today we also continue our journey through the Epiphany season, and another Sunday which emphasizes God’s calling – both Jesus calling his disciples, and in the Old Testament, God calling the prophet Jonah. Since the Jonah story is one loved especially by children, I thought we’d turn our attention there at this time. But even us big kids can enjoy the Jonah narrative and see in it God’s call to repent and believe, and be saved – that same call that comes to us through God’s servants today – that call to repent and believe in Jesus Christ our Savior.
Someone asked me just the other day what my favorite passage of the Bible was, and I suppose that’s like asking me which is my favorite child or my favorite song. But I have to admit the book of Jonah has always been near and dear to me.
Jonah is just such an unlikable personality. Not only does he foolishly try to run away from God, taking a boat in the opposite direction of where God told him to go preach. But he also repeatedly whined and cried when he didn’t get his way. What a drama queen! Woe is me! You might as well kill me now!
Today’s reading is just a few verses from the Book of Jonah, but the whole thing is only 4 chapters long. I suggest you read it for yourselves! (homework, children!)
But as we read it we find out exactly why Jonah is such a reluctant prophet. We are told exactly why he didn’t want to go preach to Nineveh. The reason is this: He didn’t want God to forgive them!
You see the people of Nineveh were particularly wicked. This was the capitol of the Assyrian Empire, the one that would destroy the Northern Kingdom of Israel and at whose hand the 10 “lost tribes” really became lost to history. The Assyrians were brutal conquerors, killing women and children as well as the men, and hauling off whole populations of captives to make them their slaves. They were pagan people, unbelievers, people who didn’t know or believe in the true God, Yahweh. And so, in Jonah’s mind, they didn’t deserve God’s grace and mercy.
Ah, but Jonah, that’s just the problem! None of us do. All of us are full of sin, and in our hearts no better than the worst of the Ninevites. We may make a good appearance of it on the outside, but the sinful heart is just the same. In fact, no one deserves God’s grace and mercy. That’s the whole point of it being grace and mercy.
And so finally, Jonah goes to the city of Nineveh and preaches as God commanded him. He spent three days preaching this short sermon, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh will be destroyed”. In the Hebrew it’s just four words.
Now we all know about the miracle of the great fish or whale that swallowed Jonah when he was taking a boat in the other direction. And then after 3 days the fish spit him up on land, safe and sound, though probably a little smelly. A great wonder and sign from God, and we’ll talk about that a little more in a minute. But that’s not the most amazing miracle of the Jonah story. The most amazing part is what we read today. That after Jonah’s short sermon, the people of Nineveh listened! They repented! They turned from their evil ways and begged for God’s forgiveness!
My friends, it is a difficult thing to tell someone they are wrong. It is hard to show people these days, perhaps especially, that they are sinners. But God’s word endures forever. And the same message of law and condemnation that Jonah preached to the Ninevites, is preached by faithful pastors today. If you do not repent, you too will perish! If you do not turn from your wicked ways, God will bring his punishment to bear on you – maybe not in 40 days. But sooner or later. The soul that sins shall perish.
And we need to hear this hard word of God. This is why we teach our children the 10 commandments. So they not only know what God expects, but so that they can see their sin, and their need for a Savior. If you never know you’re a sinner, what do you need a savior for? If no one ever told you the bad news, the good news wouldn’t make sense.
Part of the great miracle here is that the Ninevites heard the call to repentance, and they repented! From the king on down, even the animals were dressed in sackcloth. They mourned their sins. They begged for God’s mercy. And much to Jonah’s displeasure, God showed them mercy. Only God can turn hearts like this. Only his word has the power.
Well, maybe the even greater miracle is this, and it’s so understated in the reading, “and God relented”. God did not give them what the deserved. He changed his course. He went back on his threat. He had mercy.
Sometimes I will pose the question to people this way, “Will God ever go back on his word?” And most Christians instinctively say, “NO!” But here is an example of it. Your knee jerk reaction is right, God will never go back on a promise. He will never fail to follow through on a blessing. But he will sometimes relent from a threat. And it’s not because he isn’t just. It’s just that his justice is done another way – the punishment is borne by another target. Jesus Christ takes the punishment that Nineveh deserved, and that we deserve. And so by grace, through faith, we receive the benefits. By the power of God’s Spirit working in his word, we are BOTH called to repentance, and receive mercy. And this is the great miracle of Jonah’s story, and of ours. Not being saved from the belly of a fish, or from drowning in the deep, but from sin and death and hell by the blood of Christ.
The last chapter of Jonah has him stomping outside of the city to sit and watch and wait, hoping God would destroy Nineveh maybe like he did Sodom and Gomorrah. Send down some fire and brimstone on the bad guys, God! Give them a good what-for. Destroy them like their sins deserve! But Jonah was disappointed that God showed them mercy.
Jonah was a preacher of God’s word quite in spite of himself. He didn’t want to warn the Ninevites of their coming destruction. He didn’t want them to turn from their sins and live. And he certainly didn’t want them to hear the good news of God’s grace and mercy. But Jonah also preached in spite of himself in another way.
Jesus once referred to the Jonah story. When his enemies were looking for a sign, Jesus said, “You will receive no sign from me but the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days, so the Son of Man will be three days and nights in the heart of the earth.” Jesus saw Jonah’s fish miracle as pointing to his own resurrection. And we better listen to Jesus when he interprets the scriptures.
Jonah was a terrible person, and not a very good preacher. He hated his hearers. He preached as short a sermon as possible, grudgingly. He whined and complained the whole while. And yet God used him to save many people. He used Jonah to call many people to repentance, and even to point people to Jesus, even thousands of years later.
Our God continues to call preachers and pastors and all manner of people to speak his word to us. This is a big part of what we do at MLCA, and it’s absolutely central to what Messiah Lutheran Church is about. And it is through that message that God works, in spite of imperfect messengers. It is through both the call to repentance and the promise of mercy in Christ, that God saves people even today. Even wicked, terrible sinners like the Ninevites of old. Even poor miserable sinners like you and me.
He calls people who think they’re in pretty good shape, spiritually, showing them a shocking diagnosis of terminal sin. He calls people who know the weight of sinful baggage, and may think its too much for even God to forgive. He calls us to turn from our sins, and to turn to Christ in faith and live. And he shows us mercy. In Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment