The God Who is Gracious and Merciful (The Greater Jonah, Lent 4)

In this Lenten series, The Greater Jonah, we trace the familiar story of the reluctant prophet and discover how it ultimately points beyond itself to Christ. We’ll explore themes of running, mercy, judgment, repentance, death, and resurrection—seeing how the sign of Jonah finds its completion in the crucified and risen Savior. This is not just a story about a prophet and a fish. It is about the God who pursues the runaway, enters the storm, descends into the depths for us, and brings life where there was only death.

To follow along each day with the companion devotional, you can purchase it here:
 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GLJ635Z3?&linkCode=sl2&tag=jessicatschne-20&linkId=5f6b03b3594566f49a84144c1e011020&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl

Join us as we journey into the depths—and discover the mercy that meets us there.

Transcript

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In Matthew 28, Jesus said, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. He calls you to be that disciple. To hear his word, to receive his promises, to repent, to believe. That Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And that by believing you have life in his name. Now here are the good news of Jesus for you. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The most surprising moment in the book of Jonah is not the storm. It's not the great fish. It's not Jonah in the belly of the fish. It's not the repentance of the city of Nineveh. The most surprising moment comes after all of that. After God forgives the city. And then Jonah is furious. That's how chapter four begins. Not with celebrations, not with relief, not with joy that thousands upon thousands of people have repented and God showed mercy. No, Jonah is angry. He's angry because this is what he thought was going to happen. That's what he says. He says, Isn't this what I said when I was in our country earlier? When I said that this is who you are, this is who you're going to be. For I knew, he says, that you are gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Here in chapter 4, we finally get the answer for why Jonah fled. Here it is. Because he knew God. He knew God is gracious. He knew God is merciful. He knew God would change his mind if Nineveh repented. Now, for the several, the last several weeks we've been walking through this story together. And the road should feel familiar by now. Again, the Lord came to Jonah and said, I've heard about this great evil of the city of Nineveh, and I want you to go and preach against it. And their evil was obvious. They were um they were they were a uh a violent and cruel city. And so God saw this and he told them to go preach against this. And Jonah didn't want to do that. He went the opposite way. He boarded a ship. The storm came upon the ship and all those on the ship. The sailors prayed while Jonah was sleeping. And then the sailors, after much effort, they throw Jonah into the sea, and God appoints a fish. The fish swallows Jonah. Jonah spends three days in the belly of the fish. He's praying. God vomits him out of the fish, and then he sends him back to preach against the city. And Jonah does this. He preaches a short sermon for three days. And then they repent. And God forgives. And instead of celebrating, which is what we would expect, Jonah becomes angry. The book of Jonah, the book of Jonah is about evil. You can hear it all throughout the book. That word evil is mentioned several times in the book of Jonah. This is a book about evil. God says at the beginning that the evil of Nineveh has arisen to him, that he's become aware. Not that he wasn't aware, but it's come to his attention. And so he sends Jonah to preach against this evil. When the sailors are on the ship and the storm is coming, they say, What evil have you done that has brought this storm upon us? And when Nineveh repents, the word says that they turn from their evil. Again, evil is everywhere. It's constant throughout this story. But by the end of the book, something becomes really clear in the book of Jonah. The greatest evil in the story is Jonah himself. The sailors respond to God. The people of Nineveh, they repent. The king humbles himself. The entire city changes. But Jonah, Jonah becomes angry. So angry, in fact, that he says to the Lord, It is better for me to die than to live. And so the Lord asks this question. He says, Do you do well to be angry? And that question in the middle of chapter 4 just kind of sits there quietly. God doesn't argue with Jonah, saying, You know, Jonah, remember how I spit you out of the fish? You don't have a reason to be angry. Remember how I showed mercy on you? No, he just asked the question: Do you do well to be angry? Is it a good thing that you're angry? Is it justifiable? Is it reasonable that you're angry right now, Jonah? Now, we hear that. And we know that we live in a society that is always angry. People are always angry these days. They're angry about our country and where things are going. Whether you're on this side or that side. We're angry about the things that we see on the news, the things we read in politics. We're angry about the economy. We're angry about the decisions of others. We're angry toward people. And most of the time, when we're angry, we're not angry in healthy ways or for healthy reasons or in God-pleasing or righteous ways. We're just angry. And Jonah is angry. And he's angry for a specific reason. He's angry because God forgave the wrong people. You see, Jonah's problem isn't really Nineveh. Because it didn't matter what city he went to, he would have been mad. His problem is that he can't control the actions of God. And he specifically can't control the spread of God's mercy. You see, Jonah wants to put limits. He wants to put boundaries and categories about who should and who should not get God's grace and mercy. But the problem is, God doesn't stay inside these limits and these boundaries that Jonah thinks he should set up. But he decides where his mercy goes. And Jonah thinks that God should be angry about the things that Jonah's angry about. But it doesn't work that way. Later in the chapter, God exposes this about Jonah. The Lord appoints a plant to grow over Jonah and to give him shade. And then the Lord appoints a worm to come and eat that plant. And then the Lord appoints the sun to come and give him blazing heat so he's warm in the middle of the day. And then God asks this question. He says, Is it a good thing that you're angry for the plant? And Jonah says, Yeah, it's good. It's good that I'm angry. But God asks, Why should I not? Why should I not pity Nineveh? You see, Jonah cares more about this temporary plant. And by all definitions, this is a temporary plant. Grown in a day, dead the next. That's a temporary plant. And Jonah cares more about this temporary plant than he does about the 120,000 plus people that are in the city of Nineveh. Jonah is angry. Because Jonah loves grace, but he loves it when it's working for him and in the ways that he expects it to and would like it to work. But not when it just kind of reaches out and it extends beyond what Jonah thinks it should be. We also love the idea of grace. That's why we talk about it a lot. We talk about it regularly. We teach it to our children. We tell it to anyone who will listen. And we'll do that until it's given to the wrong people. And so we should ask, we should consider for a moment, who are the wrong people? Is there such a thing? Well, I think you know. You know who those wrong people are that God's grace and mercy is extended to. It's that coworker, that coworker that Riley smiles in that company meeting. Because they know that the moment the meeting's over, they're going to leave and they're going to do whatever they want. They're not going to care at all what was said during that meeting or what was decided, and they're going to do what they want. And then the boss is going to go into their office and they're going to say, hey, by the way, we'd like to give you a promotion. You know that neighbor, that neighbor who they don't care about the neighborhood, they don't care about their yard, and yet everyone else around them is kind and courteous and they consider one another and they just kind of laugh. They laugh at the fact that everybody else cares about one another and cares about how their yards look and how the appearance of their neighborhood looks, but they don't care at all. Or the politician, you turn it on the TV and you see that politician, and every time you see that politician, your blood begins to boil because you know that they're just lying. They're lying through their teeth, and they'll say whatever they want, and they don't mean any of it. Or the person that you see online and they mock your face, they ridicule the Bible, saying, ah, that's just an ancient book that was written. It doesn't apply to us anymore. And they treat those things that are important to you and holy to you as something that is worthy of being mocked and laughed at. Or the criminal, you turn on the TV and you see all the horrendous crimes that this person has done, and then you see the follow-up that says that they get off on a technicality. Where's the justice in that? Or the person who cheated on their spouse and they shattered their family, and somehow they still expect forgiveness from all the people around them. Or the addict and put all the classifications of the kind of addicts that there are alcohol, sex, drugs, all kinds, pornography, all of it. And they promise that they're going to change. And then every time it's the same thing over and over again, and they keep hurting people all over again. Or the person who celebrates loudly the choices of others, and even though those choices are against God's word and against God's command, but they celebrate it in this interest and desire of personal freedom, because that's what we have in this country, and so that's a good thing, even though it's clearly against God's word. Or that loud person on social media who insults everyone that they disagree with, and they never seem interested in actually learning or growing or finding the truth. They just want to argue for the sake of arguing. Or how about this? The person who wronged you. And you probably already have that person uh maybe even pictured in your mind. You have your their name on your mind right now. And the moment that name comes up, the moment you picture that person, you get that feeling in your stomach. And you can't imagine what you would say to them if you saw them walk through that door. And especially if they were sitting in your church. Well, that wouldn't feel right. You see, you know the people. You know the people that Jonah is concerned about. The ones that we're quite sure that God should deal with in a particular way. That if they were to stand before God on the last day, we would be excited about it because we would see that justice would finally happen. Now, sin is real. Evil is real. We see it throughout this story. And God does care about justice. Maybe you hear these examples and then something else happens in you. Maybe instead of thinking of someone else, you start wondering if you're the wrong person. Maybe you hear these descriptions and think about the ways that you've hurt other people. And the mistakes that you've made that you just can't undo. The things that you would never want anyone else to know about. Maybe you think about the ways that you've failed your family, or that bitterness that you've harbored and you've carried for a long time, or that sin that keeps coming back over and over again, no matter how many times that you promise it's going to be different this time. And you begin to wonder, what if I'm the wrong person? And if that thought has ever crossed your mind, then the story of Jonah is for you. Because the story of Jonah is not about God finding the right people, it's actually about God showing mercy to the wrong people. Nineveh is the wrong city. Jonah is the wrong prophet. And the sailors, they are the wrong kind of believers. And yet God shows mercy to all of them. Because this story is not about God waiting for you to become the right person, or Nineveh or Jonah, or the sailors waiting to become the right person. It's God about God showing mercy in spite of the fact that they are the wrong people. If you've been following along, you see that this has been a story about a God, and that we've heard this refrain: a God who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. The God who pursues runaway prophets, who rescues sailors, who gives grace and forgiveness to whole cities. And he forgives, he will not give up on Jonah either. Even though Jonah is angry and stubborn and bitter, but God still comes to him and still speaks to him. And then he invites him to see the world through his eyes. And so, how does God see the world? How does God see you? Well, there's only one way to know that, and that's through the eyes of the greater Jonah. Where Jonah ran away, Christ ran to. He ran to the cross. Where his arms were outstretched, and they were outstretched because of those who put him there. And on the cross, you and I, we see clearly who God really is. And we see clearly who God really cares about. And we see clearly who God has come to save. Rebels. Sinners. The undeserving. You, me. In Jesus, we see the God who is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abounding. Abounding and steadfast love. The God who doesn't give you what you deserve, but instead places what you and I deserve, which is punishment and condemnation. And he places it upon Christ. And so that you and I we get mercy. See, you and I were no better than Nineveh. We're no less sinful than the people that we think don't deserve the grace and mercy of Christ. And we're saved in the same way that the sailors and Nineveh and Jonah are saved. Because God is gracious. Because God is merciful. And that's the only reason. Not because you and I deserve it, but because this is the character of God. Think about everyone who has been impacted in this story. The sailors they prayed and their hearts were changed. And they ended up worshiping God. The Ninevites, they repented, they changed their ways, and God forgave them. Everyone in this story is moving towards a repentant heart except Jonah. And that's the deepest irony here in Jonah chapter 4. The very thing that Jonah praises God about as he's in the belly of the fish, that God is gracious and merciful and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. That very thing is the reason why he's angry at God. Because again, he wants to put limits on it. He wants to decide. He wants to decide who gets God's grace and who doesn't. But the mercy that rescued Jonah from drowning, it rescues you and I. The book ends with this question from God speaking directly to Jonah. It says, Should I not pity Nineveh, this 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. And then the book just kind of ends. It ends right there with this question from God. Because the audience of the story, it is not just Jonah. It's you. It's me. The question that is directed toward Jonah is now directed towards us. Because that's how it's meant. It's meant to be a question for us. Will you and I will re-rejoice in the mercy of God? Will we rejoice not just for ourselves, but will we rejoice to see it given to other people? And maybe those people in our minds who we don't think deserve it will re-rejoice in God's mercy. Or will we be like Jonah? We'll continue to be angry. Angry that we can't control God. Angry that we can't specifically control where God's mercy goes and how it is given out. Angry that God is kinder than we would expect. You see, here's the good news. You and I, we probably relate a lot to Jonah, but we're not just Jonah in the story. We're also Nineveh. And the good news that we see about the people of Nineveh is that God is gracious and merciful, not just to Jonah, but to the people of Nineveh as well. And God is gracious and merciful. That is his character, not to destroy, but to save. And dear friends, he has come to save. God is gracious and merciful. Jesus is gracious and merciful. And he has come to save you and me. Thanks be to God. Amen.