Do You Hate Great People?

Before you tune me out, let me explain my question.

Jonah was a jerk. If that wasn’t clear to you after hearing this week’s sermon, don’t worry, it will become clearer and clearer each week of this series. The tricky part about this is:

 WE ARE JONAH.

Part of Jonah’s hatred for Nineveh is obvious, but some parts are more subtle. Jonah states that he knew God’s compassion was enough to save the great city, but how did he know that God would actually do it? The author of Jonah tips us off before we even get through the first couple sentences. Let’s look at it together.

“The LORD gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”

I love the book of Jonah. To tell you that studying it has been wildly enjoyable for me would be such an understatement.

One of the dozens of things about this book that blew my mind was how God refers to the city of Nineveh.

This city of unimaginable sin and chaos is referred to by God as a “great city,” more than once.

Great? Really, God! What is so great about Nineveh? Upon first glance I completely missed it. I assumed it was because the city was huge (3 days to walk through it). However, if you examine God’s description of Nineveh in its original language you see that it is more accurately described as “a city that God sees as great,” a city that “in God’s eyes holds greatness.” It wasn’t a measure of size, but a measure of value, to God.

Wow! Now imagine hearing that as Jonah...

• You mean when God looks at my enemy He sees greatness?

• When God looks at a city full of sin He sees how great they can be?

• Does He mean they (somehow) already ARE great in His eyes?

• Isn’t sin supposed to separate people from God?

• But what about the rules, God!

• What about their sin, God!

• What about their lifestyles?

• What about their history?

• How could You call them great!

• What about us, God—YOUR people—aren’t we great too?
  

Whew...

I can’t lie. As I was typing those questions I couldn’t help but remember that I have felt that way about people at times too: people who live different lifestyles than I do, people who worship differently than I do, people with different sins than I have. I can see why Jonah struggled with his hate right off the bat. I get it. Right? And then before Jonah even had the chance to proclaim their destruction, God was already telling Jonah how great these people were to Him. How enraging! If I were Jonah, I might have skipped out as well.

Except here is the thing: I am Jonah. And I think you might be too.

I don’t see Jonah’s heart issue as racism as much as I see it as a pious, religious self-righteousness, a heart that says, “In order to receive my God’s love you must earn it.” And as much as that comforts those of us who “follow the rules” this is clearly not the heart of God.

God’s love is for everyone.

For every color of skin.

For every person wrapped up in a religion that doesn’t look like ours.

For every person who makes less money than we do, and for those who make far too much.

For every person who is on the far left, the far right, and every space in between.

For the person who thinks, “I don’t matter,” and for the person who thinks, “I alone matter.”

He is even for the one who thinks Popeyes makes a better sandwich than Chick-fil-A (don’t tell anyone, but that’s me).

If the book of Jonah tells us one thing about God, it is this: 

The breadth of His love and the extent of His redemption are far beyond our experience and understanding. 

It reminds us that though we do not deserve it, He forgives us time and time again. It foreshadows a man who would love the unlovable. A man whose eyes are on the outcasts. A man who sees those who cannot tell their right hand from their left, the ones who are harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd—and He brings them in. A man who would die for the undeserving, like us.

It points to Jesus.

It points to the one who sees the least of these and calls them "great."

My prayer for us today is that we would recognize the Jonah in us and ask the LORD to grow His compassion inside our hearts and minds. I pray that He would help us to remember that though we ARE Jonah, we are also Nineveh—ever in need of His mercy.