“Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and preach against it;
their wickedness has come up before me.”
But Jonah made ready to flee to Tarshish away from the LORD.
It wasn't as though Jonah was just lazy or interested in avoiding danger. Rather, he had hatred in his heart for Assyria, including the capital of Nineveh. These were a people who were often hostile to the people of Israel, who would in fact eventually conquer them. Although the Lord had called Jonah to preach judgment, Jonah knew that it was all too likely that he would show mercy. This was in fact what happened, much to the consternation of Jonah himself.
I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, abounding in kindness, repenting of punishment (see Jonah 4:2).
Jonah would have preferred to cross the street and leave Nineveh to its fate, giving them no opportunity to hear and repent. Yet the Lord was not content to leave Nineveh without the chance to repent. Neither was he content to leave Jonah in the hardness of his heart. In fact, the most encouraging part of his story might be just how insistent the Lord was on using him, on overcoming the obstacles that Jonah put in the way, and eventually helping him to see things a little bit more according to the Lord's own perspective, from his own heart of mercy.
How many of us have heard the Lord callings us in one direction, to some task that pushed against our natural inclinations, and gone in the opposite direction? When we have tried to put ourselves safely out of the range of God's reach, has that ever worked? Or has he not rather continued to pursue us, relentlessly, even dramatically? Have we perhaps found ourselves caught in furious tempests that we could have avoided if we had listened in the first place? Have we been brought kicking and screaming in the belly of a fish because we would not come willingly? It may seem to us that we owe nothing to whomever Nineveh is in the specific task to which the Lord has called us. But even were that true, which it isn't, the Lord still calls us to task for our own sakes as well, for the growth that we still need. It is so hopeful for us, then, that he doesn't leave us to follow our own preferences or self-imposed limitations, but helps us to move beyond and even die to ourselves so that we can live for something more, something broader, something or true value.
But the LORD sent a large fish, that swallowed Jonah;
and Jonah remained in the belly of the fish
three days and three nights.
Do we act like the priest and the Levite, and make excuses to avoid opportunities to show mercy? We too may find the victim on the side of the road distasteful. We too may convince ourselves that it is not our problem, or that he is not deserving of our help. Helping the victim isn't something that is usually immediately gratifying to us. He may in fact represent many values which are against our own.
“And who is my neighbor?”
We are called to have a heart like the Samaritan traveler, moved with compassion at the sight, willing to take some of the victim's burden on himself. He was a traveler, and this was by no means convenient for him, nor something which he had planned. But he allowed his heart to be moved by compassion when he might well have allowed it to be hardened instead.
But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him
was moved with compassion at the sight.
He approached the victim,
poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them.
We are not ourselves the origin of mercy. We learn to show mercy because our God is merciful first. He taught Jonah and he desires to teach us as well. He himself demonstrated this mercy perfectly by coming to us in the person of Jesus Christ, pouring the sacramental oil and wine over our sins, lifting all of our burdens together on his cross, and bringing us safely to the inn of the Church he built. He gave the two coins of his divine and human nature to provide all the grace we would need until he finally comes again in glory to repay all debts.
If we haven't yet fully internalized the message of mercy, as few of us have, he hasn't given up on us yet. Let's try to learn to agree with his will sooner rather than later so we can avoid an unpleasantly damp journey. Let's allow ourselves to experience compassion for the wounded strangers in our paths. The Lord is trying to open our hearts. May we let him do so, so that he can reach out through us to heal a wounded world.
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