The Exasperation of Jonah

Readings: Colossians 3:1-4, Jonah 3:1-5 & 4
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on October 13th, 2013

A printable PDF file can be found here

Can I ask you something? Does your experience of life, of people, of the Church, or even of God ever leave you exasperated? Do you ever have days when you feel like shaking your fists at the sky and shouting “It's not right! It's not fair! And it's certainly not fun!”

Well you are in good company. You won't be the first and you won't be the last. I want to look today at a passage of Scripture that talks about a man who was absolutely at the end of his tether. A man called Jonah.  For a text, these words of Jonah 4:9 “God said to Jonah 'Do you do well to be angry for the plant?'”

As we explore his exasperation I want to ask questions.

1. Why was Jonah exasperated?
2. Why do we get exasperated?
3. What can we do about it?

Why was Jonah exasperated?
Jonah was a prophet. But not a prophet like Isaiah or Jeremiah. There was no sense of “Here I am, send me” or “Speak Lord, your servant is listening” With Jonah it was more a case of “Here I am. Send somebody else” or “LA-LA-LA...” And when it did become clear God was on his case, he hopped on the nearest boat in port and headed in the opposite direction.

Hopefully you are familiar with the story. The ship runs into a storm. Jonah is dispatched over the side and with the unlikely aid of a big sea creature ends up in the place God asked him to go, namely a city full of people he didn't like called Ninevah. His task is to walk through the city telling them that if they didn't change their ways, trouble was coming. This he does. Much to Jonah's annoyance they listen. Our reading found him sulking under a tree, which then goes and dies. All of this makes Jonah even sulkier. He proclaims 'I wish I were dead!”

That's where our text kicked in; “God said to Jonah 'Do you do well to be angry for the plant?'” Jonah wasn't doing well. He was exasperated.

Part of his exasperation sprang from his knowledge of God. He knew enough about God's ways to suspect that, when it came to the crunch, God would not completely annihilate the Ninevites. Jonah had a sneaking suspicion that God's mercy was greater than God's anger... and this didn't please him.  Jonah felt that he knew those Ninevites better than God did. They were the scum of the earth. It would be a good thing to get rid of them.

But he had gone and, reluctantly, done as God asked him. And, as he suspected all along, he had been made to look foolish. He had gone through the city, telling them what terrible people they were and how God was going to destroy them all. And what happens? They put on a few sackcloth and ashes, say a few prayers, and suddenly they are back in with God again! Jonah had wanted fireworks! A fire and brimstone display. He wanted to see his enemies destroyed, not forgiven!

Have you ever been in the situation where you know somethings the right thing to do, but it just doesn't fit in with what you want out of the situation? Have you ever said of somebody  “Y'know what really makes me mad? They are right and I'm wrong!”  Maybe you've even done it with the Bibles teachings. 'I know Scripture says this, but I just can't forgive so and so or give this up or let those sort of thoughts in right now!'

So Jonah sits and sulks under the tree. A tree God has provided for him. God takes the tree away and Jonah is so angry! “That's it - I wish I were dead!”. The book of Jonah concludes by God telling Jonah that he had, once again totally lost his perspective on things.

Jonah 4:10-11  “The LORD said, "You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.  And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left--and also many animals?"

What was more important? A plant or a population? What mattered most? Jonah's reputation for accurate prediction or the fact that a whole population had discovered God's mercy? At the root of Jonah's exasperation... he was wrong. God was right!

 Why do we get exasperated?
Probably for many reasons, but permit me to suggest a few things we share with Jonah.

a) Our inability to see the bigger picture.  Though as Christians we are invited to view life from an eternal perspective, we usually stick with our own perceptions.  That's the way of the world. Always has been, always will be. Our near-sightedness brings self judgment.

Jonah had a fixed expectation about both God and about Ninevites. God demands on him were unreasonable, and Ninevites were bad people. He could see no need for changing the way he saw things.  Even when he realized that his perception needed modifying, he was far more comfortable with what he knew than with God's grace. Such is a recipe for exasperation, both within ourselves and for those we share our lives with.

Faith communities are legendary for their inability to embrace new ways of doing things. 'This is is the way it's always been done, and this is the way it always will be done'... even when it's obvious that things just aren't working. But change? Heaven forbid. We would rather stick with what we can control than leap beyond our comfort zone. We pay a heavy price for failing to discern the larger framework in which our lives move and have there being!

b) We become exasperated because we seek the wrong things in life.
Jesus said “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God”. The Jonah in each of us responds 'That's fine as long as it doesn't involve to much commitment on my part... just don't ask me to actually go anywhere I don't want to go, be involved with people I don't get along with or have to say or do things that may make me less than popular'.

How do we measure our days? By our acquisitions? By who our friends are? By our jobs? By the letters after our name or the achievements of our children? None of these things are bad things. But if we spend our whole lives seeking these things alone, then we are setting ourselves up for a fall. They can never be a substitute for the security we are offered in the love of Jesus Christ. There is a God-shaped hole in all of our hearts that remains unfilled until we surrender ourselves to God. Only then does the joyful, living water of the Spirit, that enables us to reach beyond ourselves, start to flow through us and move us.

c)We become exasperated because we trust in the wrong things.
When he was feeling down Jonah trusted in a plant. It gave him shade, it made him feel good. It is worth considering what 'plants' we rely on. We all have them. Our own personal places we go when life refuses to cooperate with our personal agenda. A worm got at Jonah's plant and it died. He was more than exasperated. He wished he were dead. Again we need to hear Jesus words. “Trust in God always – Trust also in Me”. (John 14:1 NLT)

We don't see the bigger picture. We go after the wrong things. We trust in the wrong things. In such pursuits we find ourselves sharing in the exasperation of Jonah.

What can we do about it?
 “God said to Jonah 'Do you do well to be angry for the plant?'” Jonah wasn't doing well. The only way he could ever get out of the pit he had dug for himself was to change. It is no different for us. If we live our lives riding a wave of exasperation it will eventually cause us to despair, maybe even like Jonah, of life itself. One of the underlying messages of this bible story is that we need to recognize exasperation as a sign that change needs to be made.

If our exasperation is with our self, we would do well to remember our baptism and reclaim our identity as a child of God and seek to channel our energy in a constructive way. The message of the Gospel is not only that change is necessary, but that change is possible. It is possible because Jesus came to set us free.

 It is possible because through His forgiveness, past mistakes find forgiveness. It is possible because He lives and intercedes for us before God. It is possible because He sends His Holy Spirit to empower us, change us and direct us. It is possible because the changes He calls us to make, we are called to make with His power, under His influence and with His glory in mind. It is possible because we believe in a God of second chances.

When Jesus went to the temple and found it had become a trading post for thieves and swindlers rather than a place of prayer, He was rightly exasperated and angry at the things taking place in his Father's house. But that anger was turned, in a constructive way, to empty the temple of it's offense. It's OK to get mad!  Just make sure the energy is focused in achieving God's glory.

If our exasperation is with others, we need try and see the image of God in them.   Actor Peter Ustinov once made the comment 'People are very good. Its what life does to them turns them bad” Nobodies perfect. Life does do things to us that make us into the infuriating individuals we can sometimes be. Be gentle with each other.

If our exasperation is with the Church, be patient. Because God is building God's church with the flawed material of human clay. A man was once church shopping looking for the perfect congregation to join. At one church he visited the pastor told him “If you find it, I hope you don't join it, because then it won't be perfect anymore”. The Church is not a showplace of saints, but a place for grace. Often that only happens as we encounter each others most irritating habits, prejudices and failings!

If our exasperation is with God, the scriptures urge us to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord. God's ways are not as our ways, God's thoughts are not as our thoughts. God is great. We are not so great. We are flawed. We are unfinished symphonies. We need help.  We need to get off our high horse if we to allow Jesus to be Lord of our lives.

The exasperation of Jonah. The exasperation’s that inflict our daily lives. Always a sign that change is needed. The challenge laid before us is as to whether we dare allow our lives to be embraced by the love of God in such a way as we see possibilities where previously we saw only problems.  The challenge is as to how deeply we allow God to invade our settled views and deepest convictions. The challenge, as God put it to Jonah, is to how deeply we allow the grace of God to dominate our outlook on life.

“God said to Jonah 'Do you do well to be angry for the plant?'” … “Should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left?”

May God lead us to know God's love in a deeper and fuller way, through the action of the change-bringing, exasperation-breaking Holy Spirit and to the glory of the One, true Savior, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.