In the Revised Common Lectionary used by the Catholic Church and many mainline Protestant churches, the Old Testament reading for this Sunday is from Jonah. It’s the only time Jonah is ever read in the lectionary cycle. If I were still preaching, I’d contrast Jonah with Andrew and Simon from the Gospel reading in terms of transformation. Andrew and his brother, Simon Peter, experience transformation; Jonah does not.
Growing up, Jonah was my favorite Bible story. It’s an action-packed story only four chapters long, and chapter two is a long, boring prayer I always skipped, which makes the story go even quicker.
Chapter One: God calls Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, and tell everyone to repent and change their ways or God will destroy them. Jonah doesn’t want to go and catches a ship going the opposite direction. God is not happy with Jonah’s refusal and causes a big storm on the sea. The sailors try to figure out what caused this storm out of nowhere and Jonah says, “It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me,” (to quote Taylor Swift). At Jonah’s insistence, the sailors throw him overboard. God has compassion on him and sends a large fish/whale to swallow Jonah and prevent him from drowning.
Chapter Two: The boring long prayer Jonah prays asking God to deliver him from the belly of the fish. While I tend to skip it, God hears it and again has compassion on Jonah and has the fish spit him up onto land.
Chapter Three: God tries again and again tells Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell them to repent and change or God will destroy them. This time, Jonah goes and delivers the message, and it is well-received. Since the city changes its ways, God does not follow through on the threat of destruction. This is the chapter that is in the Revised Common Lectionary, without the context of what has come before or the nuance of what happens afterward.
Chapter Four: Even though the city listened to him and did not get destroyed, Jonah is displeased. He’s not happy that the city is still standing! Jonah is annoyed that they listened to him and heeded his warning! Isn’t this reaction bizarre? In fact, not only is Jonah disgruntled about it, but he decides to hang around a little longer to wait and see if anything more happens. Maybe he’s still hoping for a train wreck? Except the only train wreck that happens is his own! While Jonah’s waiting, hoping for something to happen to the city, waiting when he doesn’t have to, God has compassion on him and has this big plant grow up, big enough to give shade for Jonah and protect him from the hot desert sun. Jonah wasn’t happy that the city was still standing, but he is happy about the plant. Yet he doesn’t do anything about the plant other than enjoy its shade. He doesn’t thank God for it. He doesn’t water it or tend it or otherwise take care of it. So, the next day, God kills the plant, and guess what? Jonah is disgruntled again. In fact, he’s so depressed he says he wants to die. God has the last word in this story and points out to Jonah that he is more upset by the death of a plant than he was at the prospect of the deaths of tens of thousands of persons in Nineveh. The end.
The difference, I would argue, is that Jonah does not actually undergo transformation. He changes his actions, because he doesn’t want to die, but nothing changes at a deeper level for him. There’s no change of heart, or change in his soul. He does not really care what happens to Nineveh. He only grudgingly agrees to do what God tells him to do and he’s not happy about it. You could call him the reluctant prophet, only he never really grows into the role of prophet. He’d rather God left him alone to live his life. Jonah changes his actions, after being swallowed up by a fish, but doesn’t create a new map. Andrew and Simon, on the other hand, do create a new map; their lives completely change by following Jesus and they don’t whine and complain about it nor continue to focus only on their interests.
Jonah isn’t transformed. He insists on working with his old map even when it no longer works. Jonah seems to believe that things can’t change. People can’t change – or Jonah doesn’t want them to change. He has something invested in the status quo. Jonah seems to want people punished when they’re wicked and to not offer them any compassion. He is not amazed by God’s grace. Jonah seems to prefer that everyone get their just desserts, and that line of thinking is probably what appealed to me as a child: a strict black-and-white view of justice with not a lot of room for transformation or grace or new maps.
But transformation and creating new maps is messy work, with starts and stops, trial and error, drawing a new line and then erasing it. It’s experimenting and seeing which roads go through and which ones end in a dead end, which ones are life-giving and compassionate and grace-filled. It’s a process and it’s not easy. Simon Peter and Andrew certainly learn that lesson. The disciples get it right sometimes and they get it wrong sometimes. One time Simon gets it so wrong that Jesus calls him Satan! Yet it’s a risk you have to take. No one can create the new maps for you; they can just give you suggestions and guidance from what they have learned on their own journey. The important part is that you’re doing it. And find some good companions for the journey, preferably the kind that won’t eat you.