Jonah 4

If you’ve ever read Philip Yancey’s rivetingbook, What’s So Amazing About Grace,you know right from the story your heart is gripped as he opens up by tellingof a prostitute who figured out she could make more money renting her toddlerdaughter out to men in one hour than she could of herself in a whole day.  Then one day, she meets a group of Christianswho try to share the love of Christ with her and invite her to church, when sheresponds, “Church?  Church? Why would Iever want to go there? They would only make me feel worse than I already do.” Whatthis woman places her finger on is a sad reality of the local church, and thatis we are known for a lot of things, but grace is not one of them! We are notknown for being a place of grace.

I say this is sad, because grace was thehallmark of Jesus’ ministry. John said that when he saw Jesus, he saw a manfull of grace and truth. We see Jesus incarnating grace as He sits with thewoman at the well, lunched with tax collectors and spoke words of life overprostitutes at parties. Grace. What is grace? It is God’s unmerited favor? It’sgetting what we don’t deserve. Grace says, “I’ve got you covered, even when youdidn’t merit the covering.” Grace is getting the promotion when you didn’tdeserve it. Grace is godly children even though you weren’t the best parent. Graceis financial blessings even though you weren’t the best steward. Grace is theforgiveness of God even though you had the affair or the abortion. Grace.

Oh, if I can take a pit stop right here ALCF, Iwant to fire a shot and just declare that this is going to be a grace place. No,this is not going to be a place where we gloss over sin, for grace is notignorance. In fact, John said when he saw Jesus, he saw a man full of grace and truth. Grace without truth iscompromise, while truth without grace is condemnation. Grace sees sin, callsout sin, but grace still forgives and invites and loves. This is not going tobe a place where sinners get beat up, but ALCF will be the kind of church thatchallenges each other in our mess, yet does so with an arm around the personand says at the same time, “We’re family, and I ain’t giving up on you.” Grace!

Vesselsof Grace

If you want to know what grace is, look nofurther than the book we’ve been studying the last several weeks, Jonah. Herewe see God saving a whole city of pagans, adopting them into His family when theywere formerly the enemies of God and His people—we call this grace. Ah, butit’s important to ask the question: How did the people of Nineveh get thisgrace? Jonah. And how did Jonah get to Nineveh?Answer: the grace of God seen in God interrupting him over and over andover again, as He sends storms, oversees lots and appoints a great fish tointerrupt Jonah, so that Jonah would become a vessel of grace to these waywardpeople of Nineveh.  

I’m at your neighborhood, now. What does thishave to do with me? We’ve learned that God’s interruptions are not Hiseruptions, but are expressions of His grace. It’s important to see that whenGod interrupts your life, His interruptions in your life are not ultimatelyabout your life. Instead, God’s gracious interruptions in our lives is done forthe purpose of making us vessels of grace in the lives of others. Or to say itanother way, God’s grace interrupts us so that we can extend that sameinterrupting grace to others.  

Several years ago I did lunch with a prostitute(I’m not feeling much grace from you right now). Let me clarify. She was anex-prostitute, and there were about 10 of us at the table together. She told usof how she came to Christ. A man approached her one day with money wanting tobuy an hour of her time. She was shocked to discover that the only thing hewanted from her was for her to listen as he shared the love of Jesus with her. Shewas interrupted that day in the most amazing way by grace and she became afollower of Jesus Christ. She then went to rehab, got off drugs and left herlife of prostitution. You know what she’s doing now? Having been delivered, shenow has a burden to help other prostitutes—caught in their immoral life andaddicted to drugs—get free by the grace of God. God has used her to set dozensof prostitutes free. God’s grace interrupted her life, and now she’s become avessel of grace.

That’s what God wants of each of us. Hear me—allof us have received the grace of God, and the worse thing we could ever be is arule keeping, legalistic person who castigates and condemns people for failingto perform, as if you’ve dotted every I and crossed every T all of your life.None of us measure up! All of us need grace. And having received the grace ofGod, I want that same grace to flow freely through my life.

TheProblem With Grace

Ah, but grace is not easy. In fact, as we cometo our text, we’re going to see some very unsettling truths about grace thatJonah wrestles with, and that we all need to grapple with. Notice something oddin our text as it opens up—Jonah is angry. I say this is odd, because he’s justwitnessed what one scholar calls the greatest revival in human history—a wholecity comes to faith in God, but now when we meet Jonah right on the heels ofthis revival, he’s angry. And it is out of this anger that Jonah prays.  

Now let me stop right here and deal withsomething real quick that I hope will bless you. This idea of talking to Godout of anger is a real hard concept for me. Now I know we’re in progressiveCalifornia, but I grew up down south in Georgia, and in my house we didn’t talkto daddy and mama out of anger. If mama made you angry, you held it in, andthen I went to my room that was all the way at the end of the house, stood inthe corner of my room and whispered, “I hate her! I hate her! I hate her!” Thenway at the other end of the house, mama’s bionic hearing would kick in andshe’d say, “I heard that!” But again, this notion of talking to authorityfigures out of anger is foreign to me, and I’ve viewed it as sinful, but it’snot.

Notice, God never castigates Jonah for talkingto Him out of anger. He questions the validity of his anger, but doesn’tcondemn him for being angry. Why? Well, anger is not a sin. Paul says to theEphesians, “In your anger do not sin.” Jesus got angry when He cleansed thetemple, and theologians say that one of the attributes of God is His wrath oranger. If anger was a sin, then God is not holy, because God gets angry.  See, I think the lesson is this—we can trustGod with our feelings, not just with our facts, but with our feelings. Now weneed to be respectful in how we express anger, but God is all knowing, and ifyou feel angry, He knows it regardless of if you express it or not. God canhandle our feelings, even our anger.

Now, here’s the question: Why is Jonah angry? Look at verse 2 with me. Jonah is angry becauseGod has shown grace to the people of Nineveh. See, the problem with grace, hearme, is that we want it when it comes to ourselves, we just don’t want grace whenit comes to the people we don’t like. To say it another way, we don’t want toget what we deserve, but we want the folk we don’t like to get what they dodeserve.  Do I have any witnesses in thehouse today? The very thought of a group of people whom Jonah doesn’t likegetting grace angers him.

Grace isInsulting (1–2)

See, the first problematic thing we learn aboutgrace, is that grace is insulting. As my friend, Pastor Tullian says, “graceinsults our sensibilities.” Now why is this? Well, because we live in ameritocracy. A meritocracy is a society that is based on earning and effort. It’san equation society, that for the most part says, “do good things over there,get a good outcome over here.”

Tomorrow afternoon I will get on an airplaneand fly back to NYC. When I get to the airport, I won’t have to stand in linewith the regular folk, but will go to a special expedited line to check in. I’llalso go through the fast lane through security. Then I will sit in the DeltaSky Club—which I didn’t have to pay a dime for—and finally will sit in a nicebusiness class seat that was a free upgrade. Why all this specialtreatment?  Well, because I’ve flown overa million miles with Delta, and I have what’s called Diamond Status. I gettreated great because, well, I’ve earned it because of my status. That’s lifein the meritocracy—do good things over here, get good things over there.

That’s many of your stories. I’ve talked tomany of you who have put in the time with your education. You’ve gone to someelite university. You’ve earned the MBA, and the doctorate degrees, burning themidnight oil. Now you’re working great jobs and living in one of the mostdesirable places in the world to live, why? Well you’ve put your time in, youdid good things over there, and now you’re reaping good things over here. Thisis the equation; this is life in the meritocracy. And you’re also encouragingyour children to do the same.

But here’s the problem with grace: Gracedoesn’t play by the rules of the meritocracy. Grace doesn’t treat you accordingto your effort. Grace is a whole different currency in the kingdom of God. It’ssort of like Monopoly—I love that game. In Monopoly, you work hard, negotiate,buy homes and hotels, and collect a whole lot of money along the way. Now whenthe game is over, I tell you what you don’t do—you don’t take the cash youearned in Monopoly and go to Bank of America trying to make a deposit. Whynot?  Because the currency of Monopolycarries no value in the kingdoms of this world. Likewise, God is saying thecurrency of the meritocracy is fine for this world, but it carries no value inthe kingdom of God. Your Ph.D. ain’t gonna get you in the kingdom. Only gracewill. Your Ivy League education doesn’t earn you points with God. Only gracedoes. Your virginity doesn’t make you special in the eyes of God, only gracedoes. Jonah is upset and insulted because in his eyes, Nineveh doesn’t deserveto get in, and God is saying that’s exactly the point. Grace is insulting.

Grace isfor the Oppressed and the Oppressor (10–11)

God’s grace has triggered Jonah’s anger, andhere’s the main reason: Nineveh is a part of the Assyrian empire, and theAssyrians would be the people who would oppress and enslave the people ofGod.  Nineveh is a part of thisoppressive regime. So the very thought of God being gracious to the people whoenslaved Jonah’s people angers Jonah! I mean, to put this in perspective, thisis the social equivalent of God showing grace to the KKK, the Nazi Party, orISIS. What? “No God,” so we and Jonah reason, “these people are not deservingof Your grace!”

So how does God respond? He asks Jonah aquestion, “Do you do well to be angry?” Now when God asks questions, He’s notlooking for information He doesn’t have. He’s making a statement. It’s sort oflike the questions mama’s ask of their kids. I used to slouch on the sofa andmama would look at me and ask, “How are you sitting?” I’d want to say, “You’relooking at me aren’t you?” But I didn’t. Mama wasn’t trying to get information,she was just pointing something out. Same here with God. God is just pointingout Jonah’s sin. 

God now says to this angry, self-righteousprophet, “I’m going to bless you.” The text says, “He appoints a plant to growover Jonah giving him shade.” Watch this now: while he’s still in his sin, anddoesn’t deserve it, God gives Jonah grace. Then God makes this point in verses10–11…God says, “I love everyone, the oppressed and the oppressor.”

It was Dr. James Cone, the father of modern dayblack liberation theology, who said that God is only the God of the oppressed. Itmakes you wonder, what Bible are you reading? Jesus healed a Roman centurion’sservant to the disgust of the Jewish religious. He’s nailed to the cross by theoppressive Romans, and yet says of them, “Father forgive them for they know notwhat they do.” Grace is for the oppressed and the oppressor. Grace is for thelynched and the lynch mob. Grace is for the raped and the rapists. Grace is forthe betrayed and the betrayer. Grace is for the faithful spouse and thecheating spouse.

Let me press into this ever so gently, if Imay. This church has gone through a horrific church split. I wasn’t here forthis traumatic moment in the life of this church, so I can’t speakintelligently about it. But let’s say for argument sake that they werecompletely wrong, and this church was completely right. We were wronged bythem. Now let me ask you a question: let’s say God’s grace is on that church tothe point where they explode in membership, they’re the talk of the Bay, and themain catalyst for revival. Are you good with that? How does that make you feel?Does God’s grace on that church insult you? Does it make you angry like Jonah?

Grace isRevealing

See this leads me to the final point: grace isrevealing. If you ever want to see your heart, look at how you respond when Godshows grace to people you have a hard time with. Grace is like a colonoscopy. I’venever had one, but everything I’ve heard is, these things are not a day at thebeach. I’ve never met someone excited to have one. They’re uncomfortable, andyet necessary to get in and see what’s going on inside of us. That’s what graceis. Grace is like a colonoscopy. When God shows grace to that boss you don’tlike, that ex you’re still grieving or those people who’ve wronged you, it getsinto our hearts and shows us some things.

Look at what God’s grace to people Jonahdoesn’t like, does to Jonah. It reveals his racism. Jonah has a hard timebecause these people who get saved aren’t like him, they’re Gentiles. It alsoreveals his self-righteous pride. Just two chapters before, Jonah was rejoicingthat God’s grace rescued him out of the fish, and now he’s acting like he’snever needed God’s grace by pitching a fit! All of us have been there, haven’twe! Oh we’ve all battled short-term memory loss when it comes to God’s grace. Thosepeople over there ain’t the only ones who need God’s grace. We all need it. Whenwe want grace for ourselves, yet pitch a fit when others get it, we call thatpride!

Conclusion

Look at how our text, and therefore the wholebook ends in verses 10–11. There’s no resolution. It just ends abruptly like abad reality show. You’re like, “are you kidding me? What happens? How doesJonah respond? Why this abrupt ending?” Sinclair Ferguson helps us: “It carries no conclusion, because itsummons us to write the final paragraph. It remains unfinished, in order thatwe may provide our own conclusion to its message. For you are Jonah; Iam Jonah.”—Sinclair Ferguson. 

God’s been gracious to you. Youdon’t even deserve to live. How will you respond?

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