Rector’s Reflections
Thursday 20th February 2025
What’s in a story? Jonah and the Whale
In yesterday/s reflections, I shared some thoughts on how we might engage with the account of Jonah spending “three days and three nights” inside the great fish. Is it the record of a remarkable but nonetheless historical event in the life of the prophet Jonah, an event which actually happened sometime back in the 8th century BC? Or is it rather to be understood as a bit of symbolism, which was never intended to be taken literally? Or is it simply included in the narrative as bit of fun?
For modern readers, probably the greatest difficulty in seeing it as a historical event is that it would seem to fall into the category of the miraculous, and since the 18th century or so, the general assumption among educated folk has been that miracles do not and can not happen. People tend to think of miracles as occurrences which contradict our scientific understanding of the way the world works, and that such a contradiction is impossible, because science is always right. I would add that it’s actually a lot more complicated than this, because much depends on how one defines what one means by the word “miracle”, and even a traditional definition of what constitutes a “miracle” is perfectly compatible with a rigorous and whole-hearted commitment to science. I will leave further elaboration of these comments to another series of reflections!
If Jonah’s stint inside the great fish should indeed be seen as a “miracle”, however that term is defined, it is not the only “miracle” in the Book of the Prophet Jonah. Jonah’s time inside the great fish is followed by two further miracles, and it is arguable that these other two miracles are the miracles that really count.
Both of these further miracles concern a change of heart. Human beings have evolved with the ability to make choices and to make their will known. Once a human being has made up his or her mind, it can be very hard indeed to get them to change their mind. We like patterns and habits, and once a habit has been established, it can be very hard indeed to change the habit, even if we accept that it would be to our own benefit if we were to do things differently. Given human nature, a dramatic and sustained change of heart can be so difficult to achieve that when it does happen, it can seem little less than a miracle.
Jonah experienced two such changes of heart, and both could be fairly be described as miraculous. To start with, he changed his mind about his attitude towards God. At the start of the book, God tells Jonah to go at once to Nineveh, “and cry out against it”. Jonah does not want to obey God, so he deliberately goes on a long journey in the other direction. But later in the story, after he has been spewed out by the great fish, Jonah changes his mind. He decides he will go to Nineveh after all. This dramatic and total change of heart can be considered a miracle itself.
And once Jonah gets to Nineveh, he preaches judgment on its inhabitants. Jonah is preaching, as a Jew and a foreigner, to non-Jews in a city he might never have visited before, and he is preaching judgment – in modern terms, fire and brimstone. What’s going to happen? Either Jonah is going to be ignored as some curious eccentric, or he is going to get himself expelled as some trouble-maker. But in fact neither of these things happen. Jonah’s preaching is so successful that “the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth”. A miracle of miracles! This is not just one person experiencing a change of heart: it’s a whole city. Eat your heart out, Billy Graham! A miracle indeed!
So perhaps the author of the Book of Jonah is wanting to get us to think seriously about the possibility of repentance. Even the most hardened of sinners can change their ways for better. Even if we have deliberately turned our faces away from God, indeed even if like Jonah we have chosen to run away to the ends of the earth in order to avoid God’s call on our lives, God can still work a miracle of repentance. God can intervene in our lives so as to bring us to our senses, and change our ways for the better. And God can change whole communities for the better. Through Jonah’s preaching, the whole of the city of Nineveh “believed God”. So there is always hope, for ourselves as individuals and for our communities. God can always work a miracle of repentance, however stubborn our hearts and however unwilling we may be to change. God is always God and his love for us remains constant throughout our lives. Even when, like Jonah, we’ve chosen to reject him, or to run away from him, God won’t give up on us.