Rector’s Reflections
Friday 21st February 2025
What’s in a Story? Jonah and the Whale
In yesterday’s reflections, I shared some thoughts on the idea that the Book of Jonah might be intended to be understood as a study in repentance. God calls Jonah, a Jew, to go to the non-Jewish city of Ninevah, where he is to proclaim a message of imminent judgment: “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”. This uncompromising message is not simply a statement of what’s about to happen. It is also intended as an invitation to repentance. The inhabitants of Nineveh have a choice; they can either ignore Jonah’s message, or they can act upon it. In the event, they chose the latter course of action, and the city was saved from destruction.
The message seems clear. If we do not repent of our evil ways, we can expect to receive judgment. But if we choose to repent, God will change his mind about the judgment. God will forgive us, and all will be well. It’s up to us: stay mired in sin, or repent and be saved.
But is this all there is to say on the topic of repentance? The Book of Jonah suggests that the topic is actually much more interesting than one might have thought, and it points to several avenues which we might seek to explore further.
To start with, how necessary is it that there are men and women who go about proclaiming God’s judgment on unrepentant sinners? Can the sinner’s need for repentance be taken for granted, or does it need to be communicated explicitly? Would God punish a sinner who hadn’t been told that they should change their ways for the better?
God sent Jonah to preach repentance to the inhabitants of Nineveh, and this gave them the opportunity to change their ways for the better and thus to avoid judgment. But what if Jonah had had second thoughts and had decided that he wouldn’t go to Nineveh after all? Would God still have destroyed the city even if they hadn’t been warned that they needed to repent? Or what if Jonah had decided to go to Nineveh, but to start his preaching with something far less confrontational, only moving on to the subject of judgment when he considered the time was ripe? He might have spent so long being nice and gentle that he let the deadline for repentance pass. Or does the time allotted for repentance only start running once the sinner has realised their need for repentance?
And what if the sinner sincerely wishes to repent, but finds it really hard to do so? Our sins can cloud our judgment and weaken our wills. It’s often hard for us to free ourselves from harmful and destructive modes of behaviour. In the story of Jonah, the conversion of the inhabitants of Nineveh seems to be almost instantaneous – a miracle indeed. Most readers of the Book of Jonah might well say to themselves: “Ah, if only it were as easy as that! “ Why do we find it so difficult to repent of our evil ways, as individuals and as a society? Why are we not like the inhabitants of Nineveh?
And finally, how does the idea of repentance connect in with the complex thoughts and feelings which lie buried deep within our hearts? The Book of Jonah finishes with a reminder that the subject of repentance can arouse strong and powerful emotions. It tells us that Jonah was really angry with God over God’s decision to forgive the inhabitants of Nineveh. Jonah found it hard to accept the fact that God’s mercy had triumphed over God’s judgment. How true is Jonah’s attitude to human nature! People often find it harder to accept God’s mercy than his judgment. Even people of deep faith can find it hard to accept that God is truly merciful and that it really is his nature to forgive the repentant sinner.
And who should have the last word on questions of repentance and judgment? The Book of Jonah is clear on this: the last word belongs to God. So let me finish this series of reflections by quoting the final verses of the Book: “But God said to Jonah: “Is it right for you to be angry about the [gourd which sheltered you]? “ And [Jonah]said, “Yes, angry enough to die”. Then the Lord said, “You are concerned about the [gourd], for which you did not labour and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and many animals?” (Chapter 4, vv. 9 to 13). God cares for his world, and that’s that.