1 February 2017
Text: Jonah 1:1-17
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
A
person that is always followed by what seems to be back luck is sometimes
called a “Jonah.” Of course, this comes
from our Old Testament reading about the prophet who was called by God to
preach to the wicked people of Nineveh in order to call them to repent. Jonah was not enamored by this prospect. Our text doesn’t give a reason. Maybe he hated the people there, or loathed
their culture. Maybe he just wanted to
go elsewhere, or maybe he was afraid of how they would react. Whatever the cause, “Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish
from the presence of the Lord.”
His
escape plan included boarding a boat in Joppa and going the other way.
And
here is where the term “Jonah” comes from.
While
onboard, the ship seemed to be cursed. For
“the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on
the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.”
This
was seen as a payment for some kind of religious disobedience. Lots were cast to see whose fault it was, and
the lot fell to Jonah, who confessed that he was “fleeing from the presence of
the Lord.” So, they found their Jonah,
the cause of their suffering, and Jonah suggested that they throw him
overboard. The men, to their credit, did
not want to do this. They tried rowing
harder, but eventually realized that they would all perish without appeasing
Jonah’s God, to whom they prayed: “O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s
life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for You, O Lord, have done as it
pleased You.” The act of throwing Jonah
overboard brought peace to the tempestuous sea, and saved their lives.
And
so “the men feared the Lord exceedingly and they offered a sacrifice to the
Lord and made vows.”
We
all know what happened next: Jonah was swallowed by a great fish from whose
belly he would re-emerge on the third day.
Of
course, there is a lesson in here about obeying the Lord – especially for those
whom the Lord has called to preach and teach. Rebelling against this calling is not
recommended. There is also an example of
how disobedience not only affects the disobedient one, but others around him as
well. There is also a lesson in here
about the mercy of the Lord, who rescued Jonah by means of a fish.
But
all of these lessons are secondary to Jonah’s pointing to Jesus. For Jesus is the New and Greater Jonah, who
Himself referred to His own death and three day rest in the tomb as “the sign
of Jonah.”
Jesus
is our Jonah. For though He was obedient
to the Father, and though He did not flee His assignment to call the wicked to
repentance, and though He committed no sin, nevertheless, He became sin for us.
Our Lord took upon Himself the curse of
Jonah, the curse of Adam, the curse of fallen mankind. And He did so in order to save us through His
own body being thrown overboard into the grave by the very people whom He came
to save, those who killed Him and yet received His grace, mercy, forgiveness,
and life.
No
great fish came to rescue Jesus. He was
swallowed up instead by death. Like
Jonah, He laid down His own life rather than see others die, but unlike Jonah,
He emerged from His three day sojourn by His own power and authority, conquering
not only death, but also the curse of disobedience and the effects of sin and
guilt. And in so doing, our Lord calmed
the stormy sea of the Father’s righteous wrath against the sins of mankind.
Jonah
became a sacrifice, a funnel of the Lord’s wrath, one who deserved that wrath. Our Lord Jesus likewise funneled unto Himself the
wrath of God for the sins of the world – for yours and mine and all of those
ever committed or to be committed, in thought, word, and deed, sins of omission
and commission, the very mortal nature that we have inherited from our
ancestors. Jesus suffered all of this
wrath, and was willingly thrown into the grave to be devoured by the devil. And our Lord willingly became this sacrificial
offering, appeasing the Father’s wrath and restoring us to the calm of
communion with God.
And
like the great fish, whose belly churned and ejected Jonah upon the land, Satan
could not conquer the crucified Jesus, and though he had wounded the heel of
the Seed of the Woman, the Lord Jesus had mortally wounded the fiendish serpent’s
head. And on the third day, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the New and Greater Jonah, re-emerged on the terra firma of the
earth, the world He Himself had created and redeemed, populated by the very
people whom He saved and atoned for, by His sacrifice upon the cross.
And
we repeat the prayer of those men saved by Jonah’s sacrifice: “O Lord, let us
not perish for this Man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for You, O
Lord, have done as it pleased You.” For
the innocent blood of Jesus – far from condemning us, saves us. And instead of perishing for His life, we are
saved by His death. And indeed, by the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, we “fear the Lord exceedingly,” and we too make
offerings and vows, thank offerings for His saving blood, and vows to support the
continued preaching of the Word, of the Gospel, of repentance, and of Jesus
Christ, our New and Greater Jonah. We
repent at His Word and we partake of His sacrificial flesh and blood.
Since
the days of the Roman Empire, the fish has been a symbol of our Lord Jesus
Christ and of our Christian faith. There
are many reasons for this. And even though
Jonah is not an explicit reason for this, there is great value in seeing these
symbols on the property and homes of Christians and calling to mind that our
Lord Himself considered the account of Jonah to be a sign of His death and
resurrection. For Jesus is truly our
Jonah, the New and Greater Jonah, the innocent bearer of the curse of our sins,
who was hurled into the grave only to rise again on the third day, having
released us from the wrath of the Father, bringing us to repentance,
forgiveness, and everlasting life. To
Him be thanksgiving, praise, and glory even unto eternity. Amen.
In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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