Jon. 3:1-5, 10; 1 Cor.
7:29-31; Mk. 1:14-20
The
story of Jonah and the Whale is one of the oddest accounts in the Bible. God
commanded Jonah to preach repentance to the city of Nineveh.
Jonah found this order unbearable. Nineveh was
known for its wickedness.
It was also the capital of the Assyrian empire, one
of Israel's fiercest enemies. Jonah was a stubborn fellow so did just the
opposite of what he was told. He went down to the seaport of Joppa and boarded
a ship to Tarshish, heading directly away from Nineveh.
God did not want to leave him. God sent a violent
storm, which threatened to break the ship to pieces. The terrified crew cast
lots and found that Jonah was responsible for the storm. The waves got stronger
and higher. The sailors finally tossed Jonah into the sea, and the water
immediately grew calm. But, Jonah was swallowed by a great fish. In the belly
of the whale, Jonah repented and cried out to God in prayer.
Jonah was in the giant fish three days. God
commanded the whale, and it vomited the reluctant prophet onto dry land. This
time Jonah obeyed God. He walked through Nineveh proclaiming that in forty days
the city would be destroyed. Surprisingly, the Ninevites believed Jonah's
message and repented, wearing sackcloth and covering themselves in ashes. God
had compassion on them and did not destroy them.
Call to repentance is the message of all the prophets. Prophets called
people to turn away and repent. John warned people and urged them to repent.
Jesus began his ministry with an invitation to repent. Jesus invitation to
repent was different from that of all the prophets. Prophets preached
repentance as a means of escaping from the imminent punishment. Prophet Jonah
announced that the city of Nineveh would be destroyed in forty days, there they
had to repent to escape from that imminent wrath of God.
Jesus admonished the people to repent in order to prepare themselves to
receive the good news. Jesus message was a good news of truth – revelation of
God.
In the history of human race one of the greatest searches was the search
for God. Philosophers and religious men spent their life in search of God.
Rejecting worship of unresponsive idols, Abraham spent time outdoors where he
senses an unseen hand directing the movements of the moon, sun, storm, and
rainbow. He concludes that "God is everywhere. God is in everything. God
is something we know with our hearts." Moses searched for God. God
appeared to Moses in the form of Fire. The people of Israel had seen God in
clouds and in fire. Prophets herd God call them. But men could only guess and
grope after God. Job cried out, "O that I knew where I might find
him." (Job 23:3). But with the coming of Jesus men could see clearly what
God is like. No longer do they need to guess and grope.
Jesus' message was good news of hope. The ancient world was a
pessimistic world. In the essay, The Myth
of Sisyphus, Albert Camus introduces his philosophy of the absurd:
man's futile search for meaning, unity and clarity in the face of an
unintelligible world. He begins by describing the absurd condition: much of our
life is built on the hope for tomorrow yet tomorrow brings us closer to death
and is the ultimate enemy; people live as if they didn't know about the
certainty of death; once stripped of its common romanticisms, the world is a
foreign, strange and inhuman place; true knowledge is impossible and
rationality and science cannot explain the world: their stories ultimately end
in meaningless abstractions, in metaphors. The final chapter compares the
absurdity of man's life with the situation of Sisyphus, a figure of Greek
mythology who was condemned to repeat forever the same meaningless task of
pushing a boulder up a mountain, only to see it roll down again. In their
struggle for goodness men were defeated. The message of Jesus brings hope to
the hopeless heart.
Jesus
called people to repent in order to receive this good news. When Jesus demanded
repentance, he demanded a total change of heart. But, we often confuse two
things – sorrow for the consequences of sin and sorrow for the sin itself.
Manny of us feel sorry for a certain action because of the mess it gets us
into, but if we can reasonably get out of it we would do it again. It is not
the sin that we try to avoid but its consequence. Real repentance is that a man
should avoid the sin itself.
After
announcing the precepts of His Kingdom Jesus proceeded to build up His staff.
The men Jesus picked up were simple folk. They did not come from school and the
colleges. They did not come from the aristocracy. They were ordinary men,
engaged in ordinary business of life. When Jesus called them they were engaged
in their day's work. It was so with many prophets. Prophet Amos was called from
the farms where he was engaged in rearing the sheep. The call of God can come
to us not only in the house of God, not only in the secret places, not only in
the house of God, but in the middle of the day's work. The most important
aspect is our willingness to accept it.
Jesus's
summoned his first disciples with the words "follow me." We should
not think that Jesus stood for the first time before them and said,
"follow me." No doubt they had stood in the crowd and listened to
Him. No doubt they had already felt the magic of his presence. No doubt that
they had been charmed by his words of wisdom. It all began with a personal
relationship. Jesus might have extended the invitation to many, but only a few
accepted it. We know the story of the young man, who rejected the invitation of
Jesus to follow him. When he rejected the invitation he had to renounce the
place that had been reserved for him in history. Jesus invitation to follow him
comes to us in the middle of our day's work. To recognize this we have repent
and maintain purity of heart. If our attention is downed in the distractions of
the world, if our attention is blurred by sin, there is no wonder that we will
not be able to recognize his call. Jesus tells them "believe"
There was this Christian lady sitting
next to a man. When he saw her pull out her Bible he gave a little chuckle and
went back to what he was doing.
After a while he turned to her and
asked "You don't really believe all that stuff in there do you?"
The lady replied "Of course I
do! It is the Bible."
He said "Well what about that
guy that was swallowed by that whale?"
She replied "Oh, Jonah. Yes I
believe that; it is in the Bible. The Bible says Jonah was swallowed by a
whale, and I believe it. And if it had said that Jonah had swallowed the whale,
I would believe that too!"
He asked "Well, how do you
suppose he survived all that time inside the whale?"
The lady said "Well I don't
really know. I guess when I get to heaven I will ask him." "What if
he isn't in heaven?" the man asked sarcastically.
"Then you can ask him when you
reach the hell," replied the lady.
Lastly
Jesus call was not to a life of comfortable ease, idleness and lethargic
inactivity, but he invited them and offered them a task in which they would
have to spend themselves and burn themselves up. His invitation was an
invitation to a task where they will be able to serve others. Jesus invitation
comes to us with a specific demand. We should be ready to accept the
challenges.
Schembechler was the coach of the Michigan Wolverines. It's said that
Schembechler used to work his players especially hard during spring practice to
see what kind of young men he had, winners or quitters. He made a sign with a
slogan on it and hung it above the locker room door. The sign read like this: "Those
Who Stay Will Be Champions." Of course, not everyone stayed. Not everyone
has what it takes to answer the call to be a champion, regardless of the field
or profession. Well, you get the idea. Not everyone is cut out to play
football. Not everyone will be happy as a sailor. And not everyone was called
to be among Jesus' original twelve disciples. Jesus calls many, but only a few
heed his summons. In most churches, only a few of the congregation are really
involved in the life of the church. A few are are relatively faithful in
worship, but can't truly be counted on for anything else. A few are sporadic
attenders. So the fact that these first disciples were willing not only to say
"yes" to the Master, but also to leave their homes and follow him is no
little matter. They did not ask for explanation. They did not stop to think of
their families. They did not give a thought to what they were leaving behind.
But they just followed Him. As it is said, "showing up is half the
battle."
Satish