Sermon Tone Analysis

An Imperfect Prayer

Big Idea

Tension: What does God do when Jonah prays as a wronged righteous sufferer?

Resolution: He graciously shows him mercy.

Exegetical Idea: When Jonah prays as a wronged righteous sufferer, God graciously shows him mercy.

Theological Idea: God shows believers grace when they view themselves more righteously than they should.

Homiletical Idea: God shows us grace when we view ourselves more righteously than we are.

Big Idea: God gives grace to self-righteous believers.

Application points:

We need to be self-conscious that we’re hypocrites.

(relation to unbelieving world)

We should praise God that he gives us grace when we don’t even know it.

(this points us to Christ)

We should ask God to help us see our self-righteousness.

(it guides and directs our way to empowered living)

We should be a community that is continually growing in authenticity yet is gracious towards the self-righteous.

Introduction: How does God treat the self-righteous man?

One of my favorite novels is a novel by a guy named Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

And in that novel, the main character, a guy named Raskolnikov, is this really self-righteous guy.

He believes that he is destined for greatness, and he believes that he is really such a morally upright person that the normal laws don’t apply to him.

So he decides that he is going to do a science experiment.

Because he is such a morally upright person, he is going to murder someone.

But it can’t just be anyone.

It has to be someone who really deserves it.

So he decides he’s going to this person who basically is a loan shark.

And he plans it out carefully so that he won’t get caught and he is so precise and careful.

SO he goes and sneaks in, and manages to kill someone.

But deep down he knows that he is wrong.

So when the woman’s sister discovers him, he kills her too.

ANd he spends much of the rest of the book trying to evade the capture of the persistent police.

And as we read the book, we the reader can see clearly what Raskolnikov can’t: he thinks that he is perfect and innocent, but he is not.

He is not nearly as righteous as he thinks he is, he is not nearly as impressive as he thinks he is.

He is a two-rate, self-righteous man.

At our church, we talk a lot about how God loves to save sinners.

And rightly so, God does love to save sinners.

God loves to save sinners, to save the tax-collector, the prodigal, the defiled.

But does God love to save self-righteous people?

What about the Pharisee, the older brother, the self-righteous person?

Is that person too far gone for redemption?

You see, I think sometimes we think that we get grace for the beginning of our salvation, but after we become Christians, and maybe for a year or two while we’re baby Christians, we can lean on God’s grace.

But mature Christians shouldn’t have to do that.

People who have been going to church for a long time, reading their bibles for a long time, praying for a long time, shoudln’t need GOd’s grace.

But what we see in these brief few verses today is that God gives grace to even self-righteous people.

The irony of Jonah’s lament: Now, to really understand this chapter of Scripture, we have to understand the use of irony.

You see, where we left Jonah, he was running away from God.

But God wouldn’t let him escape and sent a giant fish to seek him out and to capture him.

And so Jonah is in the belly of the fish for three days and he makes this prayer to God while he is in the fish.

Now, to really understand this, we have to understand that Jonah is making what is called a lament.

And a lament was a prayer or song that someone woudl make to God in their suffering, to bring their complaints to God boldly.

And there are many laments in Scripture.

ANd most laments are somewhere on a spectrum between two poles.

The lament of the unrighteous sufferer: The first pole is the pole of the unrighteous sufferer.

This is someone who has sinned and who knows that the reason that he is in the situation that he is is because he has sinned.

IT is because of some great sin that he is where he is.

And it is a prayer asking God for forgiveness.

It is the prayer of someone who knows that they need God’s help.

So, for example, listen to Psalm 32:1-7...

The lament of the righteous sufferer: But, on the other pole, there is the lament of the person who is totally righteous and believes they have done nothing wrong.

It is the prayer of the person who is suffering for some reason and does not know why.

It is the prayer of the person who is going through some undeserved trial.

Now, let’s be clear, this is not always wrong.

In fact, we see many of these laments in Scripture.

So for example, listen to Psalm 13...

The irony of Jonah’s lament: Now, most of the time, the laments of Scripture actually have elements of both.

But there are also quite a few laments that are on one end or the other.

Now, which one of these poles does Jonah belong on?

Should Jonah be singing as an unrighteous sufferer or as a righteous sufferer?

Of course the unrighteous one.

God called him to do something, and he literally did exactly the opposite.

But, where does Jonah put himself?

On the righteous end of the spectrum.

He belongs over here.

But there is not one shred of authentic confession in his song.

He never admits his own sin.

He never admits his guilt.

He views himself as someone who hasn’t really done anything wrong.

He doesn’t see his own sin.

So, it’s so easy to miss this, this is a satirical picture of Jonah.

His confession is not authentic, it’s not real, it’s not genuine.

It’s patently false.

Quote: “Despite the book’s interest in the theme of repentance, a theme which comes to the fore in chapters 3 and 4, repentance is not referred to in Jonah’s psalm.

Here we see him finally calling on God in prayer because of his distress.

The setting of his psalm in the ‘belly of Sheol’ naturally inclines us to sympathize with the prophet.

His circumstances must surely justify the self-centredness evident throughout these verses.”

- Rosemary Nixon

Despite the book’s interest in the theme of repentance, a theme which comes to the fore in chapters 3 and 4, repentance is not referred to in Jonah’s psalm.

Here we see him finally calling on God in prayer because of his distress.

The setting of his psalm in the ‘belly of Sheol’ naturally inclines us to sympathize with the prophet.

His circumstances must surely justify the self-centredness evident throughout these verses.

Transition: So, once we see the purpose of this psalm that Jonah puts together, this patchwork of bible references and of images and poetry begins to make a lot more sense.

Jonah is like the person who can put together long sentences filled with religious themes and images, but who can’t penetrate his own ehart.

The imagery of Jonah’s lament

The depths of the earth: We see here, repeatedly that Jonah views his journey as a journey to the depths of the earth.

LIsten to this imagery in vs. 2, he says “the belly of sheol,” in vs. 3, “The deep, the heart of hte seas, the flood surrounded me, all your waves and your billows passed over me”, vs. 4, “I am driven from your sight.” vs. 5, “the water closed in over me to take my life, the deep surrounded me, weeds were werapped about my head, at the roots of mountains” vs. 6, “I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever,” - For Jonah he is having this expereincew ehre he is going into the herat of the world.

He is going to the very foundation of the earth.

He is penetrating the earth.

For the Israelite mind, he is going into death.

Whereas, in Creation, God split the waters, the waters are coming back over him.

IN creation, God establishes dry ground in Creation, Jonah is goign down under the sea to the roots of the mountain.

Jonah is leaving behind this mortal coil, headed straight for the uncreated void, he is giong to sllip into nothingness.