It's My Fault
Notes
Transcript
Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
But 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. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”
And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. Therefore they called out to the Lord, “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.” So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
Scripture: Jonah 1:1-16
Sermon Title: It’s My Fault
Brothers and sisters in Christ, a runaway, a terrible storm, an interrogation, an admission of guilt, strangers trying to save someone who doesn’t really deserve it, and a resolution that brings peace to the storm. The criminal justice side of me feels like we have a solid crime drama just in the first chapter. This doesn’t really sound like the Jonah I remember from Sunday School where Jonah didn’t do what God told him, he got swallowed by a whale or big fish, and after getting thrown up by the fish he stops running and goes to Nineveh like God told him to. My hope is over the next few weeks we can get a bigger picture, particularly seeing what God accomplished and how we might see ourselves in Jonah. As we look at the action-packed first chapter this morning, we’ll pay special attention to Jonah’s running away, what his admission of guilt is all about, and what deep truth is in the words of the sailor for us New Testament Christians.
Before we go into those things, I think it’s helpful to get on the same page regarding our main character, Jonah. While he might seem from what we know to just be a delinquent, it would appear in the broader context of Scripture that he is a respectable teacher and prophet. All we’re told here is that he’s the son of Amittai, but if this is the same Jonah, son of Amittai we find in 2 Kings 14, then he is the one who brought the Word of the Lord when Jeroboam II was king in Israel. He was a prophet who likely had spent most, if not all of his time in Israel among the chosen people of God and now he gets called to go to Nineveh.
In the original Hebrew text, the word of the Lord comes to Jonah, and it’s not just “Go to the great city of Nineveh” like we find in the NIV and most translations, but there is actually two verbs in the command coming from God. The first is arise, stand, get up and the second go, walk. It seems minor I know and maybe it’s just for emphasis, but I think it’s worth noting. Jonah can get up, acknowledging that God has spoken to him and that he’s received that word, but he has to go then. Jonah’s response likewise has two verbs; he gets up, but his getting up is to flee, to run away. This man who has probably only ever prophesied to the people of Israel is told by God, not asked, to go speak against Nineveh, and he runs away. //
Maybe it’s a fear of going somewhere foreign or far away. If this is the 2 Kings Jonah then his home is probably in Gath Hepher, then Nineveh is over 800km away. It would be like walking east from here to Boston, on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. That’s quite a ways, but if it is a fear of distance, then why walk about 100 km to get on a boat that’s going either about 700km, the distance from here to Sault Ste. Marie, or 4000km, from here to Vancouver depending on which scholars’ approach you take to where Tarshish is. Jonah’s fleeing is not out of a fear of distance nor is he afraid of foreign places, so what could it be? Jonah is afraid of the repercussions, the consequences of bringing such a message to uncharted territory. We’re not using uncharted to speak of Nineveh as though it is an unknown territory, but rather this is one of the few times that someone is sent to preach outside of Israel, to preach against a city that was part of a country that was a threat. If we take Jonah at his word in chapter 4, his fear is not that the threatening nation will do anything to him, but rather his fear is that God will be compassionate to them. His fear is not for his own life, but God being showing love to others. //
Instead of heading east of Israel to bring the Word of condemnation and repentance to Nineveh, Jonah heads to the shore and we read that he pays the fare to get on this ship to Tarshish; he’s willing to pay to run from the Lord. He gets on board and goes down below; he desires to close his eyes, to shut out what’s going on around him, to block out what could be happening. It’s almost seems amazing to us that Jonah, a prophet, who had received the word of the Lord, probably in some manner of vision not like a summons in the mail or a voice message thinks he can actually get away... He manages to fall asleep, though, I imagine thinking, hoping, maybe even convinced that it’s over, that is until he wakes up to the yelling of the captain and he feels the rolling of the ship on the violent seas!
Hopefully you’re catching this point of what does it look like to get away from God? Is Jonah’s thought that if he can get far enough away, God can’t make him do it? Or by the time he returns home God will have found a replacement? Or that if he delays long enough God would become so angry he would have to punish Nineveh? The dominant image we have of his running away is sleeping. Commentators point to this as a sign of his indifference and defiance, his assurance to himself that he’s satisfied with what he’s done. The captain even asks him “How can you sleep?” While his intention relates to the storm, I wonder if the Spirit might be pushing for the deeper question, “How can you sleep having turned your back on the God’s call?”
The truth is that we, the readers, do not hear how far one must run or what must be accomplished to have successfully run from God’s command. I think it may be because many of us at some point or another in our lives get that message, “How can you sleep through this storm? Get up, call on your God.” Remember that God called Jonah to get up, go and call out against Nineveh for the storm they were in. Now the captain commands Jonah to get up and call in this one. Most of us have weathered a storm or two in our pasts or maybe some of us are weathering one right now, either in a state of sleep or getting out of bed. Maybe it’s an addiction getting in the way of your family, your work, or your time with God. Addictions to substances that we know are bad for our bodies or minds, to literature or entertainment, to pornography or recreation toys or our looks. Maybe it’s a few dirty jokes or gossip that continue to build on top of one another. Maybe it’s like Jonah, you are being called to go somewhere, do something different with your life; a place where you recognize threat or a place where you know God could work but it’s not what feels like home. All of these are lifestyle choices we make, and we know full well that they are a choice to run away just far enough from God. We go to sleep, convincing ourselves that the road we’re on or the boat we’ve boarded going in the opposite direction is acceptable. Then we get called out by someone, maybe even this morning, God is calling to you, “How can you sleep?” It’s not to be a message of guilt, but a message of correction, a message of discipline which is directing towards rescue. It’s a message that comes to help the plight of everyone who’s being affected, forcing us to realize that the decision you have made brings not just a storm over you, but it is affecting everyone whom you love. ///
If that’s not enough, then what happens next to Jonah forces him to make a move. The lot falls on him, he gets interrogated and responds that the one who he worships is the Lord God of the Hebrews, God of heaven, who made the land and sea. While these sailors might have been superstitious and willing to call upon any deity out there, they know this God’s reputation. / “What should we do?” they ask, and Jonah tells them, “Throw me overboard. It’s my fault that so great a storm has come upon us.” //
Jonah is in a position where he recognizes what the reader knows, this violent storm caused by a great wind is of God and it’s because of his decision to run away and to block out that which he had been called to do. Jonah in this situation admits his guilt and takes responsibility for what he’s done. But notice, it’s not enough because he says throw me over and it will become calm. The sailors don’t want to do that though. Yes, this guy has made their trip hard but nobody should have to die, so they try unsuccessfully to go back to shore.
Brothers and sisters, I believe there are three great truths that apply to every life. First, we have been created by God. Second, we are a broken people who need to own up to our sin. Third, there is one God who has taken our sin and says be free to those he has chosen. What Jonah does here in saying It is my fault, is commit to that second truth. He acknowledges that he was told to do something by God who has sovereignty over every part of his life, and he chose purposely to avoid that. / He admits his guilt, but then he says throw me off. There are different philosophies about what this means: is he trying to punish himself by committing suicide, is this supposed to be a foreshadowing of Jesus, the one who sacrifices himself for others especially when we read he spends three days in the belly of the fish. I think both of those have merit, but I also think that Jonah recognizes an immediate action is required to change his plan. He had paid to run away, but no longer was he to depend on this ship, this route he had decided upon. ///
As we look at our own lives, it takes this two-fold approach to acknowledge when we’re running from God. First, we have to take responsibility. We can look all the way back to the first sin of Adam and Eve to see that hiding and playing the blame game is so entangled with who we have chosen to be. It takes that first step that addicts make towards recovery of admitting they have a problem. God’s grace is great enough to work even and especially in the midst of our problems, but his desire is that we change how we’re living. Real change doesn’t come by others rowing you back to shore, but it comes by getting out of the ship. I think Jonah’s decision to be thrown in rather than jumping captures that he’s recognizes his actions affected others, but he also makes himself completely vulnerable. I think back to Pastor Jeff and his son doing the trust fall up here a few weeks ago, and to think of the fear that can come with that, how much greater is the fear and unknown when it’s strangers throwing you into a raging sea. If we are willing in our lives to admit our guilt, to say it’s my fault, and then “go overboard,” to get out of whatever vehicle is holding us in, there’s no guarantee that we’re going to land on a cloud. Brothers and sisters, God’s grace is amazing, but there are times when he might permit us to struggle, to deal with some consequences of our actions, to experience what may feel like were sinking in a dark suffocating ocean. Just because a change from sin to obedience doesn’t come easy on day 1 or 2 or 21or 100 doesn’t mean God doesn’t care for you or want you to draw near.
The last thing we see in this text is this group of sailors; this group of blue-collar, polytheistic pagans who most of us would probably say have no backbone as they won’t settle on one single god. They hear that Jonah serves the Lord, they’re terrified; he says throw me in, they are worried about killing him. Jonah had come from the chosen people of Israel, who God had and continued to reveal himself to for generations, yet they forsake God. We don’t know how long it lasts, but it seems like not much work has done to convince them that they have to get on board with the real God. They realize their situation though and they cry out, O Lord, please do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O Lord have done as you pleased. Once they had done the deed, we read they greatly feared the Lord, they worshipped him and offered a sacrifice and made vows. I told you there are connections that scholars make between Jonah and Jesus, but just listen to the prayer of the sailors again. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O Lord, have done as you pleased. What a powerful confession that the Lord is in control and he does as he pleases, but also it’s a cry that proclaims God is gracious, it’s a cry that seems to be 800 years early, as Jesus goes to the cross, and we join the crowds who realized something greater is happening. We put him on the cross, Jesus, the most innocent of men; we killed him but it’s according to the Lord’s will. We pray Lord hold us not accountable, and he delivers the quieting of storm that should lead to our deaths.
We come away this morning with the interesting picture in our minds of Jonah sinking into the ocean. We know a great fish will pick him up but for now he’s left floating away. We’re also left with the scene on the surface of new worshippers of the Hebrew God. We’ve hopefully begun to see that our choices have consequences, both good and negative, but the story doesn’t have to end when we make a wrong turn or even pay to take the boat that streamlines the process. God desires for us to see our brokenness, to admit our guilt, because it’s there that the process of redemption can begin. It’s in admitting our guilt and tossing ourselves overboard that we speak to him being in control. He is able to work and to rescue through any circumstances no matter how amazing, terrifying, or unexpected they might be. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.