The Satire of the Church
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· 9 viewsJonah is a satire where the prophet who is supposed to be closest to God is even further away than the pagan sailors and Ninevites. Jonah is also a mirror for the Church. The Church is the bride of Christ, children of God, but that means something very different from an elevated status. As soon as we let the status of "God's chosen people" go to our heads, we become less sanctified than even our enemies.
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Satires
One literary genre that we in the 21st century are familiar with is Satire.
Comedic Satire
SNL
Jojo Rabbit
Solemn Satire
2005 Lebanon War Satire
A skit of a game show with army commanders and politicians as the contestants. Their points are visualized as 165 people with spotlights. Every decision they made, the spotlights shut off, signifying the needless deaths of 165 Israelis.
Now, what is a satire?
the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.
Satire is, by definition, offensive. It is meant to make us feel uncomfortable. It is meant to make us scratch our heads, think, do a double-take, and then think again. Maajid Nawaz
You can't debate satire. Either you get it or you don't. Michael Moore
Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful. Molly Ivins
Satire is the use of caricatures and stereotypes in clearly defined roles that speak for themselves to shortcomings or failures in those roles. Malachi Brown
Satires were not foreign to the biblical audiences
Turn to Jonah
Jonah Overview - The Boring Part
Historical
Jonah takes place during the height of power of the Assyrian empire
If you don’t know who the Assyrians are, look at the first 3 letters of their name
This is important for the understanding of the Satire
Literary
Jonah is divided into 2 acts that follow in parallel fashion.
They open with a narrative and close with a prayer
(briefly summarize Jonah)
Pagan Sailors
Prayer of thanks (not repentance)
Pagan King and pagan cows converted with a 5 word sermon
A prayer of frustration in “the forgotten chapter”. Jonah chews out God for being too nice
Applying the Satire Template
If Satire uses caricatures and stereotypes in defined roles to draw attention to flaws, we have to establish roles and expectations
God
God is the only character in this story that is not a caricature
“The LORD passed before [Moses] and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
(Exodus 34:6-7)
The first time God describes Himself. This is what we should expect from the role of God.
We tend to either focus too much on the first half of that, or the second half.
The Prophet
The expectation for the prophet is to be (more or less) a physical manifestation of God.
Lord of the Rings - The Mouth of Sauron
Pagan Sailors
The expectation is lawless ruffians
“sailor” is probably a euphemism
Not quite pirates, but more likely “bilgerats”, “scallywags”, any of those other piratey terms
Pagan King
A powerful man who only has a political agenda to oppress people resisting his culture and rule.
Now that we have expectations, let’s go back and see where the book of Jonah takes them.
God
Fulfills His expectation of a merciful and compassionate God, who is still just
Pagan King
humbles himself and converts
Pagan sailors
Cry out to God in the storm and repent
Jonah
The prophet who hates his own God
Believe it or not, we’ve actually seen Jonah before
Jeroboam II the son of Joash, king of Israel, began to reign in Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years. 24 And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam I the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. 25 He restored the border of Israel according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah, the prophet (2 Kings 14:23-25 abridged)
Jeroboam II is notoriously one of the worst kings we know of, and here’s Jonah openly endorsing him, promising him success
Earlier in chapter 6, Amos actually prophecies that Jeroboam II would loose all that territory because he was so terrible
So we come into this story knowing that Jonah is actually kind of a sleazy guy
Sleazy
First thing that Jonah does when God calls him is to run the opposite direction
In the storm on the ship, Jonah gives this speech about how he serves the God of Israel, then offers that he be thrown overboard to stop the storm
seems noble at first, but the ulterior motive of suicide to escape calling peeks through
In his prayer in the belly of the fish, Jonah never actually repents. He only thanks God for not abandoning him.
Jonah is called to convince the Ninevites to repent. He gives a 5 word sermon
That’s like your mom telling you to write a thank you note to your grandma and all you write is “thanks grandma” and sign your name.
In chapter 4, Jonah sits on a mountain and throws a tantrum that God is showing the Ninevites compassion.
The whole point of Israel being God’s chosen people (that’s very clear from the beginning, but also Paul talks a lot about in Ephesians) is that they are the first people to experience God’s favor so that the whole world might be brought into that.
If this is how (never mind God’s people,) God’s prophet acts, they’re not fulfilling their purpose.
What is the Church but Israel expanded (at least, the purpose)? Gentiles brought into that covenant
We as a Church experience God’s favor for the purpose of bringing others into it as well.
Applying Satire
Satire is a mirror that shows whether someone is a have or a have-not
As the Church, we are inherently “haves”
How does the satire of Jonah critique the Church?
And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. 53 But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54 And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55 But he turned and rebuked them
Luke 9:52-55
We didn’t get better about bringing people into God’s chosen people just because Jesus came and gentiles are welcomed
As Americans, we are also inherently “haves”
How many times have we complained about taxes that go to welfare
That money helps low income families that otherwise you would be using to save up for a hot tub, or replace your silverware when others are using plastic.
How many times have we celebrated the capture of a terrorist that came at the price of civilian deaths?
And it’s okay to bomb Muslim countries because they’re different than us? Or they won’t hear the gospel anyway?
We hoard money because we’re not as rich as the next guy, and we’re okay with revenge against a whole religion because of a small minority.
Where is “inviting others into the gospel” in that lifestyle?
Here’s the irony of being a part of God’s chosen people
In being chosen by God, we are a “have”
The lifestyle of being in God’s kingdom means that from an earthly perspective, you should be a have-not, or at least advocate for and help them.