Fleeing the Lord :: Jonah 1:1-3

David writes: Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me (Ps 139:7-10). 

Even knowing all of that, Jonah still tried to flee from God. He heard the word of God, it came to him, but he put it behind him, ignored it ... and ran from it. He became determined to do the impossible ... escape the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful, ever-present, self-existent, self-sufficient, holy, just, gracious, merciful God. 

When the Word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai, saying “Arise; Go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out against it, for their evil has arisen before me,” Jonah arose to flee (vv. 1-2a).

What was he thinking?

The prophet Jonah, the son of Amittai, lived nearly 3,000 years ago. You might think times were different then. But things haven’t changed much in these three millennia. 

The governments in Jonah's day were onerous, always doing things to their own benefit ... notably ignoring the widows and orphans. The leaders of Jonah’s day refused to listen to the word of the Lord, some even allowing the sacrifice of children.

The people of his day relished the worship of other gods their kings gave them. They claimed to worship the one true God, but in reality, they embraced all kinds of false teachings. They actually thought they could merit the forgiveness of sins. They thought the sacrifices they made were good enough, that their dedication to the Lord was enough.

In other words, the people of Jonah’s day were just like you, and just like me: they needed to be called to repentance.

The people of Nineveh were at the top of God's list. Their evil has come up before him, he told Jonah (v. 2b). The 120,000 people who lived there in the capital of Assyria were everything we really want no part of. Nineveh was known for its butchery. The only butchers here give you nice cuts of meat at Food Fair. 

Isaiah says the Assyrians swarmed the nations around them like killer bees (7:18). They invented exile, inhumane warfare. They dyed the mountains red with the blood of their conquests. They created pillars with the heads of people. They burned young people alive. They flayed and impaled their enemies. 

And you thought the meth heads were bad?

So I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think Jonah didn’t want to have anything to do with going to Nineveh, which was a good 500 miles from his home in Gath Hepher, which is between the Sea of Galilee and the Mediterranean. But if you are honest with yourselves, when you hear the word of the Lord, you want to run, too, don't you? 

I don’t wanna do what God’s Law says, we tell ourselves. ... I don’t wanna live by anyone’s rules but mine, least of all God’s. ... I can set myself straight. ... I can repent on my own. See, look at me. I am a good Christian.

That’s what we tell ourselves. 

We don’t like looking into the mirror of God’s Word because it shows us something about ourselves that we don’t like: We don’t look like our heavenly father. Our sin leaves us feeling shame and guilt. And no one wants to feel shame and guilt. 

So we run from it ... from our Father, who knows no guilt or shame. 

Over the next few weeks, during these midweek readings, we will most certainly see this reflection of ourselves in the book of Jonah. 

Jonah embodies not only the man and the woman in the garden, hiding, fleeing ... he embodies evil and good, guilt and innocence, sinner and saint. His father's name means faithfulness. So Jonah is a son of faithfulness. Yet he is like the prodigal son, who receives his heavenly father’s precious inheritance ... the word of the Lord ... and runs to become a stranger and foreigner in a strange and foreign land, in this case a place called Tarshish, to become a heathen among the faithless. He’s like Peter, confessing and denying his Lord. 

The son of faithfulness too often makes God his enemy. He is a sinner who sins. Just like you and me. So we flee, and fear, and pray, and repent, and complain.

Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord (vv. 3-4).

In scripture, the ships of Tarshish were associated with all the things we want in our lives: wealth, power, prestige. House do you hoard your money? 

While we have no clue where Tarshish really is ... some say Spain, some say Greece, some say north Africa ... where Tarshish really is doesn’t matter ... to Jonah, it is the opposite of Nineveh. But it is also away from the word of the Lord, away from the divine service.

He could have stayed home. But instead he disdained the Word of the Lord so much he did what we all do ... he fled from the presence of the Lord. Fled God’s grace, Fled from the incarnational word, from the sacramental word. Jonah is fleeing to the sea ... where there is no word ... only sin. In scripture, the sea is most often associated with sin. It is turbulent and wild. It’s depths know no bounds. 

Jonah is fleeing from the temple ... fleeing from the forgiveness of sins. 

The good news today is ... 

EVEN WHILE WE FLEE, OUR LORD DOESN’T

As Jesus reminds us in our Gospel reading from John chapter 10, we are like sheep who long to stray from the Word made flesh. We love to live life on run, always looking for greener grass in the next pasture, a better worship service. Even our shepherds are prone to fleeing when we need them most, because they are hired hands. 

We are just like Jonah in this regard. The people of Nineveh need Jonah. Appleton City needs you. Our world needs to hear the word of the Lord that comes to each of us. It comes to each of us because as you all know, even when you stutter and sputter wondering what to say to your brothers and sisters who have fled the sanctuary here, the Word of the Lord comes to you through the Holy Spirit, who gives you the words to say.

More than that, there is even more comfort here. He comes to us to give us peace.

Alas, our Lord Jesus doesn’t flee. He never fled. He is the good shepherd who lays down his own life for you. He is the one who didn't flee the cross, uncomplaining. The devil's of the world tried to tempt him to come down from the cross, but he completed his work for you. He received the punishment you deserve. He died for you. He was buried for you. He was raised to new life for you.

And as we will hear in the weeks to come, he is constantly calling you ... Even as you flee like all sinner-saints do from time to time. Now you ... God’s chosen people ... hear his voice and come back in repentance, fleeing your sin, recognizing the enormity of your sins and the atonement Jesus has delivered to you for you. 

Thanks be to God, the word of the Lord doesn't flee from us. 

Thanks be to God, he is still calling to us, still coming to us in word and sacrament.

Even if I dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there his hand will lead me, and his right hand will hold me (Ps 139:10). 

In Jesus’ name