He Answers Me :: Jonah 1:17-2:10
Do you ever feel like you just aren’t being heard? Like no one is listening to you?
Do you ever feel like God has no vested interest in you?
When you do, it’s a great time to read Jonah. Our reading from Jonah chapter 2 gives us peace. Forget the supposed fish story garbage people say about Jonah. The book of Jonah is no fish story. It is historical. It has little to do with the great fish that swallowed Jonah in the opening verse and which vomited him onto the dry land at the end.
Lost in the discussion over the historicity of our text is the excellent prayer we hear today. Lost also is a great lesson on the great universal grace of our great God. Even in the midst of your deepest despair, even when you feel farther away and more detached from God than ever before, we can turn to this prayer and hear the word of God, knowing for sure that when I called out to the Lord ... he answered me (2:1).
The psalm of Jonah is a perfect composition of the thoughts of a man lost at sea, lost in the sea, lost in a world of deep trouble, lost in a world of his own sin ... yet a man who is saved by the Lord of heaven and earth; saved to proclaim gracy, mercy, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; saved for deliverance.
Today’s passage is filled with faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love (1 Cor 13:13). It is a great passage for Lent, with its reflection of contrition and repentance, death (2:2) and resurrection (2:6). It shows us Christ (1:17). It piggybacks on Jesus’ Sunday declaration that, blessed are those hearing and guarding the word of the Lord (Lk 11:28). Even as he runs away, he has faith in Christ.
Today, we hear the word of the Lord living deeper within Jonah than the depths of the sea. Today, we understand even more how ... like Jonah ... we were buried with Christ through baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too may walk in the newness of life (Rom 6:4). Today we know for sure ...
GOD PRESERVES US TO SING HIS WORD BACK TO HIM, CONFIDENT THAT HE GIVES US ALL NEW LIFE.
That is our theme. It is where our text is leading us.
As if there was ever a question about it, it needs to be said: Jonah may have thought he could run away from the fear of the Lord, he may have indeed been running toward his own pleasures, but Jonah is still saved by faith. He may long to die, but he still trusts in the One True God. And, just as importantly, God has bigger and better plans for his prophet and the world.
To recap where we have been, when the word of the Lord first came to Jonah, he instead boarded a ship for Tarshish. God then cast a great storm on the sea, bringing a bunch of pagan sailors to faith as they threw Jonah overboard. And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights (1:17). There, Jonah fell to his knees. And he prayed to the Lord, his God (2:1).
This isn’t just any prayer: This is a classic. Jonah gives back to the Lord the word that the Lord first gave to Jonah. This is a prayer that should be on our lips and fill our hearts. This is the kind of prayer we should long to guard and keep. Jonah draws from at least thirteen different psalms to form his song of thanksgiving (Pss. 3, 11, 18, 30, 31, 42, 50, 69, 77, 86, 88, 116, 118, and 120).
As he finds himself sinking into the depths of despair, he joins the company of saints before him who have experienced the threat and terror of an untimely death and cried out to Yahweh for deliverance.
What follows is not a prayer in the normal sense of a plea for help ... such as simply, please God, I can’t do this any more; please, help. It is instead a song of thanksgiving for salvation from death.
You must know, God doesn’t hear just any prayer. Many an unbeliever has prayed when facing calamity or death. Many have prayed to the unknown God. We heard that last week as the sailors cried out to their gods. Those prayers were for naught, though.
Scripture is clear on this matter: God doesn’t hear the prayers of the unfaithful. As Proverbs reminds us, If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination (28:3) ... and ... The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous (15:29). It was only after the sailors came to faith that God heard their cry, too.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, you need to know now that just because you are a sinner doesn’t mean you are unrighteous. Like Jonah, you may feel isolated at times. You may feel alone. But God hears your prayer. Though you are a sinner, your sins have been washed away. In faith, you are a saint. And God hears the prayers of the saints.
Like Jonah, though, we still face the temptation to isolate ourselves, to begin telling ourselves that we aren’t good enough for God, that we need to merit the forgiveness of sins. So we are tempted to think we need to run in the opposition direction ... to flee God’s word and sacraments ... to think that God couldn’t possibly forgive me.
But God longs to hear from us, just like he did with Jonah.
As the Lord’s Prayer reminds us, God tenderly invites us to believe that he is our true father and that we are his true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask him as dear children ask their dear father.
Too often, though, we cry out with Jonah: I have been driven out from before your eyes, Lord (2:4). And so we run, in fear.
Strangely enough, the God who permits us to run from his commands does not forsake us. He follows after us. His kingdom comes to us without our prayer. He keeps his eyes upon us. He patiently waits to deliver us. He calls for us. He remains slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He takes that word that dwells within us and makes it our own, giving voice to our prayer as a means of bringing us to our senses ... because you who are baptized are saved ... just like Jonah.
God has drowned the Old Adam in you and his word fills you. The Holy Spirit hears the groans from the deep and answers your prayer. And God enables us to join Jonah in praising him, singing ... I called out from my distress to Yahweh, and he answered me. From the belly of Sheol ... that is death ... I cried out. You heard my voice. You cast me into the depths, into the heart of the seas. The current surrounded me. All your waves and your billows passed over me ... just like the angel of death in Egypt. I went down. You brought me up.
And just like that, we join Jonah in acknowledging our sin. And we recognize we have faith in Christ, that we are, in fact, saved by God’s grace through faith.
Indeed, I will look again toward your holy temple. Indeed, we all will.
Brothers, and sisters in Christ, our own spirits will fail us. We will falter and fall short of God’s glory. We will shirk his sacraments. We will turn away from them, thinking we don’t deserve them. We will mourn our sin. We will run from time to time. We will fear.
But learn from Jonah. Even in the deepest despair, God doesn’t forget you. For just as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights, so too was our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He lived for us, died for us, and was buried into that same death so that he could fulfill the word of the Lord for us and rise to new life on the third day.
And I, with a voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you a vow I will complete. Salvation belongs to the Lord, through Christ (2:9).
Jesus is our living hope.
Thanks be to God. He hears our prayer, and keeps his promises, saving the world from its sin.