Vintage Jonah, A Comedy of Errors Pastor Glenn Barteau

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1 Vintage Jonah, A Comedy of Errors Pastor Glenn Barteau 1 We tend to think of Jonah as a cute little Bible story for children. With the moral of the story being: Be good or God will swallow you up. Today we are going to go through the story of Jonah I hope as you have never gone through it before. I hope it speaks to you I hope it opens your eyes Jonah is filled with word play and intertwining themes meant to keep the reader thinking in deeper ways. Jonah is a story of the great themes of God. Jonah 1:2 Jo 1:4 Jo 1:12 Jo 1:17 Go to the great city of Nineveh Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you The Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah Literary Types To really know what s going in Jonah you have to understand its literary type. Most ancient stories were written as satire, great adventure, tragedy, or comedy. Tragedies typically concern famous or epic figures kings, queens, or great warriors who all go through some great suffering or loss. The Point of a tragedy is the demise of some of the characters, and the refinement of other characters. Tragedies can have a happy ending for some, and a not so happy ending for others. In many respects the book of Job is a divine tragedy. He goes through great loss, but it s a happy ending for him, but not so happy for his first wife. It s about the refinement he goes through. A comedy on the other hand uses ordinary people who are living through a comedy of errors, or some ironic situation. The Point of a comedy is for the hearer of the story to identify with the main character and through the disarming use of humor see the truth about himself or herself truth that they would not otherwise see. The literary style of Jonah is a comedy. It doesn t even hold a prophecy of the type of other It s meant to use humor and irony to help us take a closer look at ourselves. ~ So I want to walk through the first two chapter of Jonah as a narrative, as people would have first heard the story. This will be a more narrative approach. This may be a bad idea, but we ll see so are you with me? M*A*S*H Frank Burns Jo 1:1-3a Comedy God speaks to Jonah I ve got a job for you, but Jonah runs. Q: Is it possible to out-run God? No!

2 Q: Who would be one of the most unlikely persons to know you can t out-run God? A Prophet 2 SO the comedy begins: The Plot is a Man of God tries to out-run God Jo 1:3 circle he went down because this is theme being contrasted against the greatness of what God can do. We will see Jonah go down, down, down. Jo 1:4-5 The job of Prophets Q: What was the primary job of the O.T. prophets? They call people who are asleep spiritually to wake up wake up and call upon the Lord Pray to God. Joel 1:5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, A: That s the job of a prophet, to wake people up and call them to seek and pray to the LORD. All the readers would understand this which sets up this next moment in the story Jo 1:5b-6 Comedy Q: Who s waking who, and the calling others to pray??? Not a Levite, not a priest, not a Prophet, not even an Israelite But some swash bucking, captain of a ship is calling who to pray? The Prophet the man of God Joke We ve got Jack Sparrow, telling Rick Warren he needs to seek a purpose driven life. Arr matey, get your land loving keaster out of that hammock, and turn to your God and pray! Do you see the irony the humor The Problem: Jonah not Sailors Jo 1:7 Jonah??? We re not talking about a van full of Girl Scotus. We are talking about a boat full of sailors Imagine all the sailors talking through their indiscretions to figure out who s been the bad boy. There was that think in Tortuga And of course Then Jamaca But they cast lots and it falls to Jonah??? Pirates Jack Sparrow gets slapped by a girl, I m not sure I deserved that? Then a different girl comes up and slaps him. Yea, I deserved that one Comedy On a boat full of sailors you would think that the Man of God wouldn t be the first one called into the principles office.

3 Sailors Jonah fleeing the creator of the sea 3 Jo 1:10b so.) Jo 1:8 (They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them Picture the attitude of Jonah, he s in prophet mode He s using his preacher voice. Jo 1:9 Picture the sailors: Wo, wo, wo, back up You are trying to run away from the God who created the sea by getting on a boat? (put L on forehead) The joke here is are they terrified of God, or that they share a boat with someone this stupid? Jo 1: st Great Mirror Moment The Sailors try to save Jonah Remember the point of a comedy to employ humor so that we are disarmed enough to see ourselves. So we can see the truth about ourselves. Jo 1:13 Q: What did God appoint Jonah to do? To go and try to save the Ninevites. To extend God s love and grace, and Q: What does Jonah the man of God do? He refuses. He won t lift a finger to help them He doesn t even want them to be saved he hopes they ll die. He s the irony There is a group of pagan sailors who are doing what? Risking everything doing their best to save Jonah. The sailors don t even need to be asked and they are doing the right thing. Jonah gets a personal invitation and doesn t do the right thing. 1. Jonah does not understand what righteousness is really all about. Jonah thinks that he is righteous because he s a law abiding Hebrew. He is living the good, religious life. The Ninevites don t deserve grace & blessing but of course Jonah does. Q: Who is exhibiting true righteousness? The Sailors. They are the ones who have genuine care and concern for a human life. Friends Don t miss the irony God is using sailors to model the heart and life of what He desires of Jonah. Matt 22:36-40

4 4 Mirror Does our sense of spiritual maturity cause us to look at the lost with distain, or Does it cause us to long and love them more deeply? Righteousness that leads to distain or judgment is not righteousness at all. This is what the author of Jonah wants us to thinking about wants us to take stock in our own heart. Jo 1:15-16 Thrown Over Board Again, we see pagan sailors worship God while the man of God wallows in self righteousness, and stubbornness against God The point Jonah has a sense of righteousness that keeps him from seeing the foolishness of his life. T>> But now things are going to start to change. God Commissions the Fish Jo 1:17 Irony {Heb} provided commissioned. This is a face to face kind of thing. God asks a fish to do something for him Hey fish, I need you to go rescue some guy who didn t bring his A game to work today. And, who else got a little face time with God, earlier. Jo 1:1 Jonah gets a little face to face time with God and does Jonah obey no! Irony Sailors obey God, A fish obeys God, later Ninevites will obey God But it s the man of God who s having trouble here. <Book Mark> sit on stool Often times people get all hung up on this fish business and Jonah surviving in the belly of a fish for 3 days. ~ We start trying to explain how a person could actually survive this. The decomposing sea-weed was actually giving off oxygen, and the truma slowed his heart-rate down. We here stories of whalers swallowed my giant whales who were rescued when the whale was harpooned and cut open. real either. I researched this a little and it s all urban legend, and sorry I also discovered Big Foot is

5 5 Miracle The point is that it would take a miracle! This is being contrasted against two other things. I will only tell you one of them right now. The Ninevites were Assyrians by nationality. A short study of Assyrians will give you a gruesome picture of evil and depravity rarely seen. Q: If you said to a Hebrew What are the chances of the Ninevites humbling themselves and turning to God? An appropriate response might be when pigs can fly. Or when Hebrew Prophets start traveling by Fish Welcome to Hebrew Cruse Line IT would take a miracle. And guess what, God is in the miracle business. 2. Never give up on what God can do in a human life. You and I have not locked eyes with a human being that doesn t matter to God. Symbolism of 3 Days The real significance of Jonah in the fish is the number of days he s in the fish. Typically, whenever you see 40 it s pointing to repentance. 7 is about creation, God is up to something, creating something. 3 is about grace, it s about redemption. Q: Later, when Jonah goes through the city how long does it take Jonah to go through the city and preach his message? 3 days. Jonah s Prayer Jo 2:1-2a Depths of sea theme of going down. Q: Anything about helping the Ninevites no Jo 2:2b-7 Oh the drama of it all Jo 2:8 Q: How has Jonah s heart changed toward the Ninevites? A: None Jo 2:9a What? A song of thanksgiving, my foot? Jo 2:9b ~ This is as close as Jonah get to any change He will acknowledge that God is responsible for redemption. Vomited onto dry land Jo 2:10 This is not a picture of a hero covered in glory This is not a tragic fig covered in suffering This is not a great warrior covered in conquest This is a fool covered in shrimp cocktail sauce

6 ~ Jonah is never really able to let go of his stubbornness. Even at the end of the story he s still the fool Jonah never took stock in what he was covered in ~ His self-righteousness Q: What s missing in the story? What makes him the fool? A: He never says: God open my eyes to see your heart? He never opens his heart so that it can be knitted to God. Ugliness of Legalism & Self-Righteousness The ugliness, and foolishness of a self-righteous life is that robs of who we were really created to be. Princess Bride I ve been in the revenge business so long I don t know what to do now This week look in the mirror ask God, where have I closed my-self off from Love and grace, help me see any self-righteousness.