"Jonah and His Whale of A Tale"??

The headline reads “Jonah and His Whale of a Tale” fact or fiction?  Regardless of how you see it, when you hear the name “Jonah” what’s the first thing that comes to your mind from the story.   

Jan 21, 2018 Readings:  Jonah 3:1-5, 3:10-4:1  Mark 1:14-20

Jonah is one of the shortest books found in the Old Testament but it is also probably one of its most well-known and misunderstood texts.  If we have the ears to hear, it is packed with wisdom tips for the modern day Christian.  Because of the debate or in some cases the argument, over trying to prove or disprove the story as fact, its wisdom teaching has been either lost or ignored to most church and non- church going folk.  

I believe if you were to ask almost any Joe public, he or she could tell you something about the biblical Jonah and his “whale of a tale” story.  They might even tell you he was the character who got swallowed by the whale and lived to tell the story.  According to Scripture Jonah was three days in the belly of the whale before the whale ends up spitting him out.  We might call this his time of reflection and repentance because after this ordeal, Jonah has a change of heart. 

Now the story always seems to bring up this question doesn’t it:  Is the story of Jonah fact or fiction?  May I suggest here, that too much time has been spent by Christians and non-Christians alike on proving or disproving the miracle stories of the bible as fact or fiction.  All the while missing the gold nuggets, wisdom tips, the real truths, that are hidden within the stories. So much more cooperation and mutual understanding could be achieved if Christian denominations and other religions of our world would honor this approach to these ancient writings.   Not fact finding but truth finding. 

This has been an Achilles Heel for many a miracle story {fact or fiction} not to mention the burning bush that could not be consumed, the parting of the Red Sea, Noah’s arch, the virgin birth, water into wine, all the way up to the resurrection of Christ.  You see faith is not about proving these stories to be factual, faith is trusting that God inspired these writings and laces the stories not with literal facts, but with literal truths.  Now you think about the for a moment.  The stories are like gold mines and we are to be miners, not scientists looking to prove a particular version or interpretation of the book to be the right one or that it is all about literal facts.   May I suggest that was never God purpose in inspiring this manual to guide us through life?  The gold nuggets are truths and they are hiding within the pages of the book.   You are not required to prove their existence.  You are to put them into action.  The gold is wisdom, wisdom for living and for dying, and it is there waiting for you to dig it out or uncover it and begin to use this perfect knowledge to live out your life.  When you do the preciousness of finding these wisdom tips or truths, makes proving how it got there irrelevant in the first place, fact or fiction should no longer be the agreement.  In the end it should not even be about their stories!  It should be all about your story and the wisdom that the text offers you or I, on how to live and die a righteous life.   We were given both the seed of life and the seed of death during our conception and our time here has it limits, so let us not lose out.   

Jonah’ story is not about fact or fiction, it is about him getting his own way rather than listening and obeying that still small voice that was speaking to him.  Many of us do the same thing when we hide or run away from the truth about ourselves our circumstances or about the world around us.  We try with stimulus to mask over the circumstances of our lives rather than face up to them, not trusting that God offers us a better way, we avoid mining to find new ways to deal with the bitterness of life.  So, fact or fiction becomes irrelevant with all the biblical stories if you didn’t dig out a nugget for yourself.  I have home work for you.  Read Jonah's story for yourself at home.  It is only 4 short chapters and will only take you 10 to 15 minutes out of your day.  Listen for what Jonah has to offer you.  
Here is a nugget I personally dug out for me, from the story.  Jonah’s anger with God invited me to take a hard look at anger within myself.   I, like Jonah, believe in a God of unconditional love, forgiveness and mercy and I have often been heard quoting 1 John 1:9 “God’s forgiveness and love is sufficient for all.”  But, and this is a big BUT for me and maybe for you to.  On the other hand I also want justice and punishment to be served upon those who deserve it, especially if I or some innocent  bystander or child is the victim of their evil doing.  There should be no mercy here right?  But and this is a big but for me, would I be angry if God were to have a merciful change of heart when I didn't think God should?  As a Christian, if God were to show instant unconditional forgiveness and mercy to a person I didn’t think deserved it, would I not get angry just like Jonah did with God?  

May I suggest that none of us want evil to get off Scott free yet Christ' way teaches us that we don’t have "the" choice here.    The question I had to consider was ; do I favor punishment over mercy, but the deeper  and even more critical reality is: do I sometimes favor hate over love?  We as Christians should understand that Christ gives us no choice, Matthew 5:43-48 for we are to: Love and pray for your enemies doing good to those who persecute you. 
God is judge and jury not just only over those we think are evil, but over us who may mistakenly think of ourselves as the righteous.  It certainly appears to be the case with Jonah and is this not the root of many of the world problems today, watering the seeds of hate over love.   I have gotten angry with God many times in the past, because I wanted those who had harmed me personally to get theirs.  I too often want it my way.  Jonah’ story offered me some insight about my own anger.  As you read his story at home this week, see where wisdom mining, will take you.