Month: October 2017

What follows relies heavily on ‘Don’t follow Jonah’.
Ten days after a 64 year old heavily armed man in a Las Vegas hotel rained down death on a crowd at a music festival, reports still indicate that people are baffled to understand the killer’s motives. The reason may be that, with several of the deadly sins, we appreciate that what is wrong is a perverted desire for something good. Gluttony, lust, avarice, or luxury focus on temptations by things which are ‘naughty but nice’ whether it is cream cakes or sex. We laugh at our own fallibility as in the story of the lady who bought a hat, who claimed, ‘I said “Get thee behind me, Satan.” And he replied, “It looks even better from the back”’.
The killer’s motives were much darker than this. It would therefore appear that his sin was akin to almost the oldest one in the Book, namely Cain’s envy of his brother Abel which led to murder. Stories of such events, like the equally mythical story of Romulus and Remus, when told by the victor, justify his own actions. This self-justification is argued in Genesis 4 when we are told that ‘the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard.’ But in scripture the familiar myth is subverted. The victim is proclaimed throughout history to have been innocent, as Jesus declares in Matthew 23.35 ‘’all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah…’ The murderous rivalry is exposed.
Remarkably, in one of the most ancient stories of all scripture, God’s justice and mercy are proclaimed in equal measure. God warns Cain that ‘sin is lurking at the door’, but God does not take Cain’s life in revenge for his own crime. And whereas Rome is named after Romulus its murderous founder, the ancestry of God’s people will be traced not to Cain, but to Adam’s third son, Seth (as in Luke 3.38).
But no story of self-justification emerges from Las Vegas. All we have is a record of the consuming power of the killer’s malice. The story of Jonah provides an illustration of the self-destructive force of envy. Of course, this is not a historical event. The prophet has invented a character to illustrate his theme, a man who is ‘angry enough to die’ because God is merciful and doesn’t destroy the people of Nineveh.
Behind the unforgettable story and the ridiculous character whom the prophet has invented is a serious message. During the exile the prophets of Israel, rather than abandoning their faith in the face of the strength of pagan nations, developed true monotheism. This prophet realises that the implications of this faith need to be addressed. For, if there is one God who created everything and formed all of humanity from one stock, then all are made in God’s image and salvation is for all. In the Book of Jonah, this is told as a calling to convert the most powerful nation of the day, a nation envied for its prosperity. The prophet has seen that, with the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple, Israel has hoarded its spiritual legacy rather than sharing the good news of God’s love. His final assertion is put into God’s mouth – ‘And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are a hundred and twenty thousand people who do not know their right hand from their left?’ (Jonah 4.11.)
When Jonah (the man in the story) realises that God does not intend to destroy Nineveh, but is ‘a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love’ he is ‘angry enough to die’. The phrase, in Jonah 4.9, appears close to what must have been the feelings of the Las Vegas murderer, a deadly blend of envy and wrath. It seems the gunman had previously booked rooms overlooking similar festivals, with the aim not of enjoying the music, but of stoking his own resentment against the joy of all the participants. He was jealous because he could not find a way to experience the pleasure they had clearly found. If he could not be happy, he was determined to ruin their happiness, for he was angry enough to die.
What the author of the Book of Jonah proclaims, against the character whom he portrays, is that God does not share human feelings of wrath, resentment or jealousy. God loves every person made in the divine image and wants to save all. Indeed, the prophet mocks Jonah’s feelings as he describes how God ‘appointed a worm that attacked the bush’. In this ultimately silly story the prophet ridicules our envy and small-minded resentments, our sulking and the way we nurse our wrath. In this most memorable of all books of prophecy we are called to remember Jonah and not let ourselves be overcome by his selfishness and envy.
The prophet also exposes the self-righteous feelings of Jonah, when God asks, ‘Is it right for you to be angry?’ Jonah 4.4. What is often described as ‘righteous anger’ is rejected. As such, the Book of Jonah is a powerful attack on any who believe in ‘the wrath of God’. God does not share in that most deadly of sins. Jonah, consumed by his own sense of the justice of his anger, fails to see the justice of God towards the many infants (who do not know their right hand from their left) in Nineveh.
In many other violent events today we find the perpetrators claiming to act in the name of a God of wrath. Against this, the Book of Jonah reveals the true nature of God, and that the wrath is only a projection of a wicked violent nature which seeks to justify itself.