God and the Gourd
The story which begins with a challenge ends with a question and one which forces an arrogant and angry man to look at himself. It is not a question about his faith, what he was asked to do, why he didn’t (or couldn’t) do it, or why he felt as he did about the people of Nineveh. Nor was it the beginning of a lecture on what he ought to do, complete with detailed instructions as to what God requires. In moments of such extreme arrogance and anger Jonah, like the rest of us, has to answer a different question which God is asking. Is it right for you to feel like this?
Only when it is clear that Jonah is still not talking does the Almighty feel the need to spell it out. And the word of God is very simple. He asks Jonah to see it from his point of view, and to help him get there Jonah is invited to look for the answer in his own experience. If Jonah knows what it feels like to lose something very precious (like the gourd) when he did nothing to put it there in the first place, can he not imagine how God feels when he sees a whole city, which he has created and in which he has invested so much, so unresponsive to his overtures, and can he not begin to know what it feels like to God when there is a sign of a positive response?
And there the story ends. We are not told whether Jonah can or can’t, because now it is no longer a story about Jonah and Nineveh, and the fish fades into insignificance. It’s a story about us. Time to look again at our ‘Ninevah moment’.
First, Jonah. Clarify your thoughts by trying to answer some simple questions. Do you think the experience made any difference to Jonah? Did he sit down and write out a confession? Far from changing the lives of the others (the Ninevites) did it really change his life or did he continue as before?
Next, us. in the light of Jonah’s experience write (or re-write) your ‘Nineveh moment’ in the light of your reflections on Jonah’s experience. How different is it from the way you might have written it only a week ago? If that is too difficult, try writing a brief description of how you think some of your contemporaries would respond to this interpretation of the prophet.