FUNERAL FOR JONAH DUECK
No one can imagine what it feels like for Richard and Connie to have watched Jonah pass away. None of us here, even if you have lost someone in a similar way, can empathize with their pain. I believe it is a personal pain that is unique to them. That does not stop us from loving them and offering ourselves today to share in the grieving and the comforting.
It is also appropriately human to ask questions at a time like this. We may wonder why a child like Jonah had to be trapped inside the condition of autism. Why would God allow such a disorder to imprison Jonah’s personality? How frustrating it must have been for Jonah to express himself. We may wonder why Connie and Richard were the parents given this burden to bear. Is God responsible for these things?
One comment I have heard a few times since Jonah’s death is that this is all for the best. Now he is free of autism, he is with Jesus, and he is with Grampa Peters. Yes this is all true. But then I have one question in response: For whom is Jonah’s death for the best?
Is it better for Richard and Connie? Despite the difficult time they have had in raising Jonah we have to look into their faces and see the grief and sadness they suffer. They are going to miss Jonah in ways we cannot understand.
Is it better for us? Let’s take a hard look at ourselves and consider this question. We have not walked in Connie’s shoes as she struggled to raise three children, two with autism. We have not come home like Richard from several days of trucking to support his family to try to enter into this world and be a dad. Is it easier now for us to be a part of their lives now that Jonah is in heaven?
Is it better for God? No it is not better for God to have Jonah in heaven with him and I will tell you why. By the grace of God and by ways we do not understand Jonah was a witness of the love of Jesus Christ. Now that he is gone we are poorer for it, though it is easy to say now. As long as we live we are testaments for God; we are living monuments to the greatness of God. And Jonah was included in that marvelous privilege.
When Richard first asked me to speak at Jonah’s funeral I was bewildered. But the Lord Jesus is good and he began to fill my thoughts with his thoughts. The Lord said, “His name is Jonah, preach from the book of the Bible called Jonah.” Preach about the grace of God.
Now is the time when the Veggie Tales theme song should play. “If you like to talk to tomatoes, if a squash can make you smile, if you like to waltz with potatoes up and down the produce aisle – Have we got a show for you!” Veggie Tales…Jonah loved Veggie Tales. If one thing settled him down it was talking vegetables.
After the Prophet Jonah’s rebellion and subsequent voyage in a large fish, God gave the rebel another chance to do as God commanded. Jonah was supposed to go to Nineveh to preach doom to the people there. Now Nineveh was a great enemy of Israel so on the one hand it didn’t make sense to Jonah to go and warn them about God’s judgment. Let it fall on the wicked – do it Lord. But on the other hand Jonah had the pleasure of telling these wicked people that God was going to destroy them.
The Prophet Jonah’s message was brief. He was a man of few words. He went about the city saying only this: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed.” That’s all he said.
Jonah Dueck was a boy of few words. Though he did make a great impression on people. Many of you have the teeth marks to prove it. Is God limited to our words to communicate his truth? Is God limited to our precise actions to communicate his truth? Or can God communicate the gospel in some way through a boy like Jonah?
He can and he does. Jonah’s life reminds us of some very important God-given truths.
1. God loved Jonah – People who are autistic live in a very different world than the rest of us. Many of us saw a news piece a few weeks back where a 13 year-old autistic girl spoke for the first time through a computer program. We had such hopes for Jonah that somehow he would be able to talk too through a similar program. If only we could bridge the gap. But you know, that’s our problem, not God’s. God loved Jonah as he was.
We read in John 3:16, “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” That immense love covered Jonah. Yes he was frightening at times; we didn’t understand his anger or biting or strip teases. But God loved Jonah as he loved his own Son. If anyone understands the pain of losing a son it is our Heavenly Father. He gave his Son gladly so that Jonah could now sit with him in heaven. And if he gave him gladly for Jonah you can know that God gave his Son so that your sins could be forgiven too, and so that you could live forever even though you die.
2. God used Jonah to teach us – Teach us what? That sometimes we are all as helpless as Jonah. Sometimes we cannot speak or behave the way we are supposed to. We are reminded that humanity is frail and that we are put on this earth, not for our own benefit, but for the benefit of others. The Apostle Paul said, “Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important…So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up” (Gal 6:3, 9). Jonah and children like Jonah are a reminder to us of our mission to each other. We may wonder why Richard and Connie received a child like Jonah, but perhaps we should ask why we have not received a privilege like this. They will receive a great reward for faithfully raising Jonah. This was their mission.
Jonah also teaches us to speak out for the helpless. Jonah could not profess with his mouth that Jesus is Lord but I will proclaim Christ today for him. Like the Prophet Jonah I say this on behalf of the child Jonah: “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (Ro 3:23).
An amazing thing happened as the Prophet Jonah preached his doom. The people of Nineveh took it to heart and believed God’s message. From the greatest to the least they all turned to God. Even the king stepped down from his throne and put on clothes of mourning to repent before God.
Then the writer of Jonah said this: “When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened” (3:10). All Jonah had said was “you’re going to be destroyed.” He didn’t tell them about Jesus; he didn’t know Jesus. In fact Jonah didn’t understand God’s grace. But it wasn’t the words, it was the Spirit of God using the situation.
Jonah wanted fireworks and destruction. Instead God showed compassion. Jonah got angry and said a very funny thing: “Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this , LORD? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people. Just kill me now…” (4:2-3).
Jonah was absolutely correct. God is eager to turn back from destroying people, because as I said, God loved the world and gave his Son to die on the Cross. But like the people of Nineveh there has to be a change of heart concerning God and a confession. This confession goes like this: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Ro 10:9).
If we fail to love someone like Jonah Dueck then we have failed to understand the love of God for all of us. That is a very hard statement but it is true nonetheless. He is God’s sign to us that God’s grace and God’s love flows down to the very least of us. It also filters through us to others like Jonah.
The Prophet Jonah’s anger over the city of Nineveh being spared is ridiculous if not humorous. While Jonah goes out of the city to wait and watch God causes a plant to grow up and over Jonah’s head to comfort him. Then he kills it. Jonah is again angry because the plant died.
The Lord asks Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?” He replies that it is. But God points out that he did not tend the plant, make it grow, water it or anything. God, on the other hand, nurtured and raised the 120,000 people in Nineveh, had a vested interest in their spiritual lives, and loved them. “Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?” the Lord asks.
Connie and Richard loved Jonah and invested ten years of their lives into raising him. Should they not feel grief over their loss? And if they loved this one boy and God loved Jonah too, and God loves all of us, wouldn’t it make sense for God to feel grief over the death of Jonah, not to mention any of us who die without the Lord Jesus? At the tomb of his very good friend, Jesus wept. Jesus weeps today for Richard and Connie, and Micah and Naomi.
However, we have a great hope in Jesus. He said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never, ever die” (Jn 11:25-26). God is gracious to those like Jonah who cannot speak. And somehow his love for Veggie Tales says something loud and clear. Jonah was drawn to the things of God.
So we will see Jonah again. A recent family photo taken before Grampa Peters death shows Grampa holding Jonah tightly for the camera. Now they are holding each other tightly in a warm reunion in the presence of Jesus. When we see Jonah again he will be a young man who can speak and embrace his mom and dad and say, “I’m glad you made it.” This is our hope for all you today, that we can say at the end of all things in the glorious presence of God, “I’m glad you made it. I’m glad you believed in Jesus.”
AMEN
