# 6 – The Great Cry
Jonah 1:5 – “every man cried out to his god.”
We’ve just seen how the mariners, who obviously would have been tough men and who would have weathered many a storm, were so afraid because of the tempest. Now we’re going to look at how they went beyond just experiencing the emotion of fear but see how they expressed their fear and what they did as a result.
As is wont of every human being, when we experience fear, most of us do something as a result. When difficult circumstances are under our control, we do all we can to overcome the situation as smoothly and as quickly as possible, but there are times when things are beyond our control. At that point of our lives, most humans would cry out to God, who has control over all things. As is the case today, so it was in the days of Jonah, the sailors decided to cry out, each man to his god.
When fear is experienced by an entire team, then every member of the team ensures they do something about it and they don’t just leave it to the ‘Captain,’ whoever that might be. That’s great team work actually. When an entire team is in a crisis, we can’t simply pretend all’s well and leave the decision making to the leaders, while we take a back seat, hoping things will turn out well. In such situations, each of us needs to share the responsibility and do all we can to help carry the load together.
1. Every Man
It says, “Every man,” meaning, every mariner decided to do something about the situation. They had done all they could as a team, now it was time to do all they could individually. It’s almost always true that when a team is attacked, there’ll come a time when the team no longer matters and one’s own life is all that matters. There are exceptions to this though. There are teams like the police, soldiers, sportsmen, etc., for whom being a team means sticking together no matter what.
• No other option
Remember the disciples of Jesus? When Jesus was being arrested, almost all of them dispersed and deserted Jesus at His most difficult moment. So also, at this time, suddenly, each man was taking on a responsibility to help calm the situation as a team, but perhaps also because each of their lives were at stake. Perhaps if there was a life-threatening situation on land, each man would have fled as far and as fast as he could, but since they were in the sea, with swimming against such huge waves not being a plausible option, and with nowhere else to go, they decided to stay in the ship.
• We Are One
In The Church too, it’s not often that we realise that we are actually One Family, One Kingdom, One Body, One Church, One Nation, One Building, etc. We tend to think of ourselves as individuals, who are loosely connected with The Church, or completely disconnected from one another, when the Bible teaches us otherwise. That’s why when trouble comes, it becomes so easy to distance ourselves from one another in The Church. The quicker we realise the fact of our oneness, will be begin to work towards living out this unity in the Body of Christ, and the quicker we’ll become a people the world will begin to recognise as belonging to Christ, as was Jesus prayer in John 17, where He prayed that all of us would be One, just as He and the Father were one, so that the world would know that the Father sent The Son. We need to stop living and functioning as individuals that don’t belong to The Church of God on the earth and start consciously working together, along with the Body of Christ – locally, nationally and globally. It’s only when that unity starts to play out in The Church across the globe that the world will stop, take note and stream into The Church.
2. Cried out
The words, “cried out,” has also been translated as “shouted out” in some versions. Whether it was ‘crying out’ or ‘shouting out,’ it’s not a very common thing in many a culture for a man to shout out or cry out in fear - it’s usually seen as a sign of weakness. Given the location of our story – the Middle-East, it would also suggest a similar culture where men don’t cry out or shout out in fear – unless of course, they were in intense danger. This means that the situation must have been really grim and beyond all hope that they “cried out.” They were calling on their gods for help. When one is crying out to God, one’s gender, social protocol, and any other stereotypes that might describe them are thrown to the winds and one realises that he is crying out for help to someone far bigger than himself. At that point, one’s life is more important than anything else – much less, people’s opinions and societal norms.
• Men are crying out today
There’s a world of men crying out today – may not be literally, but figuratively. They are crying out for attention, for prominence, for popularity, for power and the like. Sadly, such men are not crying out to God, but to the world around them to provide us with those things. They are searching for these things to give them a sense of identity, purpose and meaning, and the more they cry out, the more the farther they seem to be from achieving their goals, and the farther they are, the louder the cries and sadly, when the shouting deafens their own ears, many of them call it a day and end their lives in desperation. This need not be the case – men can call out to God and God will hear, answer and give them the sense of identity, purpose and meaning far greater than they anticipated.
• More Christian Fathers Please
Not only does the world need to cry out to God, but there’s a huge need for Christian fathers to do so too. It’s been proved beyond doubt that many of the problems that children face today stem from the absent father. A father who doesn’t play his role as a father, by being with his children, providing love and affection, being a pillar of security in the home, is doing his children a big disfavour (even if he is taking care of the financial needs of the home), and his kids will grow up searching for the things he was meant to provide them with, and often than not, they go astray and many don’t find their way back to the fold. It’s never a weak thing to call out to God – no matter who we are. If you’ve never called out to God, do so today – He’s willing to answer you and make a transformation in your life like you could never have imagined.
• No outsourcing please
The Sunday School is under pressure to deliver ‘goods’ it cannot ‘produce.’ Let me explain. Children were entrusted to parents by God Himself, to bring them up to know and love God and live for Him, but just as we have outsourced children’s education, and other activities, we have gradually and steadily outsourced this responsibility to reach and disciple our own children to the Sunday School in the Church. Of the 168 hours in a week, children attend Sunday School for 1-2 hour only, and within that time, they are expected to be transformed into mature Christian believers. And if that doesn’t happen, then the entire blame is thrown on the Sunday School. That is both an impractical and illogical expectation by parents on the Sunday School Team. How can we entrust our children to someone else to introduce them to the One who gave them to us in the first place? Is that not our responsibility?
• The Christian Father
Of the vast number of families that have not outsourced this responsibility to Sunday School in the church, another sad fact is that the responsibility to bring children up to know God personally has been delegated to the mothers, who already have their hands full with full-time jobs and bringing up the children, (as if that was their role alone). I’ve know what it is to not have a dad in my growing years, let alone the luxury of a good Christian father. Let us Christian Fathers rise up and take on the responsibility of being the role models of Christian living in the home. Good Christian fathers result in boys becoming good husbands and fathers later on in life. They also result in the daughters making wise choices when choosing their husband. Consciously or unconsciously, girls tend to choose a man similar to their fathers, so let’s decide that we will be the best possible father we can be to our children.
3. To his god
The mariners were so filled with fear that they began to cry out, every man to his god. It’s obvious from this statement that the men worshipped several gods and not the one God of the Universe, else the statement would have read, “Every man cried out to God.” Just like people have pets in their homes, many a home has their own gods whom they submit their entire lives to. Paul refers to such people who create their own gods in Romans 1:16-32, when he talks about men rejecting the Creator and worshipping His creation and suffering the consequences thereof. While it is sad and tragic that men would cry out to figments of their imagination – to creations of their fantasy and call them gods, there go we, but for the grace of God, who made Himself known to us personally.
We live in a world that is so pluralistic that it’s hard for a true seeker to find the truth these days. That’s one solid reason why, we who know the truth, need to share it with those who don’t. We’re seeing a lot more openness to the truth during this COVID-19 Pandemic than ever before, and we need to do all we can to proclaim the truth in love while we have the open door.
May the God we’ve come to know be so evident in our lives that those who hold on to other gods will see the difference in our lives and come to know The Way to God (Jesus) through us.
Michael Collins
