"the God Of Us And Them"

“The God of Us and Them”

Jonah 3:1-5, 10

(inspired by a sermon by Chris Mathis)

Our lesson for this morning starts in Chapter 1 with God saying to Jonah: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me.”

But Jonah was a prophet from the Northern Kingdom of Israel—and he was a patriot, an Israelite nationalist, and a man of the king.

And Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, the king’s enemies.

Historians frequently say that the Assyrian Empire was one of the most ruthless the world has ever seen.

Another Old Testament Prophet, Nahum described Nineveh as “the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims.”

It was to this ruthless and violent city that God sent Jonah.

But at first, Jonah refused to go.

Instead, he got on a ship and sailed as far as he could go in the opposite direction.

And it wasn’t fear that kept Jonah from obeying God.

It was hatred for the Assyrians.

And as he admits in Chapter 4, he was worried that if he went and preached to Nineveh, God would forgive them and save them.

Jonah viewed the world through a lens of politics and religion, and he divided the world into “us” and “them.”

And many of us, I think, have a natural, sinful tendency to automatically assume that “our” group is better than “others” who seem different from us.

We tend to associate with people who look like us, people who dress like us, people who talk like us, people who think like us, people who pray like us, and people who vote like us.

Everyone else—the “thems” are suspect.

Psychologists call this phenomenon “othering.”

Othering means that we think only our group is acceptable and all others are a threat.

Othering means we divide the world into us and them.

Who are your “others”?

Who are my “others”?

Perhaps you dislike people from the “other party,” however you define that.

Or maybe you distrust people with lots of tattoos and body piercings.

Some folks just can’t stand people from another generation.

Many professionals with college degrees look down on blue-collar workers, and many folks who sweat for a living look at educated professionals as “educated idiots.”

Lots of people have a dislike for anyone who doesn’t look like them.

In our fallen, sinful world, othering is a way of life.

We tend to highlight differences and turn them into causes for suspicion and distrust.

We’re very good at “othering.”

Othering was Jonah’s way of life.

So, what happened to him after he ran?

As most of us know, you really can’t run away from God.

We are told that “the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.”

The sailors threw Jonah overboard to save themselves from sinking.

And as Jonah sank down into the depths of the ocean we are told that “the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah.

I used to think the fish or whale was part of Jonah’s punishment, but it wasn’t.

The fish saved Jonah from drowning.

And that’s because God loved even the self-righteous, hateful, spiteful Jonah.

After the fish spit Jonah back out on dry land, he decided to obey God and head for Nineveh, smelling of fish, no doubt.

He must have been quite the picture when he showed up with his short and fiery sermon: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

Have you ever heard a preacher get finished with a message that quickly?

His sermon was a mere five words long in Hebrew.

And how did the people of Nineveh respond?

We are told that they “believed God.”

They called for a fast and put on sackcloth.

The king himself put on sackcloth and poured ashes on his head, declaring that every person in the city must “give up their evil ways and violence.”

Isn’t that amazing?

The king of the nastiest nation in the history of the ancient world told his people to repent.

And that is because God’s Word changes hearts.

We are told in Chapter 3:10 that “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.”

And they all lived happily ever-after.

The end!

Am I right?

No.

The story isn’t over—not yet.

What happened next is that Jonah pouted.

The Lord’s prophet had a hissy fit and threw a temper tantrum.

He didn’t want Nineveh to repent and be spared.

What he had worried would happen—did happen.

“I knew that you are a righteous and compassionate God,” Jonah whines, “slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.”