Jonah
3.10-4.11; Matthew 20.1-16
Recently, President
Trump made a deal with Democrats, in the hope of getting things done in
Congress. The Republicans were not happy. They were thinking, in making this
deal, President Trump has made them, the Democrats, equal to us Republicans.
This
emotion, this resentful-ness, this envy, is a familiar theme in our lives, and it
shows up in two of the readings today.
… The First
Reading is from Jonah. Jonah is from the Northern Kingdom, which was called
Israel in those days. This later became the territory of Samaria.
We tend to
focus on the first part of Jonah’s story. God tells him to go to Nineveh and
tell the Ninevites YHWH says Repent! And how does Jonah respond? He gets on a
boat in the opposite direction! He ends up being thrown overboard, swallowed by
a big fish, vomited out onto the beach. And, then, finally, he heads to
Nineveh.
We often
stop telling the story at this point. We are satisfied Jonah does eventually do
what God tells him to do. But, there is more to the story, and we hear part of
it today. The Ninevites do indeed respond to Jonah’s warning, and that makes
Jonah furious. He was SO looking forward to seeing God destroy them!
To
understand his anger, we have to remember that at that time, Nineveh is the
capital city of Assyria. And we remember that Israel and Assyria are enemies.
They want nothing to do with each other. They don’t trust each other. They are
constantly wary of each other, and on the lookout for an invasion.
God sends
Jonah into enemy territory, to give them the warning to repent or be annihilated.
In comparison, we could say that God sent Jonah to Pyongyang, North Korea. Knowing
what we know about the way Americans are treated in North Korea, would you be
willing to go there to tell the people that God wants them to repent? Would Kim
Jong Un listen to you? Would he repent?
Surprisingly,
the people of Nineveh respond to Jonah’s message by repenting. And Jonah
doesn’t like it one bit! He is so angry and resentful that he wishes he could
die. Why? Because when they repent, Jonah sees that God cares as much about his
enemies as about him. He resents that God has made the Ninevites equal to him.
God’s
response to Jonah’s anger is to tell Jonah that it is God’s right to be as
concerned about the people and animals of Nineveh as God is about the people
and animals of Israel. Don’t you know I care just as much about them as
I do about you?
… One day,
our women’s Circle at my home church was studying this story from Matthew.
Maxine started us off by saying, I don’t understand this story. It’s just not
fair! … That is our usual first response to this parable. It’s not fair!
We usually identify
most with the workers who spent all day working in the hot sun. They are tired
and thirsty and hungry. They want their pay so they can go home to their
families. We know what that feels like.
We tend to either
ignore or think badly about the workers who work shorter hours. Lazy,
no-account bums. We think, there must be something about them, their clothes, their
hair, the sad look in their faces, that says, they are crummy workers. They don’t
look like they will work hard. That’s why they don’t get hired until later in
the day. We blame them, instead of blaming the manager who could have hired
them.
At the end
of the day, those who worked less get paid first. They get the usual day’s
wage. Let’s make it $100, just to simplify the math. Those who worked longer
start thinking, Hey, if they got paid that much for just a couple of hours, we
should get two or three or four times that. They are thinking, $200, or $300,
or even $400. They are already planning on steak and lobster instead of
macaroni and cheese. When they look at their pay, they are stunned. It’s not
fair! They got the same as we got. You have made them equal to us!
God says,
Why are you jealous? Are you angry about what I choose to do with what I have?
Here is a
way to make this story seem more fair. When we look at the various workers
through God’s eyes, we notice that they all have families. They all showed up
at an early hour hoping to get a day’s work and a day’s pay. Waiting around all
day hoping someone will hire them is just as stressful as working all day,
maybe more so. If they don’t work, how will they eat? How will they feed their
families?
God wants
everyone to have enough. God indeed intends to make Them, whoever the
Them is, equal to US, whoever the US is. God wants all people to have
enough to eat, clothes to wear, a home, meaningful work. God wants this, even
if it means those who have more need to give up some of what they have so all
can have some.
… Identifying
them as different from us is built into our DNA. It is designed
to keep us safe from predators and human enemies.
But, we take
it farther. We constantly create comparisons between ourselves and others. If
people wear department store or designer clothes, drive old Fords or new Ferraris,
vote Republican or Democrat or Independent, we identify them as different from
us. If we have different skin color, or different food preferences, or
different abilities than we do, they are different from us. We
feel better than them, or … we feel intimidated or scared by them.
… The point
of the story of Jonah is to say that God loves all people, even our enemies.
Jesus’ goal
in telling this parable is to say that in God’s eyes and heart, no one is more
important. No one person is better than another. No one person is worse than
another. God’s grace is for all, no exceptions.
So, I invite
you to think about this: Focus on sharing God’s love one with one another instead of comparing ourselves, one against
the other. It’s time to remember that God’s grace goes even where we don’t want
it to.
Who are the
Ninevites in your life? … In other words, who do you think is not worthy of God’s
love? Or at least, who is less deserving of it than you are? Now, imagine
giving them God’s love, God’s grace. How do they feel? How do you feel as you
give it?
Please pray
with me. Lord, we thank you for loving us. And we try to thank you for
loving them, but it’s not always easy. Help us remember that your ways
are not always our ways, and that our ways are not always your ways. Lead us to
be grace-ful in all that we do. Amen
