Meditation: Spoiler Alert
Monday, January 7, 2013 at 09:52AM 
Moby Dick wins. A crazy Southern guy shoots Lincoln at the Ford Theatre. Bruce Willis is dead the whole time in the The Sixth Sense. Sometimes it pays to steal a peek at the back of the book. It can change the way you see everything.
Or take Jonah. The book, more accurately. If you read it backwards you discover God’s not mad at Nineveh at all. His heart is broken over a great city, filled with people so disoriented they have forgotten their right from their left.
It’s a short book. Read along with me--backwards.
Jonah 4:10 ~ It turns out God loves people, even remarkably screwed up people: “Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?”
Jonah 4:2-3 ~ It turns out that the Holy Man would rather die than watch God forgive people who don’t deserve it. “That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
Jonah 3:4 ~ It turns out that some judgment messages are actually God’s way of reaching out to people: “Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.”
Jonah 3:1 ~ It turns out that even religious bigots should get a second chance. “Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.”
Jonah 2:10 ~ It turns out vomit is gross.
Jonah 2:8 ~ It turns out God’s grace is inexhaustible, but we have to make room for it: “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.”
Jonah 1:14 ~ It turns out pagan sailors know God better than we think: “Then they cried to the Lord, “O Lord, please do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man.”
Jonah 1:1 ~ It turns out God’s a pretty good poker player, don’t you think? “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”
This week's meditation? Don't be so quick to judge others (pagans, sailors, or prophets) until you know the end of the story.
Reader Comments (6)
As I read the book Jonah, the sailors and all of Nineveh were more moved to change their course based upon the Lord God’s deadly wrath than they were inspired to live drawn toward His love? Throughout the whole book Jonah, possibly like Judas to Jesus, seemed to prefer death from his God, whom he knew so well as to carry on direct conversations with, rather than have to witness God’s compassion for others. He, also, might have been a bit uncomfortable having finally, as God’s emissary, laid down the edict and didn’t know how to explain God’s change of mind.
Is it possible that we all tend to be angrier about the life and death of the vine (representing our comfort) than concerned for the life and death of our neighbor (who we might not be so comfortable with)? Just how comfortable is our Father with us?
What is so gross about that vomit from the fish? Even the spew from God, like was Jonah to Nineveh, might be the true gift of redemption we each seek. I choose to live uncomfortably in the Spirit that my vomit might be the salvation of another rather than find comfort of knowing nothing. It is not what goes into my mouth that counts but what comes out. Many of our world find Jesus gross until they get to know Him and His love for them.
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Sorry, Herm: Vomit is gross, anytime.
Ed -- Hilarious, you are. (That sounds like Yoda)
If a fish is doing the vomiting, is it gross, or net?
If they left their nets to become fishers of men did they, also, leave their gross?
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