Jonah Without His Whale
Scripture: Selected verses from Jonah
Introduction
Of all the strange and wondrous stories of the Bible, few are better known than that of Jonah. Even people who have never read the Bible, or attended Sunday school, or listened to sermons, have heard something of Jonah and the whale. But it is just this familiarity and this obsession with the whale that keep us from understanding and appreciating the more profound meanings of this portion of Scripture.
It is far more than just a story about the natural world, or even supernatural, where a man could be swallowed by a big fish, live for three days in its stomach, then be burped up on land to go about business as usual. All of which is to say, Jonah isn’t just a whale of a story. Far from it!
The Hebrews included Jonah among their twelve Minor Prophets. It was chosen to be in their canon of sacred writings because it was a story about God’s loving relationship with all the peoples of the Earth, and about the way God works with us and relates to us, as individuals, even when we rebel against what we know God would have us do. We have been missing the boat, and we do well to think for a while about Jonah without his whale.
There are at least three levels of meaning in this often misunderstood and too little appreciated book. I shall comment briefly on the first two, and invite you to reread the entire book at your leisure with each of them in mind.
Then I shall have us think on the third dimension of Jonah a bit more in detail, with specific attention to the way it speaks to a major issue in our world and in our church today.
Jonah is first of all a social commentary.
It is a story set in the midst of a very real and significant conflict between the small state of Israel and the vast Assyrian empire, one of her many enemies across the centuries and one of the greatest powers of the ancient world.
Assyria was ruthless toward its enemies and had once attempted to capture Jerusalem. The capital city of that empire was Nineveh, located only a few hundred miles north and east of Jerusalem. Think for a moment about a major city that distance from where we are at this moment. Now imagine a powerful enemy there ready to invade us. That’s what made it a real and significant social conflict at the time it \A’as first written!
The Israelites looked upon Assyria as totally evil, and if that were not enough, they worshiped a God different from their own. Yet, it was these same enemies and nonbelievers whom Jonah was called upon to save.
This political and religious situation helps us to see why Jonah decided to run away from the presence of God. He took a ship toward Tarshish, perhaps best located far to the west of Spain, in the opposite direction from his appointed task.
So, to appreciate the Book of Jonah, we must keep in mind that it was addressing major issues of its day. To the people for whom it was first intended, this prophetic book was more than a mere “Minority Report” among the really important items on the Israelite agenda. I t was a screaming editorial!
And here is the bottom line for the first level of our understanding of Jonah: That editorial went against the long held prejudices of the Israelites! It speaks of a God who loved all humanity, including the hated Ninevites.
And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons…?
Jonah is also to be read as a book of worship
Although it consist of only four short chapters, it is a library of devotions and ritual: prayers to God for deliverance from danger and guidance, confession of sins, thanksgiving, holy vows, a sacred ritual of sacrifice, and even a pious psalm delivered from the belly of the whale.
Running throughout the several short episodes is how confession to God brings deliverance: to Jonah, from death by drowning; to the seamen, from shipwreck in the storm; and to the Ninevites, from the destruction to come in just forty days.
These repeated instances of worship and ritual in such a small volume and the parallelism of chapters one and two with chapters three and four show clearly that Jonah was intentionally crafted by a sensitive and skilled literary artist. If you like good literature, try reading it as just another short story sometime.
And do you know? Each year as they have done for centuries, at Yorri Kippur, that holiest of holy seasons, Jews read the entire book of Jonah. So too, our devotional lives are deeply enriched when we read the story of Jonah as a book of worship.
And most certainly, Jonah is to be understood as a theological and ethical guidebook.
It clearly illustrates the way God relates to a rebellious Israelite, and to us. It is here that the story brings a message of major concern to our world, to our church, and to us individually.
Although self chosen deaths are recorded seven times in scripture, with two attempted suicides, the subject is seldom discussed by biblical commentators, or used as sermon topics, or discussed in education classes, or mentioned in church literature.
Have you ever thought of Jonah as an attempted suicide? Pick me up and throw me into the sea, then I know things will go better for you.
How often have words like that been spoken by someone contemplating suicide? Professor Elie Wiese’, a survivor of a Nazi war camp during the Holocaust, a recipient of the 1968 Nobel Peace Prize and now distinguished professor at Boston University, has pointed out that Jonah was preoccupied with his own death. This insight makes Jonah even more important for Christians, by showing us the way God relates to a rebellious child, as well as to one who had tried to end his life.
Suicide is a worldwide problem. One million suicides a year. The highest rates are in Hungary and Finland, not Japan as many think. Highest rate among women is in China. Some of the highest rates are in Russia military personnel and in Ukraine, especially among survivors of the atomic meltdown at Chernoble.
In the United States, suicides have hovered around 30,000 a year for more than a decade. That’s like having a plane crash killing over eighty people ever day! Persons who work in this field are convinced the actual number probably many times higher, but can’t be verified as such. What we do know is that for every two murders, there are three suicides. The U.S.Bureau of Health Statistics officially lists the number of suicides each year in several categories, beginning at age five, by which time some children have already made one or more attempts. The highest rates are among white men and women over the age of sixty-five. It is a leading cause of death among college students and returning veterans.
From these tragic statistics, and many others could be cited, we can see the many ways in which faith-based communities are involved. Churches and synagogues provide ministries to faculty, staff and students in college, university and theological students, chaplains for hospitals, homes for the elderly and children, prisons, and our armed service personnel here and in harm’s way.
There are also professional therapists, pastoral care professionals, and pastors who offer countless hours of counseling to persons who express suicidal ideation, to families who have suffered a suicide loss, and who preach for suicide funerals.
Fortunately, however, there are also good things to be said. First, over the past twenty years, governments, including those in Russia and China, have begun to address issues related to suicide. The World Health Organization has recognized the global dimensions of the problem and urged each member nation to address the issue. The human race has now reached the point where most deaths are not related to infectious diseases. Former U. S. Surgeon General David M. Satcher was the first of our “doctors to the nation” to give attention to Mental Health. In 1999 he issued a Call to Action for Suicide Prevention to broaden public awareness. The first step in his public program was to get people to address the issues, and he specifically called upon religious communities to be involved. Within the past five years, Congress has authorized Federal funds to be used for suicide prevention.
Second, there is good news on the medical front.
After the advent of sociology and psychotherapy in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, we have learned that self chosen deaths are not due entirely to individual willful acts of crime and sin, as the church has taught for centuries. Rather, they are decisions made by persons who need help in taking charge of their own lives instead of being driven by uncontrollable physical, social and mental factors which they don’t even recognize. Suicides are first and foremost cries for help. Too often it is “a permanent solution to a temporary problem.”
Recent advances in medical technology, especially in the development of brain scans, reveal that most suicides suffer from a deficiency in their chemical makeup. As a result, psychologists are learning new approaches in treating patients, and pharmaceutical companies continue to develop new drugs for treatment. The widespread opinion among therapists is that the best results occur when both are used.
These advances have helped tremendously in overcoming one of the two basic factors among suicides, depression. But this can be misleading In determining the cause. While there are 30,000 suicides a year, there are some 300,000 cases of clinical depression reported each year, which is to say, depression does not lead to suicide! Our understanding is changing, and millions of people are coping with suicide and finding much happiness in life.
One other significant fact from recent studies is that harsh attitudes toward survivors of suicide attempts, which often take the form of bullying, can actually hinder the church’s role in prevention.
Third, there is good news on the religious front.
In 1983 the Roman Catholic Church changed its canon law and for the first time dropped suicide from its list of unforgivable sins. You may recall that a few years ago, the world was shocked at the fatal shootings by a Swiss Guard at the Vatican. After killing two of his fellow guards, he killed himself.
It so happened that the man who used the gun was a close friend of the Pope. He lived with his family at the Vatican and travelled as his personal body guard. What was not so widely reported is that a short time later, the Pope conducted final rites for the deceased, including the guard who took his own life. The Roman Catholic Church has come a long way from St. Augustine, who in the fourth century was the first to interpret the Commandment “You shall not kill” to mean “You shall not kill yourself.”
More recently, the Episcopal, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, United Methodist, and Presbyterian USA churches have reevaluated their traditional positions and issued statements providing biblical, theological and ethical guidelines for their constituents. These resolutions call for more understanding and education at all levels, community involvement, and social advocacy. The National Council of Churches has called on its members to address the issue for their communities.
Conclusion
Today, we can be truly grateful that in government, medicine, and religion, changes that affect the lives of millions of people are taking place to reduce suicide and to promote more humane care for survivors of both suicide attempts and suicide loss.
My friends, there is help for those with depression, for those who have attempted suicide, and for all the children of Jonah, that ancient prophet who, after trying to flee from the presence of God, went on to be in ministry to others.
The word of the Lord comes to us, as it did to Jonah, to be involved in ways we have not been, to go where we do not want to go, and to be in mission, to enrich the lives of those who have been and will be touched by suicide.
