Ninevites
Jonah 1:1-3; 3:1-10; 4:9-11
A little over a week ago, the Associated Press reported that insurgents near Mosul, Iraq, shot down a U.S. Army helicopter. Both pilots died. Mosul is located in the province of Nineveh. On October 15th, 2005, the province of Nineveh cast the deciding votes in the referendum for Iraq’s new constitution. Nineveh is one of three mostly Sunni provinces and is a key area in Iraqi politics.[1] And I don’t have to tell you it’s a very fragile area.
Witnesses say they heard machine gun fire from the ground before the helicopter went down. The crash brings the death total to at least 2,214 U.S. service members killed in Iraq since the beginning of the war in 2003. At least 500 people and more than 50 U.S. troops have been killed since the December 15th elections. The U.S. military has predicted more violence for Iraq in the weeks ahead as the country's splintered politicians and religious groups struggle to form a stable government.[2]
This is all information we hear nightly on the national news when we have the courage to watch. Most Americans feel sadness, anger, frustration, helplessness, and reverence each time another person dies over there. Why don’t these people get it that we’re trying to help them? Why don’t we just let them fend for themselves? When will it end? Will it be worth it? Question after question surrounds this endeavor.
We see this area of Iraq, and the people there, as a “they” and not a “we.” We are not like them! We are not the first to hold this viewpoint.
God called Jonah to go to Nineveh. Remember now, that we’re talking about the area around Mosul. Jonah took off and went the other way. He hated the Assyrians with the same intensity that many people today hate insurgents in Iraq. In Jonah’s day, the Assyrians were easy to despise. If you could mix up a concoction of Nazi Germany, Iran and Iraq at their worst, and season with some North Koreans, then you can get a feel for Jonah’s target audience. The Assyrians were arrogant and cruel conquerors. Asking Jonah to go and preach to these people was like asking a man whose family had been threatened by a terrorist to offer those terrorists complete forgiveness.[3]
Normally when we talk about this story, we frame it so we’re the good guys, and we’re called to minister to our own group of Assyrians or Ninevites…or bad guys. There is no doubt comparing our own call from God to Jonah’s presents some great challenges. We each can think of people to whom it would be hard for us to minister. Who among us would be willing to walk down the streets of modern-day Mosul and preach, “Repent! Turn from your wicked ways and turn to God!” Most likely, we’d be numbered among the casualties in Iraq for doing this. But as absurd as this sounds to us, this is almost exactly what Jonah was asked to do – to walk among a people who hated him as much as he hated them – and tell them to turn to God. Oh, those wicked Ninevites. Oh, those insurgents today.
What if the story of Jonah is about more than us…the good guys…going and ministering to our own set of bad guys? What if we are the Ninevites? We may not strap on explosives and walk into crowds, but is our own sin any less? The truth is, we are all inhabitants of Nineveh at one time or another – alien, off-track, and displeasing to God. Every time we elevate ourselves on a spiritual pedestal and say, “At least I’m not this ‘Ninevite’ or that ‘Ninevite,’” then we’re really no different than Jonah who turned and ran to Tarshish. One thing that really struck me when I was preparing for this message today is just how level the playing field is. Sure the Ninevites were wicked. There is wickedness in Mosul today. But just because there aren’t people dying by car bombs and gunfire in Orange Grove doesn’t mean God is any less displeased with our sin. For all we know, there are people right now who have heard God say, “Go at once to Orange Grove, and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.” I don’t like to think of myself as a “bad guy” any more than you do, but our sin is great, and it’s real.
I have always been intrigued with Jonah because it’s the only book in the Bible that I know of that ends with a question. God asks Jonah, “Shouldn’t I be concerned about the Ninevites?” The book of Jonah is about God’s compassion for sinful people. Just as God wanted the Ninevites back, and was willing to forgive their sin, God wants you back too. You may have wandered far…you may have wandered a little. God still wants you back. God is in the business of repairing and restoring people. There’s hope for everybody; you, me, the Ninevites, Iraqi insurgents, and anyone else you want to throw in the mix.[4]
We come to the Lord’s table on a regular basis because we need to be reminded of our wandering away from God, and the clear path there is back through Jesus Christ. Each time we remember what Jesus has done for us on the cross, it’s as if God is saying, “Ah yes, those are my children. They mess up a lot but my compassion and grace for them is greater than their sin.” It’s time for us…as Ninevites in our way…to make our way back to God. If there was enough of God’s compassion for the Ninevites of Jonah’s day, there is enough for you.
Who will come back to God today? Who needs to repent of their sin? Who needs to hear and believe today, “Jesus died on the cross for me”?
Amen.
Sources:
1) http://www.crystalinks.com/nineveh.html
2) Associated Press writers Sinbad Ahmed in Mosul and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report
3) Some of these comparisons were drawn by Haddon Robinson in his sermon, “The God of the Second Chance,” delivered on February 2, 1996.
4) This thought about us all being Ninevites comes from a devotional by Ray Waddle found in The Upper Room Disciplines 2006 (Nashville: Upper Room Books, 2005), p. 28.
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