One More Story of God's View of Fairness

Yesterday I talked about the parable of the generous landowner who paid all his workers the same wage for the day no matter how many hours they worked.  And was then question about his fairness. This morning we take a quick look at the story of Jonah; who also feels that God has acted unfairly.  Unfairly to Jonah that is!  Some of you have heard my take on Jonah and what a great human story it is. If you have not read the story I encourage you to do so. Its a short very story! I truly believe that this story is in the Bible because it asks us to take a good hard look at ourselves; and the way we view right and wrong, fair and unfair.

Lets think of it this way!  Your mom and dad have asked you to do something important that you don’t want to do.  That is not an unusual event in one’s life!  But, you decide not to do it!  You decide that you will run away.  Literally run away! You hop a ship going in the other direction from what your parents want you to do.  But they catch up with you; and as you jump ship you are swallowed by a huge fish.  This is where the story gets hard to relate to;  because it gets too unrealistic.

So let me make a jump back to God and Jonah.  In the belly of the fish Jonah prays and prays and prays to God for help to get out of that fishy belly.  And three day later Jonah find himself on the beach.  God is right there to meet him.  And sends him to do what he should have done in the first place. Which was to warn some nasty evil people to straighten up — clean up —  their act.   Or God would wipe them out.  Jonah hated these people!   Jonah also was aware that if the people listed, and did shape up, God would forgive them.  

Long story short, Jonah was correct!  And this is were we pick up the story this morning.  What I invite you to notice is how Jonah reacts to God’s mercy on the evil people.  Then I ask you to remember how gracious and forgiving God was to Jonah — all the way through the story.  Then remember throughout your life experience when you have had similar times of thinking how unfair things turn out. 

Both the Gospel Reading from Matthew and Jonah point out to us the gigantic difference between the human creation and its Creator.  Pay attention to the precious truth of how God treat those who do their best to follow in his ways.  How patient God is with our failures and mistakes.  How compassionate God is at our admission of guilt.  

And, how the concept of fair is not at all what we understand it to be.

1 Jonah was furious. He lost his temper. 2 He yelled at God, "God! I knew it - when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen! That's why I ran off to Tarshish! I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness! 3 "So, God, if you won't kill them, kill me! I'm better off dead!" 4 God said, "What do you have to be angry about?" 5 But Jonah just left. He went out of the city to the east and sat down in a sulk. He put together a makeshift shelter of leafy branches and sat there in the shade to see what would happen to the city. 6 God arranged for a broad-leafed tree to spring up. It grew over Jonah to cool him off and get him out of his angry sulk. Jonah was pleased and enjoyed the shade. Life was looking up. 7 But then God sent a worm. By dawn of the next day, the worm had bored into the shade tree and it withered away. 8 The sun came up and God sent a hot, blistering wind from the east. The sun beat down on Jonah's head and he started to faint. He prayed to die: "I'm better off dead!" 9 Then God said to Jonah, "What right do you have to get angry about this shade tree?" Jonah said, "Plenty of right. It's made me angry enough to die!" 10 God said, "What's this? How is it that you can change your feelings from pleasure to anger overnight about a mere shade tree that you did nothing to get? You neither planted nor watered it. It grew up one night and died the next night. 11 So, why can't I likewise change what I feel about Nineveh from anger to pleasure, this big city of more than a hundred and twenty thousand childlike people who don't yet know right from wrong, to say nothing of all the innocent animals?”(Jonah 4The Message)