I’d like to offer some musings on the book of Jonah, and I’d like to begin by asking a question: What if the book of Jonah were really about Jonah? Not the storm. Not the sailors. Not the fish. And not even about “great” Nineveh or its king, its nobles, its commoners, or their children and “pets.” It seems like an all-too-simplistic question in that how could a book named “Jonah” and focused on the character “Jonah” from beginning to end not be about Jonah?! Fair enough, but simple questions can sometimes open up new insights that sharpen and deepen our understanding in unexpected ways. If so, then what would it mean in perhaps a sharper and deeper sense to say that the message is “about Jonah?”

And actually to take a step back, it may not even be as obvious as we might think that the book’s central point is the man himself. What about that haunting ending where it seems clear that God wants the fate of so many children (and even animals) to weigh heavily on Jonah’s mind and break through his hardened heart? Isn’t that the “punchline”— namely, that Jonah needs to stop being so nationalistic or ethnocentric or bigoted or what have you and start caring about the people of the world, those “godless foreigners,” the religiously marginalized, your political enemies among the dreaded “goyim?”

This is a powerful message. Clearly it’s even true. Very true. But if this is the case, then the real concern of the book (its exact center and message) is not so much Jonah and his need to move beyond his own cultural perspective and see the world. The real message of the book would then be that God loves the world and the world needs God. Jonah is merely a decidedly memorable, yet blind, stubborn, and rather unpleasant conduit for this message. He embodies something like the little jerk in all of us that needs to be confronted from time to time.

So I agree that this is a critical truth. It’s one worth attending to for our own spiritual good, and we shouldn’t race on by it and dismiss it as trivial. It presents a profound challenge worth a lifetime of effort to overcome. It even has sufficient weightiness to be the center of this little piece of prophetic writing. And yet. And yet, I believe that this is but a part of the message of the book of Jonah, even if an essential and deeply significant part at that. Rather than being the exact center, it instead frames and points to the true central message which I’d like to argue is something profoundly problematic about Jonah himself. Jonah is a very special case that has to be brought to light and addressed. Jonah is something new in the Scriptures.

So what does that mean? In one sense it’s obvious that Jonah is a unique figure in the entire Scriptures: he’s the only man recorded as having been swallowed and spewed out by a fish. Or at least one who lived to tell about it. His three day ordeal even uniquely foreshadows Christ’s death and resurrection when that “someone greater than Jonah” would finally arrive.

But that said, the book of Jonah and Jonah himself are unique in a number of ways that make him and his message decidedly pivotal in all of Scripture. Furthermore, one special aspect of his uniqueness is actually the central concern and message of the book. Jonah is a problem. He is a problem for sure! It’s not just that he is one of the most unlikeable characters in all of the Scriptures even though he is supposedly God’s prophet and one of God’s people. In fact it’s probably impossible to find anything about him that’s remotely likeable, which is in stark contrast to everyone else in the story, including that obedient great fish! More than all of this, Jonah appears to be the very first person to embody the problem that he is, and it seems that he finally realized what he was and generously left us enough clues in his little book to understand and confront that very problem.

So what is this problem? I’d like to argue that Jonah is the first to embody the greatest danger and threat embedded in being a member of Yahweh’s uniquely chosen people with all of its privileges and duties and blessings. Such blessings, demands, and status necessarily come with an inescapable, implicit spiritual and moral shadow side. In a weird (if not paradoxical) way, being shaped by God’s truth and culture leaves one uniquely vulnerable. Jonah is what you look like when you’ve succumbed to that vulnerability. Jonah is what you look like when this danger has brought you to the greatest spiritual crisis of your life. I would like to argue in the musings that follow that this danger and crisis together are the central concern of the book— both what exactly that crisis consists of (in vivid detail) and how to deal with it. Jonah is the first instance of what will eventually become a sprawling spiritual sickness pervading God’s people. Everything in the book, everything Jonah the author mentions or leaves conspicuously unsaid, is guided by his desire to make this spiritual danger crystal clear and recognizable for his own beloved chosen community and for all of his readers to come.

We have much ahead to ferret out as attentive readers, but once we see how Jonah the author carefully unfolds this crisis- the “ra” in the heart of Jonah the prophet- we’ll also see that he won’t be the last to embody it, that both Jesus and Paul will have to confront it centuries later. And in the meanwhile we will come to appreciate just how relevant his crisis is to our own lives and to appreciate how rich and deep— indeed, what a literary and spiritual gem!— the book of Jonah is. Even more, we will see how great and generous Jonah was to let a world of readers see him at his very worst, in the very throes of his terrible, ugly misery and profound crisis. He did this all for our own potential good- as long as we are willing to listen carefully, ponder, and learn. How generous indeed!

For your own musings…

1. Maybe you’re thinking: The message of the book seems rather straightforward to me: “Stop being a bigot and start caring about people that are different from you! God loves the world and the world needs God. Live as though that’s what matters!” Again, fair enough. The message is at least prominently there. But if so, then let me ask: How do you know that this is the central or most important or single greatest teaching of the book of Jonah? It’s plausible enough, but what evidence would you use to make your case compelling if not irrefutable? Pick up the book of Jonah and prayerfully read it from start to finish with this focus and see what you can see. Try to make your case as best you can.
2. On the flipside, let’s say it’s not the central message as I have suggested. What evidence might there be that it’s not? Does anything in the book provide evidence that there is something more, something even more important than the deservedly true need for us to love those different from us? Again, try reading the book with this focus in mind. It’s questions like these that can help us get beyond the blindness of too much familiarity.
3. Which finally brings up some other very interesting questions about narrative literature in general (i.e. communicating through stories): First, how do you ever know what the main point or punchline of a story is? The Bible relies heavily on stories, so this is not an idle question. Furthermore, how do you use what and how the author wrote to determine what he wanted to teach and what he wants you to do with his story, especially when he never actually tells you directly what to think or do? Again, take some to time to try reading Jonah as though you were the author himself. You might even write out the book while imagining that you are Jonah trying to shape your future readers. Can you see his intentions emerge from the story? If so, where and how?
4. Apart from all of these questions, we do know that loving people who are different from ourselves is required of us as followers of Jesus Christ. He commands it! In a practical sense then, what should such obedience to Christ look like given the world we live in today? And what solid evidence do we have in our own lives that we are actually doing, and are firmly committed to doing this often difficult task? Related to this, is being “nice” the same thing as being “kind” and are either or both of these the same thing as being biblically loving? Why or why not?

We’ll probe these and other questions in musings to come. Blessings.