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Thoughts on Jonah
By daniel | May 22, 2006
Kudos to Rock for walking us through Jonah last night — excellent!
So Jesus, in his talks with the religious leaders, finds no better example than Jonah to describe their ways. He uses Jonah/Cain language ('Why are you angry') to describe the sentiment of those who feels like others shouldn't receive the same degree of mercy. He does this in both the day-workers parable, and the prodigal son parable. We don't think about this very often, but as Rock said, what if God cancelled hell, due to complete repentance on everyone's part? Would we be happy that no one would be separated from God? My answers to those questions are, sadly, not Jesus' answers. He says that he wants no one to perish, but I tend towards the opinion that there are some who should, and those some don't include me, of course.
I can hear all those same voices in what I just said: That's me, Cain, angry because God showed favor to someone other than me. That's me, Jonah, angry because I don't want God to forgive those who repented. That's me, the older brother, who is angry because the younger took all of dad's stuff and dad still loves him. And finally, that's me, the day laborer who agreed to work a day for a good price, yet is angry when another gets the same price for a half-day when they show up at noon.
You know, it seems to me that we really do expect life to be fair, when perhaps God does what is best for us, and that's not fair when we compare with each other, but I have a sneaking suspicion it may still be just and good.
Just some thoughts from a guy who is trying to learn how to think like Jesus about this stuff.
Topics: Life in the Way, Spirituality - Thoughts, The Gospel |
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