The story of Jonah is one we tell to our kids over and over again, mostly because it contains this great miracle of being swallowed by a whale and living to tell about it. Like the way we tell kids about all the adorable animals on Noah’s ark and the beautiful rainbow but we leave out the mess of dead who were drowned in that 40 days of rain.
So today we get a bit of the messy part of Jonah’s story - we get the spite. Jonah would rather die than watch his nation’s enemies be forgiven and offered grace. He is infuriated by God. He knew God would relent from punishing the Ninevites, once they came to their senses and repented. It’s why Jonah fled in the first place - he wanted to see Nineveh punished for all of the pain and destruction they had rained down on Israel. He wanted those infidels to burn for their sin, and knowing that God is forgiving and merciful, he fought against telling them that they had the chance to repent.
But as much as Jonah wanted them to die, God wanted more for them to live.
So Jonah had to have some time of his own to repent, even while the people of Nineveh were sitting in sackcloth and ashes. He had to fume and fuss and kick the dust and sit and wait to die. Then this comfortable little shrubbery grew up as a shade on his hot head, and he found some comfort in it. This shrubbery he neither planted nor watered. This little plant which only a day later withered and shriveled and died as a divinely appointed worm ate its heart out. Since this disturbed Jonah’s small comfort, he threw a tantrum. Nothing was going his way. First he had to bring God’s mercy to the infidel, then the only shade he had on a hot day had been taken away. It’s as if God shook him by the shoulders: “Why are you so upset about a shrub, when an entire city was just saved! Oh, for crying out loud, at least have pity on the livestock, then, if you can’t muster any compassion for the people!”
Sometimes God has to reorient our compassion. We get a bit stuck on what works best for ourselves only, and miss the bigger picture.
Like the parable Jesus tells us today: A landowner hires workers for his vineyard, adding laborers every hour, and pays them all a living day’s wage for their work. The ones who worked all day get the pay they first expected, and the ones who waited in the market most of the day until they were hired at the eleventh hour also get a day’s pay. The first workers were not cheated, but they did get upset that those latecomers got the same compensation as they received.
It doesn’t add up very well in our society, does it? Didn’t add up in Jesus’ day, either. The earliest hired got the pay they agreed to, but then expected that they deserved more when they compared themselves to those bums who just came in off the street.
But as much as we operate this way, God’s kingdom is far more generous when we are undeserving.
Because it’s not about deserving. I can’t ignore this reality after all I’ve seen just in complaints about people who flip burgers wanting to be paid a living wage. We rank people according to so many variables - but it comes down to keeping ourselves powerful and in the right, making sure we’re getting what we deserve before we bother noticing our neighbors.
Well, it may not seem like it, from our current position, or maybe it does: we’re not the ones who got hired first. Or second. Or third. Anyone who believes we’re in the end times ought to be able to tell us that. Anyone who has any idea of history, that we didn’t just show up here this instant without ancestors, will be able to tell us that. Anyone who has ever been taught by a teacher ought to be able to say they didn’t show up first on the scene. We’ve a whole history of generations of workers in the vineyard who got to work before we were even born. A whole legacy of laborers in the vineyard who have been passing on their knowledge and skill, sharing their witness and struggle, so that we could get to where we are.
Jesus and Jonah both reveal the patience and the mercy of our God today, in that God will relent from punishing even the worst of offenders, and God will bless even the latecomers whose work can only build on the labor of those who were present first. God will take care of us just like God took care of them. If God can forgive Nineveh after all they did to destroy and scatter God’s own chosen people, if God can choose and use and teach a prophet like Jonah to bring that word of forgiveness even when that prophet would rather die than know God’s mercy more deeply, imagine what God can give and do here. If God can be like a landowner who searches the marketplace every hour for laborers to work in the vineyard, how might God come to us, again and again, to make us part of that kingdom work?
Forgiveness. Grace. Mercy. Again and again, God pours out upon the world an abundance of these gifts, whether or not we feel worthy, because we certainly can not earn these gifts. Nothing we do can make us deserve the forgiveness, grace, and love of God, just like nothing we do can make us lose these abundant blessings. For our God is a generous God.
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