Jonah as a Missionary

Jonah and the Whale. Photo: Pieter Lastman/Public Domain

What is God’s attitude to people who forget Him? How does God treat those who prize material goods above the spiritual? Or getting down to the concrete, why am I still a Columban missionary in Japan?!

Scripture, God’s Word, tells me that God loves every person He created and that his Son Jesus died for all. I would like to proclaim to my Japanese people: “God loves all of you, just as you are.”

One book of scripture in the Old Testament gives me purpose for my mission in Japan. It is the beautiful, humorous, and full of meaning story of Jonah. Jonah is a parable – not history. I feel sad when books, especially for children, seem to make the principal actor – a whale! The parable of Jonah was written five centuries before Christ. At that time the leaders of the Jewish people had become exclusive. They emphasized that they were the chosen race (which they were) and forgot that God chose them to share his love with others. They felt that God had rejected those outside the Path of the Lord God. They treated them as second-class citizens.

Jonah is portrayed as a fervent follower of God – but his fervor is tainted. Nineveh is depicted as a city of sinners. Jonah is called by God to go to Nineveh as a missionary, God says: “Jonah! Up! Go to Nineveh”. Nineveh is to the east of where Jonah is. Jonah thinks: “Me, a strict Jew, go to that city of sinners and be contaminated by them – that is unthinkable”.

To escape God’s call to go east, Jonah goes West and boards a ship going to Spain (Tarshish). A violent storm hits the ship. The pagan sailors pray to their God while Jonah is fast asleep on the lower deck. (I hear his snores!)  The sailors wake Jonah, and he confesses that he is a follower of the true God and that the storm is his fault. He says: “Throw me overboard, and you will be safe.” So, very reluctantly, Jonah is cast adrift.

Into the scene comes the sea monster (a whale?) Jonah is in darkness for three days before he reaches shore. God, so patient, calls Jonah again: “Up! To Nineveh”. God does not punish Jonah for his refusal. Our God is tender, compassionate, and understanding – not a punishing God. Jonah goes to the great city of Nineveh and proclaims: “Repent! Come back to God”. The people of Nineveh all repent from the king down. All do penance for their sins.

Jonah leaves Nineveh like a petulant child. He tells God: “If the city had been destroyed, people would see me as a prophet”. This conversation with God is at first done under a leafy vine that gives shade in the desert heat. But then this shrivels up! Then, suddenly, the story comes to a sudden stop. This is a device common in the East (In Japan it is called a firefly with its bright tail cut off). Each reader is called to make one’s own ending. Jonah is you and I.

Do I accept that God loves every person alive – even those who seem evil? Don’t judge; we are gifted by God to put the parable into a modern Christian context. We Christians have been called and chosen and have been liberally gifted. We are called and chosen to share; we are called to share our gifts with others. God loves all. By word and deed, let us show this love in a word – God calls us all to be missionaries of his love.

Fr Barry Cairns lives and works in Japan. He wrote this article while on vacation in Lower Hutt, Aotearoa/New Zealand.