"Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time..." (Jonah 3:1 NLT)
3I don’t know about you, but I’m so very glad for a God who speaks again. Jonah and I have a lot in common. All too often I miss the message, board the wrong boat or object to the task entirely. Yet we serve a God who graciously gives second chances to the undeserving; chiefly me. I’m glad for a God who has long ago factored in my my flesh and is merciful with my inadequacies. I’m glad for a God who is absolutely bent on being with me in spite of me. He looks past my self-centered nature, my fears and frustrations, my preferences and aversions, my rebellious spirit.
Truthfully, God didn’t need Jonah to save Nineveh. He could have accomplished their salvation by a hundred other means. But He longed to include Jonah in the redemption story. Nineveh reminds us that no one is too far gone from God to be saved, not even the sulking prophet on the far side of a hill overlooking a repentant city. God’s grace is as fierce as it is wide if we’ll only open the door of our heart.
Jonah expected personal mercy for his bad behavior but not corporate mercy for a wayward community. He wanted grace enough for himself but not enough for the truly terrible people. The thing Jonah failed to understand is that we are all awful; every last one of us. Some of us wear our awful out in public, in ways that are socially unacceptable. But many more wear our awful just under the surface, tactfully hidden beneath a razor-thin veneer of holy. It’s subject to scuffing when we see grace liberally applied to the obvious awful. We object because they haven’t even appeared to earn it. How blind we are to reality! None of us deserve God’s grace! All have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. All are awful sinners in terrible need of unmerited favor.
So today we have been awarded another opportunity to pull back our veneer and see the truth. We need Jesus. We are self-obsessed, vindictive, grudge-holding, stone-throwing sinners who would prefer to keep the gospel all to our selves. This revelation frees us up from judging and opens our heart up to loving.
"For everyone has sinned and fallen short of Your glorious standard." (Romans 3:23 NLT)
"God, be merciful and gracious to me, the [especially wicked] sinner [that I am]!" (Luke 18:13 AMP)
Lord, please forgive us. Help us appreciate the prolific nature of grace that has so enfolded us in its comfort. May we be quick to offer Your warmth to another soul: to the obvious and hidden awful alike. May we never take Your mercy for granted or convince ourselves we were in any less need than our neighbor. Fill us up with forgiveness and an acute awareness of our own shortfalls as we gladly serve the community You called us to in this season. Amen.
I think I’ve shared this song before, but it’s so good it bears repeating. 🙂