For All People

by Mathew Block

“Should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” – Jonah 4:11

These are the final words in the book of Jonah, and they are a rebuke from God against the prophet. We all know the story of Jonah: called to prophesy against the capital city of the Assyrians, Jonah instead catches a ship headed the other way. Eventually a storm arises, and he is thrown overboard where he is swallowed by a great fish. But that isn’t the end of Jonah. Inside the fish, Jonah prays to God, and God commands the creature to spit him up on shore alive. Then Jonah obeys God and finally goes to Nineveh: “Yet forty days,” he cries out, “and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (3:4).

And now God performs another miracle, greater even than bringing Jonah alive from the belly of the fish. The people of Nineveh—these people infamous for their wickedness—repent. “The people of Nineveh believed God,” we read (3:5). The king himself puts on sackcloth and ashes, and commands the people to fast. “Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands,” he says. “Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish” (3:9).

And that is precisely what happens. “When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that He had said He would do to them, and He did not do it” (3:10). The story wraps up then with a nice little bow.

Jesus, then, is the greater Jonah—for He calls not just one city but the world to repentance.

Except, it doesn’t. Jonah is angry with God for sparing the Ninevites. They were enemies of Israel. Other. Wicked. And yet, God spares them. “That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish,” Jonah says bitterly to God. “For I knew that You are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster!” (4:3).

Jonah was all too grateful to receive mercy from God in the belly of the fish; but he didn’t want that mercy to be shown to his enemies. He was an Israelite; they were Assyrians. Surely God should just look out for His own people?

We see in Jonah, then, a self-centered nationalism which misunderstands God’s will towards the world. God didn’t just love the people of Israel; He loved everybody. He created all people, and so He is the Father of all, regardless of nationality and ethnicity. Shouldn’t He care for His wayward children?

Jonah’s error is not just a thing of the past either. We have recently seen online the growth of a disturbing ethno-nationalism among some Christians—including some who claim to be Lutherans. These individuals engage in grotesque racist rhetoric under the veneer of “Christian” faith. Online, you can see them demonizing people of Jewish descent (including Christians) and rejecting people of African heritage (and other backgrounds) as sub-human. They even openly praise Adolf Hitler as a “Christian prince”! Such positions are to be condemned in the strongest terms. Insofar as Christians hold these views, they sin and are to be called to repentance.

God’s will for all people was ultimately revealed in Jesus Christ. For He was sent by God—like Jonah before Him—to proclaim a message to sinful people. But not a message of condemnation this time. Now the promise of salvation is clear for all nations. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life,” Jesus says. “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:16-17).

Whoever believes in Jesus, then, has salvation through His death and resurrection—no matter who you are, no matter where you are from. St. Paul puts it this way: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). One body. One family—the children of God.

Jesus, then, is the greater Jonah—for He calls not just one city but the world to repentance. In fact, Jesus Himself points to the “sign of Jonah” as pre-figuring His own sacrifice of love—something Rev. Dr. Joel D. Heck explores this issue. That love motivates us to care for others, including those—as Rev. Dr. Jonathan Kraemer writes—facing the epidemic of loneliness so common today. Finally, Rev. Dr. Thomas Korcok discusses the Christian Nationalist movement, reminding us of the essential unity all Christians enjoy as members of the body of Christ.

O Lord God, teach us to love the world as You love the world: with a heart that recognizes all people as Your precious children in need of mercy. Teach us also to embrace the unity You give us as fellow believers in Your Son, Jesus Christ, and to truly understand that in Him we all are one. Draw us ever nearer to You, O God, and through You to each other. Amen.

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Mathew Block is editor of The Canadian Lutheran and the Communications Manager of the International Lutheran Council (ILC).

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