I have a love/hate relationship with fishing. I’m not patient with this kind of activity and in all cases fishing requires great dollops of it. Perhaps it’s just me, but every time I step foot on a boat the fish head for international waters. I’ve never caught anything larger than an undersized Snapper, despite the grand promises of boat owning fisher people.
There’s a very fishy biblical tale that most people know - the story of Jonah. It’s one on those biblical accounts that has made its way in to western folklore. Whether you believe it to be literal or allegorical the story of God’s reluctant messenger being swallowed by a whale has suffered both theological scrutiny and secular laughter.
Yet there is a serious side. In the midst of the apparent silliness we are drawn into the character of Jonah. A Character who exhibits more of ourselves than we like to admit. And that’s the way with stories, whether they be a retelling of historical events or a parable, they suck us in to the intrigue and there’s always something to be learned.
The thing with Jonah is that he is so much one of us. In the story he is asked by God to do a simple but difficult task - go to Nineveh and preach to the people. However, Jonah decides sitting on the beach and drinking wine in Tarshish is a much better idea. God won’t disturb him in that part of the world. And so the story unfolds.
Jonah is ordinary, independent and disobedient. He’s not a hero and had no intention of being one. He just wanted a good but quiet life. Jonah isn’t held up as a person to be admired but rather, as one writer put it, “Jonah is a companion in our ineptness”.
Have you ever had the experience of finally getting around to doing what you were supposed to do after a great fuss only to discover that you are doing it wrong? It’s the end result of doing anything in a begrudging fashion. That was Jonah.
The great thing about the story is that God was working through Jonah the whole time. In the end God achieved what was intended. Even Jonah had to admit it.
I have yet to meet the perfect person. I have often wondered what they might be like. I have decided that the only way someone can be perfect is to be surround by people who are perfectly contented with who that person is. Perfection is in the eye of the beholder. Given my experiences personally and observing others, the odds of ever being perfect are stacked against us.
We need people like Jonah. They remind us of our humanness. The are markers on the spiritual map that help us to see that despite our oddities and failings God is still at work.
Digby Wilkinson 2009