Richard Rohr and CAC teacher James Finley discuss why the Jonah story has been transformational for them:
Richard: I’m just haunted by this story. It’s true on fifty-five levels. Running from God in spite of yourself, being thrown in the belly of the beast and discovering God. It’s all of us, it’s every person. Here again is the theme of coming to God by doing it wrong, not by doing it right. For years, I collected every image of Jonah in the belly of the whale that I could. It’s amazing how many there are. How about you, Jim?
Jim: Something that strikes me about [the Jonah story] is at the very end. He’s this reluctant prophet, and he bears witness, and all of Nineveh follows his message. And he goes up on a mountain because he went through all this trouble being swallowed by a whale and so on, and he’s sitting there waiting for God to rain fire from heaven, and God doesn’t do it. A bush comes up and grows over Jonah to shelter him from the sun and a worm comes and kills the bush. And Jonah complains to God that the sun’s so hot that the bush died. God says, “Jonah, you’re angry because the worm ate the bush and yet you want me to kill all these people who are my children.” One translation of Jonah says, “Don’t you know me, Jonah, that I’m mercy within mercy within mercy?” I love that ending: God the all-merciful. [1]
Dominican priest and poet Paul Murray considers how Jonah’s journey of transformation is one that all of us must undergo:
Our own minds and hearts are more like Jonah’s than we care to admit. And that is why like Jonah we need, in the spiritual life, to be shocked and shaken out of certain fixed ways of thinking and feeling. We need to begin to recognize God in places where we would never, perhaps, have suspected [God’s] presence before, and not only in the big city or in the places of our enemies, but also in the many seemingly banal and bizarre circumstances of our lives. But to learn this lesson, really to learn it, we need, like Jonah, to undergo the grace and mystery of bewilderment. Of course, we need many other graces as well—for example, the grace to sit still, the grace to meditate, and the grace and the energy to work for peace and to fight for justice. But, sometimes, it is only in the midst of the “tempest,” in the heart of a storm of circumstances which we can’t control, that we come finally to realize something of the wonderful mystery of God and realize also how far beyond anything we can imagine or hope for are [God’s] plans both for ourselves and for the entire world.
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Sarah Young
Magnificent Jesus, You are the Light of the world! Because I am Your follower, I will not walk in darkness but will have the Light of Life. Although there is much darkness in this world, I always have access to You. So I am never in utter darkness. The trail before me often looks shadowy, especially as it disappears into the future. I would love for it to be floodlit so I could anticipate what’s ahead. But the truth is, You are enough! You are with me continually, and You also go before me—illuminating the way. All I need to do is trust You and follow the Light You provide. Even when the path before me is dimly lit, Your illumination is sufficient for me to find my way forward step by step. Someday I will be with You in heaven, where I will see Your Light in all its Glory! Darkness will be a thing of the past, and I’ll be able to see everything clearly. The Bible assures me there will be no more night. I will not need the light of a lamp or of the sun, for You will give me Light—beyond anything I can imagine! In Your brilliant Name, Amen
JOHN 8:12 ESV; Again, Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
PROVERBS 4:18; The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.
REVELATION 22:5; There will be no more night in the city, and they will have no need for the light of a lamp or of the sun.
Young, Sarah. Jesus Listens (p. 99). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.
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