Wednesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
There is something so lovable about Jonah. He is so…human! A prophet, called to do something he’d rather not do. A prophet called to reach out to a people he’d rather let be. God is persistent, though. And we meet Jonah today after he’s been in the belly of the whale, wrestling with his call, spit upon shore to do the thing he’d rather not do. He has been faithful and has preached repentance to the people of Ninevah. He has been successful in God’s eyes. The people of Ninevah have repented. You would think that he would be rejoicing! But, no!
Lovable, human Jonah, is “greatly displeased.” In fact, he is angry at God for not punishing the people of Ninevah, even though they have changed their ways. He even says to God, “I know that you are gracious and merciful…” Under that, though, it seems he is saying, “but I don’t want you to be merciful and gracious to them.”
Jonah is so human and relatable. There are days when we’d rather not do what God is calling us to do. Days when we might rather God’s wrath strike down those with whom we disagree - or at least make them extremely uncomfortable! Instead, God calls us to go to them. To be gracious as God is gracious.
Jonah may go reluctantly, but on the way, he encounters God’s mercy for himself. God is tender and slow to anger with Jonah, too. God shades him with a plant that grows around him. God prompts him to reconsider his perspective when the plant dies. God is at work not only in Ninevah, but in Jonah. And God is at work in us, even when we cooperate with God’s grace reluctantly.
—Kelly Adamson