Allergic to God?: Going Overboard

It's funny to me, not only jokes, but it's funny when people don't get jokes. Right? So to kind of illustrate this, I've got a couple of slides. I went on the Internet. The Internet is a great source for both jokes and people who don't get jokes.

Here's one. I think this was a comment on Facebook. My four year old just said, "Daddy, why do people make up things that their children have said for social media? Isn't it just inherently dishonest and indicative of an inability to construct a compelling narrative themselves?" This is something I would post. And then here are some of the comments. "Oh, and suddenly in 2018, four year olds have a wide English language knowledge." And then somebody said, "Whoosh. You didn't get it."

Here's another one. I wanted to post a joke about sodium, but I was like, nah, people won't understand. Post it anyway. Most people are smarter than you think and will probably understand it.

And then I like this. Tungsten, oxygen, oxygen, oxygen, sulfur, hydrogen. Anybody get that? If you use the periodic table, it spells whoosh.

Here's another one. I hate Russian dolls. They are so full of themselves. Is this an inside joke? Oh, it's a joke. Russian nesting dolls—look them up if you don't get it. And then he says, pun—look it up if you don't get it. There's an endless supply of this on the Internet. It's so hilarious to me.

Here's why I'm doing all of this, why I'm talking about jokes. It is my contention—and I've told many people this week—the book of Jonah is a joke. It's a satire. It's a self-deprecating satire that is meant to be hilarious. Everybody's looking at me like I'm crazy. Everybody I told this to this week was like, "You're crazy. That's not—you see jokes everywhere, Sutton. Stop it." We're gonna walk through this and I think by the end you're gonna agree with me.

This self-deprecating satire, though, has a point—like most satire. Jonah's not just making jokes for fun. He's telling his personal story in a self-deprecating satirical way to call God's people out of their self-centered belief that God was just theirs, and also out of their lack of love for neighbor and enemies. That's the whole point of the joke. I'm giving you the punchline right now. But Jonah wants you to see that he could have been in his life a useful tool for the love of God being spread and preached. But instead he chose to be a fool. He doesn't want you to make the same mistake. So he wants you to laugh at him. He wants you to see how ridiculous he is, but he also wants you to see you in him.

The Three Jokes of Jonah

Here's the outline. It goes like this:

First: Did you hear the one about Jonah and the storm?

Second: Did you hear the one about Jonah and the sailors?

Third: Did you hear the one about Jonah and the sacrifice?

So there's three jokes that we're going to look at.

Did You Hear the One About Jonah and the Storm?

When we were reading through it, did you catch the humor? Alright. Here's some of it. You might have missed this.

Jonah's name means dove. And he's the son of Amatai, which means faithfulness. So it means dove of faithfulness. Here's what's hilarious about that. You have the dove of faithfulness who is fleeing God—not very faithful, right? He's the opposite of faithful. He's totally disobedient, fleeing God, and he's a dove, right? What's a dove in Jewish literature? Where have we seen that before, class? Noah. Thank you. Somebody said it. Noah. And in the Noah narrative, when does the dove appear? At where? Hope. Okay. Good. Hope. When in the story does the dove appear? At the end of the storm, right? He brings hope at the end of the storm. This dove in his disobedience—supposedly the dove of faithfulness—is actually bringing about storms. He's causing damage all around him rather than bringing hope. Do you get it? It's hilarious. That's hilarious. You should be laughing.

Secondly, there's a pun on directions in this narrative. Do you notice how many times the word "down" appears right in chapter one? He goes down to Joppa, right? He goes down into the hull of the ship. He lays down to sleep, right? He's going down, down, down, right? And that's meant to clue you into something—like he is headed down. He's going a bad direction towards death, away from life. It's hilarious. He thinks what he's doing is good and upright, but it's actually going down and down and down and down. There's a pun. Do you see it? It's funny. Just like I was gonna make a joke about sodium, but nah—people wouldn't get it, right?

Thirdly, there's a joke here about Jonah's lack of awareness. You see it?

A big storm comes up. It's so bad. The sailors are freaking out, right? They are aware that something divine is happening. They're calling on every god they can think of. They're aware of what god is doing, that there's some sort of judgment. We need to interact with some sort of divine being in order to make things right.

What's Jonah doing? The prophet of god. He's sleeping. He's totally asleep. It's a metaphor essentially for this entire narrative, his posture, right? He's literally sleeping, unaware of danger. He has a clear unawareness that he doesn't really fear God.

Did you notice that he says at some point to the sailors? He says, "I fear the god like, I'm a Hebrew. I fear the god who made the heavens, who made the earth, the dry land, and the sea." He says, I'm I fear him. No, he doesn't. Everything he's doing shows a lack of fear for god. He's running from him. He's totally disregarding this big storm that has been sent to call him back. He's not afraid. He's doing the opposite of fearing the Lord. He's unaware.

He has a clear unawareness that he can't outrun the god who made the sea by sea, right? Do you see how ridiculous that unawareness is? It's like, "I fear the lord, the god of heavens who made the land and the sea" and then the sailors are kind of like, they freak out about that, right? Because earlier he had told them, "I'm fleeing this god" and they're like, "What? Wait, you're fleeing the god who made the land and the sea by sea? Real smart." You're totally unaware, right? That's it. His sleeping is an analogy for that.

It's a clear unawareness of the danger he's putting others in. He didn't think at all about the fact that he boards this ship on the sea trying to escape God who made the sea with a bunch of sailors. He's not only putting himself at risk, he's putting them at risk. They're having to jettison their entire livelihood. They're afraid for their lives because of his unawareness of what his disobedience to god is doing.

And there's a clear unawareness of his need to repent. He's just unaware that anything that he's doing needs or requires repentance. He's steadfast on his path to run away from what god has called him to do.

So do you see that what's funny about Jonah? Do you see why you're supposed to laugh at him? The dove of faithfulness. The prophet who thinks so highly of himself going down, down, down, right? Who's totally unaware as a prophet, one who's supposed to make others aware of what god's will is. He's totally unaware of what's going on and what god is doing around him. So isn't that funny? Look at Jonah.

The Satirical Purpose

Here's the thing though. Jonah didn't write this book just to make fun of himself. He wrote it to make fun of himself and to get people, his people, god's people, the Israelites, to look at him and see how ridiculous he was. Start to laugh at him until they realized they were just like him. Do you see? That's what satire does, right? It gets you to laugh at something and then you realize, "Oh, wait, I'm laughing at myself."

So here's how this connects to his original audience. They were meant to be faithful signs of hope to the world. The Israel, right? The blessing to all nations. That's what they were supposed to be. But instead they had been running from God pretty much from the time they get into the land, even before that, right? Rather than going the places that god has called them to go, they go the opposite direction almost every time. Rather than being faithful in their commitment to him, they have been disobedient.

So rather than being the faithful dove, the sign of hope at the end of the storm, they were the disobedient ones who were actually causing storms for all of those around them. You see? They're descending into a deep sleep. A metaphor for sin and general unawareness of what god is doing.

How often do you read in Kings and Chronicles and you see the people of god, they just seem unaware? They're worshiping other gods. They're doing all kinds of other crazy things and you're just kind of like, "What is wrong with you people, right? Why are you not being faithful to this god who did things like part the Red Sea, right? Bring you into the land, conquer Jericho, like all of this stuff." You're just unaware. You're unaware of who god is.

And in short, despite knowing the right things to say, which notice Jonah knew the right things to say, didn't he? He said all the right things. But all of his actions bespeak the opposite of the things that he's saying. Despite knowing all the right things to say and carrying the right title, they had forgotten who they were. Just like Jonah had forgotten who he was.

A prophet who had forgotten who he was, the dove of faithfulness, who had forgotten who he was, was a picture of Israel, God's people who had forgotten who they were. But worse yet, not only had they forgotten who they were, they also forgot who God was. Jonah thinks he can run away. But is that really possible against the God of heaven who created the dry land and the sea? Ridiculous. And yet, that's Israel. They forgotten who they were and they forgotten who God was.

Man, it's a good thing this is written for Israel, right? Not for us. Because we definitely don't have a unique name like Christian, which means "little Christ" or a follower of Christ. And we certainly don't have a call where we're called to be a blessing to others and to all nations, to show forth the light of Christ to others. We don't have that call. What a relief, right? It's not for us and we're not asleep at the wheel regarding what God is doing in our lives. We're not more concerned with our own concerns than about the grand redemption of mankind. We never get caught up in ourselves and our wishes and what we think is right. We haven't forgotten who we are. We never forget that and we haven't forgotten who God is. Of course not. We're good church going folk. We're here every week. So this is definitely not designed to make fun of us.

Satire. Right? Sarcasm. That's what that is—in case you're a low seven on the Enneagram. This is absolutely about us. This is absolutely what we do. We are absolutely supposed to laugh at Jonah and then realize, "Oh no, we're just like him."

I have a friend who charged me with this. He said, "Never let the velocity of life outpace or outgrow your curiosity for what God is doing." I thought about that a lot over the last several months—that phrase: "Never let the velocity of life outpace your curiosity for what God is doing." Jonah's completely unaware of what God's doing. He's asleep. He's so concerned with running as fast as he can away from God. We do exactly that. I can't tell you how many times I tell people, "I'd love to hang out. I'd love to go do this amazing redemptive thing that God's doing, but I'm so busy. I'm so busy with the things that I think are important, with the values that I have for my life. I'm really too busy to be about the redemptive things that God's doing, to slow down and to be aware of that." Guilty.

So that's the joke about Jonah and the storm. It's funny until you realize it's about you. That's not funny.

The Sailors and the Prophet

But did you hear the one about Jonah and the soft-hearted sailors? This one's funny. It's fine. It's going to be safe. Trust me. Here's the joke: Notice the sailors and how they behave, and contrast that with Jonah, the prophet of God.

The sailors have soft hearts. They change through the course of the story. Do you notice that? They're the ones who recognize their need for God and repent almost right away. They're like, "I'll call on anybody, right?" They're the only ones who pray in this passage. They're the ones who rebuke those who are doing wrong. You notice that? They rebuke Jonah. "What are you thinking?" Normally, that's prophets, right? In the Old Testament, it's the prophets who are going around calling other people to repentance. Nope, it's the sailors.

Sailors, by the way, are not known as really righteous people, are they? And yet they're the ones who discern God's will. They cast lots and figure out what the problem is. Normally, it's the prophet who's proclaiming that to other people, right? Nope. Not in this story. It's the sailors. They're the ones who submit to God's will and who are obedient to his plan.

Jonah is the one who wants to—they cast lots. They're like, "Hey, you want to stop the storm? You gotta throw me overboard." They're like, "That makes no sense. We're going to try and row ashore." They're the ones with an incredible respect for life, right? Not Jonah. He wants the Ninevites to perish. He has no concern about the danger he's putting the sailors in.

So they're trying, but God says to them through Jonah, "Throw Jonah in." It makes no sense, and yet ultimately they're obedient to it. And even in doing that, they fear God in a way that Jonah only talks about. They're immediately praying, "Lord, you've done as you will. I hope this is right, right?" Do you see? They're the ones acting like prophets. And I would submit to you, they're the only ones that perform a miracle in this story.

Normally, it's the prophets who perform miracles by their—okay, listen. Ultimately, all miracles come from God, right? Okay? But usually God has prophets do things that enact those miracles.

In this story, who enacts the miracles? The sailors. Jonah's like, "Hey, if I get tossed into the sea, it'll stop the storm, but I'm not doing it." They do it. And then notice, they offer sacrifices at the end of the story and they dedicate their lives to God. They make vows. Now, I'd submit to you that the sacrifice didn't happen on the ship. I think they got on land somewhere, went to a temple, made a sacrifice, and then said, "Lord, we're yours." Right?

So they did exactly what prophets are supposed to do. And I'd submit to you, if Jonah had done all of these things, we'd be at the end of the story because God would have gotten everything he wanted out of him. But that's not what happens. That's not what Jonah does.

Jonah reveals information pretty much only when he's asked. Even what he says reveals his deep hypocrisy. The things he says are the exact opposite of what he does. He takes no action whatsoever other than trying to get away from God. No action. And he won't even throw himself in, even though he says that's what he wants.

And this is also about Israel, right? That's the joke. Israel's supposed to be laughing at Jonah, the silly prophet who does nothing while the sailors act like a prophet. Until they realize, "Hey, we're supposed to be the nation that reveals truth, that models repentance, that models the true worship of God through sacrifice and repentance and commitment to him." But we're not. Isn't it so funny? Because it's really just about Israel. It's not at all about us, because you know, are you waiting on the world to ask you about the salvation you've received? Certainly not. I'm sure you're running around telling everybody about it. You're not waiting on others to initiate with you. You're initiating, right? Like the prophets, like the sailors in the story.

Your high velocity running isn't bringing storms on other people, is it? All this running away from God to other things—whatever it is—that's not causing problems for you and those around you. Definitely not. And I'm sure your life is full of redemptive actions just like mine. Sarcasm, right? You see, it's funny till you realize it's about you.

Jonah Misses God's Work

Here's something that's extra funny. Jonah, at least in the story, misses the beauty of what God does in the lives of the sailors. Do you see that? He's so committed to not going to Nineveh that he misses the fact that even through his foolishness, even through bringing on the terror of a storm, even through his sin, God is at work. Even with all of the mess that's going on with him, God redeems all of these sailors around him.

God isn't limited by his people. He even uses Jonah to bring these sailors to Christ. But at the end of the story, who's worshiping? It's not Jonah celebrating that. It's the sailors. They see what God's done, but he doesn't.

Israel was missing the redemptive work of God all around them, even in the midst of their sin. They weren't celebrating that. They weren't returning to God because of that. They were content and committed to their inaction and their running away from God. And I would submit to you to consider that maybe so are we.

The Dark Joke of Jonah's Sacrifice

So that's a good joke. Got one more. Did you hear the one about Jonah and the sacrifice? Here's a good joke. Let me clear up some misconceptions. This is my opinion. Scholars are kind of split on what Jonah's doing when he says, "Hey, throw me into the sea." Some people would say he's actually coming to his senses and recognizing how his selfish behavior is impacting the sailors and he's finally doing something good. I don't think that's it at all. That would be way out of character for him at this point in the story, in my opinion.

I think if he wanted to calm the storm and save the sailors, all he had to say is, "Listen, guys. Let's go to Nineveh." If he turns around and goes to Nineveh, the storm ends. That's the problem.

What he's doing is taking a stand that is really strong and really horrible. And I want you to see it. This is a very dark joke, okay? It's very dark. You're supposed to see how dark it is.

Jonah hates the Ninevites so badly that he would rather die than go and preach hope to them, to call them to repentance, to see them turn. Do you see? He's like, "Look, there's no reason you sailors should have to be at risk. I'll just die and that'll get me what I want and keep you guys safe." That's his sacrifice. Jonah's offering himself as a sacrifice in order to enact judgment on the Ninevites. It's not a very good kind of sacrifice. It's a horrible picture of hate.

So why does Jonah hate the Assyrians so badly? Let's review, right?

The Assyrians are the people, the Ninevites. They're the ones that actually carry off the top ten tribes of Israel and those tribes of Israel are lost. The Assyrians were horrible people. They killed lots and lots of people. They were responsible for kind of reinhabiting the land that the ten tribes occupied—the land of Samaria. So what happened was the Ninevites and what remained of the people of God there intermarried, and that produced a new group of people called the Samaritans.

If you've read the Gospels, you know how the Jews felt about the Samaritans. The reason they hated the Samaritans was because they were half Assyrian, essentially. Imagine how they felt about the whole, full-blooded Assyrians. Those are the people in Nineveh. They hated them. They were terrible because they had attacked God's people.

So they were terrible, but here's what I would submit to you: by asking to be tossed into the sea, Jonah's really doing two things. He's attempting to ensure the destruction of the Ninevites, and he's trying to weaponize God against Israel's enemies. Which is really a cruel thing to do. Imagine weaponizing the wrath of God against your enemies. That's pretty harsh.

And he's running away from God. The Ninevites were seen as really far from God. They were pagans, right? But Jonah's running away from God. And he's the one acting like a pagan in this story. In short, here's the joke: Jonah is the Ninevites. He's the one who's horrible and running away from God and far from God. It's kind of dark, but it's funny that he doesn't see it.

So he's the subject of this joke, right? Israel's supposed to see themselves in that, and guess what? So are you.

I'm not going to do the sarcasm thing with this one because it's just too tender. But here's the thing: if you're thinking throughout this, "I'm not like Jonah. I'm not like him. He's them. I'm us," then you fall into the trap of the joke. And you are Jonah. You are the Ninevites.

So in this section, Jonah's horrible sin is laid bare. His prideful belief that he is more of a gatekeeper of salvation than God himself is revealed. You should really hate Jonah at this point in the story. The Israelites are also a target. They're as bad, if not worse, than the Assyrians. And so are we. And the minute you decide that you're not Jonah, you are.

The Punchline

So that's the end. Except I have good news. There's one more joke I didn't tell you about. It's a surprise. It's the punchline. That's how jokes work—they're surprising. There's a twist at the end.

Jonah's thrown into the sea and he's swallowed by a fish. That should be the end, right? He deserves that. Do you see? He's as bad as the Assyrians. He's saying they deserve God's wrath. He should get God's wrath. That's the trajectory of this story. That's the way it feels like it should end. Like, yeah, they threw him in the water and a fish ate him. The end. Don't be like Jonah.

But guess what? You are like Jonah.

And the fish, instead of being a designed object of God's wrath, is actually an object of his grace. A fish. This is funny, right? This is funny. God is able to get a fish to do redemptive, salvific work—to essentially call his prophet to repentance—easier than he is able to get his prophet to do that. Do you see? God doesn't need us. He doesn't need Jonah. He didn't need Israel. He's got fish.

It's not the first time God's used an animal to kind of correct someone's path. There's the whole story with Balaam and the donkey. God sometimes uses animals to straighten us out, and he can use anything.

Here's what's funny: Jonah thinks he can run from God, and he thinks he can run from God by dying. But God says, "Guess what? There's no place you can go where you can run from me. You think you can throw yourself in the sea and die? I got a fish. You go by land, I got donkeys. I got everything I need. You ain't getting away from me."

Jonah's so sure he's in control of salvation more than God. Whoops. Sorry about that, Jonah. You think you're in charge? No. I am. I, the Lord God, who made the dry land and the seas—I got it all covered.

Jonah's so sure that Nineveh deserves death, and he's shown himself to be just as bad. But God says, "I value life. I value my image. That means I value Nineveh, and guess what, Jonah? I also value you."

So here's the deal: Jonah was called to be a tool—a useful tool, a prophet for God to call the Ninevites to repentance. He chose to be a fool rather than a tool. But God chose to use him as a tool anyway.

I believe that this is a real story. Jonah appears in other books of the Bible, in Kings. He's listed as a prophet. Kings is a very historically organized book. It seems unlikely he would appear there if he wasn't a real person. And I think he wrote this story.

And he wrote this story because he decided, "Hey, I'm done being a fool. I want my foolishness to be used as a tool to call other fools to give up their foolishness and to run to the God that loves them instead of from him and allow themselves to be used for his glory."

That's the point of Jonah and that's the joke. It's hilarious. It's incredible how God uses humor to call us to repentance and to faith in him. I think it's one of the most amazing books of the Bible.

Prayer and Application

My prayer this morning is that if you heard this sermon and you're not a Christian, you would see the foolishness of running in your own direction, running away from God. You'd be like the sailors. And if you are a Christian and you're here, you would see the foolishness of running from God, of running to whatever it is priority-wise that you think is more important than the things he's called you to.

And you would find a renewed hope in his ability to use you for the grand mission of redemption that he's called us to. I want you to compare that to all of the concerns that make you so busy. What could God do? He can use a fish to grab and redeem, at least to some degree, a stubborn prophet. What can he do through you? He can do amazing things.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we thank you that you use humor and satire to call us to repentance. But Lord, we give you thanks that the joke isn't on us. The joke is for us. Lord, help us to see the foolishness of our ways, the way in which we are like Jonah. And Lord, help us to see the beauty of who you are and, in contrast, the amazing reality of your love versus our tendency towards hate and spite and foolishness.

Lord, would you work in our hearts? Would you transform us like you transform the sailors? And would you allow us to worship you with the joy of knowing that we who are fools are not responsible for our faith? Instead, the wise God who is in control of the land and the sea, which he made—the God of heaven—is the one who saves us. Lord, orient our hearts towards you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.