I was sifting through some old documents from work; having retired just over four years ago, I figured it was time.
It's interesting what we choose to preserve. After a 40-year career with the same employer, I must admit that I spent a lot of time reviewing the papers and was more than fascinated by why I kept such a diverse collection of memorabilia.
One of the papers was an exam essay, and it was clear why I had saved it—the words "excellent critique, a well-deserved pass" were scribbled across the bottom….. it didn't happen very often!
I think most people like to think they deserve to reap the rewards of hard work, to get the things they feel they deserve. Still, sometimes, we can also become the recipients of rewards we don't deserve, rewards we have done nothing to deserve. While that is a blessing, it can sometimes cause discontent in other people… Jonah is a perfect example of this because he became angry when God showed grace to Nineveh.
If you don't know the story of Jonah, I suggest you read it over breakfast tomorrow; it's 48 verses in total; it's a quick read with a strong message about God's grace and a more vital message about a man's character.
We're going to pick the story up in the last chapter.
Jonah was miffed; Jonah is a bad-tempered, moody, bigoted bully of a prophet who is now angry at God because not only have the Ninevites repented, but it now appears God will not punish them. Jonah's hatred for these Assyrians is so intense that he even wishes for their destruction. He has just refused to answer God's question and has gone off to sulk. Jonah has built himself a booth to wait and watch, holding onto a faint hope that God will soon rain fire and brimstone down on Nineveh.
After everything that Jonah has been through (read the book), after everything that Jonah has seen God do for him, and all the grace God has shown him through his escapades, he should have learned better. Still, he hasn't, and he believes that what God has done in showing grace to the Ninevites is evil because Jonah so hates these Gentiles it has twisted his thinking.
"But this was a great evil to Jonah, and he became angry." Jonah 4:1 LSB
Jonah doesn't get it; God had poured grace on Jonah in saving him from the water, storm, and fish…God poured grace on Jonah, but Jonah didn't think God should pour grace on the Ninevites….Jonah just doesn't get it…..so he sits in his booth and waits, and here is where we see the hypocrisy of Jonah.
One of the feasts that the Jewish people celebrated was the Feasts of Booths, a feast thatGod commanded the Israelites to observe to commemorate God's grace to them during their time in the wilderness, to remember God's provision and protection on a people who didn't deserve anything. Deuteronomy 16:16
And here is the irony, the hypocrisy, of Jonah...Jonah builds a booth, the very type of booth often used to celebrate God's grace and then sits under it to hate the fact that God is showing grace!
At this moment, Jonah is against God; he's against man, and he's against the fact that God wants to save this city and show grace.
We have all met people like that, self-centred, selfish bullies, stubborn against God's purpose, twisted individuals who provoke everyone they meet, who hate everyone they meet, never a good word to say about anyone….and in our frustration, what do we sometimes say about people like that… "they'll get what they deserve" they'll get what they deserve. But what Jonah gets is grace…he gets grace….because Jonah is a prime target for grace because grace goes to the undeserving.
How does God's grace manifest in Jonah's life, what does grace do in his life, and how does grace show itself?
Verse 6 tells us it comes as a plant that God appointed or decreed…..It comes as a plant that provides Jonah what he needs…and what he needs is shade and protection from the sun.
6 Now the LORD God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant.
It seems not only was Jonah a mean-spirited person, but now we doubt his booth building skills as he is now in need of shade from the sun. Despite Jonah's unwavering stubbornness, God showed grace to Jonah because God decreed, it says he appointed, a plant to come up over Jonah's head to give him shade…even now in his anger, as he sits and waits for God to destroy the city, God shows him grace and protects him from the sun that was beating down on his head….Jonah is sitting in his stubbornness; he's not budged an inch, and God's grace causes shade over Jonah's head…over where it is needed….it is better than Jonah deserves.
When we get to the New Testament, we discover another man in a booth, but this time, it's a tax booth or a toll booth. Levi, or Matthew as he later becomes, was stationed at the intersection of the major routes of Capernaum to collect taxes on goods passing through; he was a type of customs inspector. Taxes were levied for utilising key roads and bridges, crossing territories, entering market towns, and using harbours.
Everything was taxed, even pack animals, cartwheels, and axles. However, these were not fixed-rate taxes; instead, they were flexible levies open to abuse, and the collectors often extorted whatever they could from people. In addition, there was a type of mafia in place, with a leader, let's call him a Don, who would have these collectors working for them, as well as thugs employed to "persuade" the people to pay up and, of course, the Don would expect his cut of the profits. However, there was always enough for the collectors, especially if they were inventive and persuasive, to make a tidy sum. It seems Matthew made enough to keep him in a house large enough to host guests.
He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. And as he passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, "Follow me." And he rose and followed him. Mark 2:13-14 ESV
Matthew was an extortionist, robber, and outcast; he was a greedy, abusive sinner. Tax collectors like him were excluded from the synagogue because they were deemed dirty. Not allowed to testify in a court of law, they were lumped together with murderers and robbers, but they were considered worse because they were traitors for selling themselves to Rome. People simply did not associate with them. They were considered the worst sinners.
We all know what happens to Matthew: Jesus walks by and calls Matthew, who obeys and follows Jesus. Matthew's need was known by Jesus, who is omniscient and knows the hearts of all men (John 2:25). Matthew was aware of Jesus' message and power, and God had already changed his heart, leading him to repentance….…so Jesus calls him…and Matthew comes…abandoning everything to be a disciple.
In the following verses, we see Jesus and his disciples reclining and eating at Matthews's house…a house bought and a lifestyle maintained with his ill-gotten gains. Jesus sits with the sinners and tax collectors, the dregs of society, the outcasts, the despised…thugs, prostitutes, drunkards, the people of the dirt…the people the Pharisees said could never get to heaven….but through Jesus they could…and they did.
And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?" And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." Mark 2:15-17 ESV
Jesus spent a great deal of time with sinners, with people the Pharisees deemed unworthy—the worst members of society, robbers, prostitutes, tax collectors, rogues—those who weren't worthy to be taught the scriptures or to even be allowed to enter the synagogue.
When Jesus heard the questions directed at his disciples about why he ate with these sinners, he responded, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."
Jesus wasn't saying, "It's okay guys, I know you're righteous, I know you are good men, I know you're deserving of heaven because you obey your laws, that you stay away from sinners, and you hate all sinners, so you have no need of my forgiveness to be saved… you're okay, you're already saved."
No, no, no, what he was saying was that he didn't come for them; he couldn't do anything for them; he had nothing to give them because as long as they persisted in believing that they were righteous, they would die in their sins with all the consequences that would ensue. Jesus was saying that he accepted what they said about themselves, that they were not sinners, that they were righteous, that they didn't need Jesus, and because of their diagnosis of self-righteousness, Jesus couldn't offer them anything….because Jesus came for sinners, for those who were sick in their sin and needed a heavenly doctor to heal them of their sin.
Paul wrote in Romans 5:6, "for while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly".
And then, in verse 8, he reiterates verse 6: "but God shows his love for us, that while we were still sinners Christ died for us."
A time will come when the Pharisees would stand before God's judgement, as will all of us; we shall all stand one of two ways, either like the Pharisees, in our unsuccessful attempts to establish our own righteousness, of which the bible tells us we have none. (Romans 3:10)"None is righteous, no, not one" Alternatively, we will stand in the righteousness of another, in the righteousness of a substitute (2 Corinthians 5:21), in the righteousness of Christ. "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
Jesus can save only sinners who know they are sinners, who repent and believe in Jesus, and who put their faith and trust for salvation in the person and works of Jesus.
This is how outrageous grace is; it's outrageous that grace was shown to the Ninevites, it's outrageous that it was shown to Jonah, it's outrageous that grace is for the undeserving, the sinner, grace is outrageous in that God gives salvation not to the people who earn it, or achieve it in some way, to those who are good enough or righteous enough, or holy enough, but God gives salvation to the unrighteous, the ungodly, the unholy…those who believe in Jesus and repent…and this is the outrageousness of grace.
Jesus came to save the sick, those who need a physician, who recognise the sickness of their sin and need healing.
If that's you today, don't leave this page still sick in your sins when the great physician can heal you because that is why Jesus came, that is the offer from Jesus today, that is God's outrageous grace, God's incredible, amazing grace. God gives us forgiveness, love, mercy, kindness, and compassion….we get all that Ephesians 2:7 says we get: the immeasurable riches of God's grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.
However, the most astonishing aspect of grace is not the fact that it is unmerited favour; it is not so much that we receive better than we deserve; instead, what is so amazing about grace is that we do not receive what we do deserve.
We don't get what we do deserve because Jesus received what we deserve; Jesus was the one who endured the undiluted wrath of God for us so that we will never have to… indeed that truly is amazing grace.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. John 3:36
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