Facing Nineveh
For sixteen years, I had the pleasure of working in my alma mater, an independent school serving students three years old through twelfth grade. One of the school’s core values was and continues to be Honor. Each of the school’s divisions, Primary, Lower, Middle, and Upper, had its own version of an honor code which was adopted and agreed upon by the students to foster an environment where all community members learn to value honesty and respect themselves and others.
As part of the Upper School (Grades 9-12) program, students had the opportunity to serve on the Honor Council, a body of students charged with reviewing specific cases in which the Honor Code may have been violated and making recommendations for punishments to the administration. On a few occasions, as an administrator, I was asked to serve as an advocate for students who had breached the honor code. One thing that fascinated me was the tendency of the Honor Council to render punishments that far exceeded any recommendation that the administration would have made against a student. Simply stated, students were consistently harder on each other than the administration, especially for the more serious infractions such as plagiarism or theft.
In fact, in several cases where the administration tempered the ruling from the Honor Council, the members would express their frustration with the administration demanding more severe consequences. They often failed to realize that we, as an administration, sought to balance consequences with lifelong lessons. With the exception of the most severe infractions, our hope was for growth and, ultimately, to provide the student with a path toward redemption.
You might be familiar with the famous Old Testament account of the prophet Jonah. As a refresher, here is my CliffsNotes-style summary of the major parts of the story.
Jonah receives a word from the Lord telling him to go to Nineveh, a city renowned for its evil, and call for them to repent.
“Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2” Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” Jonah 1:1
However, Jonah, unwilling to follow God’s command, defiantly chooses to flee to Tarshish in a boat to escape the Lord's presence, placing himself and everyone in the boat in grave danger. It is a decision that would ultimately bring forth God’s anger on the entire boat and result in Jonah being tossed into the raging sea and ultimately into the belly of a whale.
“But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a might tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.” Jonah 1:4
“So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.” Jonah 1:15
For three days and three nights, Jonah is trapped in the belly of a whale until he finally calls out to the Lord. Jonah 2:1-10, and the Lord responds by commanding the whale to vomit Jonah out onto dry land.
Once again, the Lord commands Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach; this time, Jonah obeys and leads one of the greatest revivals in Bible history.
“And the people of Ninevah believe God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.” Jonah 3:5
However, instead of praising the Lord for the revival that took place in Ninevah, Jonah, devoid of compassion, grumbles to the Lord. Ironically, the Lord had just shown compassion to Jonah despite his own defiance by rescuing him from the belly of the whale. Nonetheless, Jonah cries out to the Lord, wishing for death.
4. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2. And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee t Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. 3. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. 4. And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?” Jonah 4:1-4
As easy as it is to sit and judge Jonah’s defiant reaction to God’s request and his lack of compassion for the lost, when I allow the Holy Spirit to truly search my heart, I am convicted by the reality that I have far more in common with Jonah than I would like to admit. There are times when I find myself praying for God’s judgment to reign down on the wicked. You see, it is easy to demand justice while forgetting that God is both just and merciful.
The Apostle Paul reminds us in Romans 3:23, “all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God.” Yes, that includes me! And when I am on my righteous high horse, the Holy Spirit delivers a left hook reality check with Romans 5:8, stating, “ but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”
So I ask you, Who or what is your Nineveh?
As we begin the Holy Week, let us reflect on 1 Peter 2:24:
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.,”
Let us remember that God’s endless love for us and His mercy drove His son Jesus willingly to the cross to bear our sins, and because of His sacrifice, we are redeemed.
Prayer
It is with a spirit of eternal gratitude, having passed from death to life by the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ that was shed on the cross, that I pray for the Lord to fill our hearts with compassion so that we may answer His call to share the Good News of His death and resurrection wherever He calls us even if that calling leads us to our own Ninevah.
Amen,
Brad
