Jonah: Deliverance from Judgement on Others

Happy Father's Day, if you're a father, happy Father's Day, just like to say that as well.

We always like to say on a Sunday like this Father's Day can be complicated, just like Mother's Day can be complicated, because uh I what I know to be true about you is your dad was not perfect.

Like maybe you're gonna sit next to your dad and y'all have a talk about that later.

That might be good, but it is true.

And so some of us come from different pasts, different backgrounds, or maybe you lost your dad this year, and so there's a grieving element.

Now, a lot of people would just not come to church on a Sunday like Father's Day if that was uh something dominant in your heart.

So, congratulations if you showed up and uh Father's Day is difficult.

Others of us, Father's Day can be incredible, just just celebration.

You have a great dad, and that's that's wonderful.

So wherever you're at on that spectrum of how you feel this morning, uh happy Father's Day to you.

We're not gonna focus on Father's Day, although I'll speak to Fathers later in the sermon.

We're gonna look at this Jonah 4 passage.

So a few months ago, I was driving along this two-lane road, had a little bit of traffic, so it had enough traffic so that if you're driving one way and a car was coming towards you, you were going slow enough that you could see the other person in the car.

You could make eye contact and you had enough time there to kind of recognize each other if you knew each other.

And so I'm driving along and I'm sort of, you know, I'm looking over who's in those cars as they pass along, as we like to see who's driving what car, and like, oh, of course that's what they're driving.

And so I'm coming along, and then sure enough, in a car coming toward me, I see a person that I still hold a lot of bitterness and anger toward.

And I I did not want to make eye contact with this person.

Um, I certainly didn't want to wave, I had I had another hand signal uh prepared.

So I just tucked my head down toward the radio until we passed.

And you don't need the backstory on it, because you have a person like this, somebody like this, that if you passed on the road, you would just duck your head.

Because they hurt you or they betrayed you or lied to you or hurt your family or hurt your friends or loved ones or something, and then they've never said sorry, and they've moved on.

And you wonder, how could that be?

How could that happen?

How could you do that?

And what what is clear for me, probably for you, is I certainly still want God's grace and mercy for me, like for all of my mistakes.

And I sort of don't want it for that person.

And this is where this Jonah story cuts us open.

Because here you got this prophet, this religious guy, called to go to this place full of people that he hates.

Because they've done horrible things to him and his people.

I mean, 2 Kings spells it out for us.

A lot of horrible torture, Game of Thrones type of torture is what happened.

Go to them.

Like, go to them?

What if they're, God, what if you're gracious to them?

I don't want you gracious to them.

I just want to hold all that grace and mercy for me.

And so Jonah didn't want God's mercy to come to them.

Jonah wanted just for him and his sins and his people.

But finally he relents.

We've been going through that story.

Finally, he relents, he gives in, he says, you know, can't run far enough away.

You know, so finally, okay, he goes and so he preaches in God's mercy.

God is merciful upon these people.

These people repent.

I mean, what an amazing thing.

Horrible people that tortured people.

They repented.

They said, that was all wrong.

We want to live differently.

God, we we we say you are you are our saving God, you are our authority.

What an amazing thing.

And just when you think this story would be like Jonah and the Nineveh's hugging and their one family finally, and they're gonna have food together and wine together.

Uh the story goes a different direction.

Let me reread verses 1 through 4.

But it displeased Jonah.

Jonah 4, 1 through 4.

It displeased Jonah exceedingly that this had happened.

He was angry, and he prayed to the Lord, said, Oh Lord, is not this what I said when I was in my country?

This is why I made haste to flee to Tarshis, for I knew that you're our gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster.

Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.

And the Lord said, Do you do well?

Do you do well to be angry?

Point number one is this we have the capability, we, humanity, you and me, we have the capability to be heartless right after we're obedient.

We have the capability to be heartless right after we're kind.

Two weeks ago, Sam and I and our families, we went to Blue Skies Camp, which is a camp for families with a child with cancer.

And so we went down there and we lead devotionals in the morning for all the volunteers, and we lead chapel services for every volunteers and the guest families, and so we we do that as well.

Christy and I will sit in group counseling sessions, we sit in a circle with these parents, parents who have a kid with cancer, and we sit in these small circles with these parents.

And at first we just ask questions.

At first, the questions are pretty objective.

When was your child diagnosed?

What is your child's diagnosis?

Where is your child treated?

What is the treatment for your child, right?

Very objective.

And slowly over the course of the sessions, the questions get a little deeper.

How do you feel about your child having cancer?

How do you feel right now?

How do you feel toward God?

Now, the parents slowly open up, and as they open up, they don't hide anything.

It's amazing.

It's probably what church confession should be like because they're not concerned about, they're broken.

They're at the end, right?

They don't have anything left to prove.

Their child's cancer.

They're just whatever they feel, they just let it out, let it rip.

And I get to sit there, and we sit there, Christian and I sit there and nod and reassure them that the feelings they have are legitimate.

They're real.

Speak them out.

Whatever word you need to put on it, doesn't matter what you're not gonna offend me with your words, whatever it is, speak it out.

God can handle it, right?

That's what the book of Psalms is.

People just speaking out their feelings, just writing them out.

God can handle it.

And you may not always be righteous, but God is righteous for you.

It's part of the healing process.

And most of the time, maybe 90% of the time, I am I am in the ministerial gracious zone.

I am eye contact, I am nodding, I am, you know, mmm, yes, mm-hmm, yes, you know, I'm I'm I am in it, I'm in it, I'm doing the Lord's work, I am empathetic.

And then every once in a while, somebody will say something and I'll think that is ridiculous.

So that's the first thought, right?

The first thought is you're ridiculous for thinking that.

And then the second thought comes, you know the second thought.

I would never do that.

I would never think that way, I would never react that way.

Isn't that interesting?

How close together kindness and judgment can be.

I mean, the diagnosis is just true about us.

We are created beautiful in God's image, but we are sinners.

The diagnosis, at first, it sounds kind of depressing, but it's actually quite relieving to go, oh, that's what I am.

That's why it's like this.

That's why at times I am unbelievably kind, and in the next moment I'm holding judgment upon a parent who has a child with cancer.

That's so ridiculous.

Now we begin to see a little theological problem with Jonah.

He has a problem with how he thinks about God and ultimately what's the most valuable in his life.

And this is point number two.

We can have a relationship with God while holding on to something we deem even more valuable than God.

We can have a relationship with God even while we're also holding on to something we deem even more valuable to God.

That's what verses two and three are about, right?

He says, Oh, this happened, and because this happened, I might as well die.

So if I don't have X happen in my life, I might as well die.

I might as well not even live.

If I don't have X.

And now all of a sudden we realize what we ultimately love.

We love X.

X is what we love.

And what Jonah wants is Jonah wants God to love him and his people, but not those people.

It's the sin of tribalism.

Today it's hidden in the word nationalism.

It's not patriotism.

Don't get me wrong.

Patriotism is to be for your country and for your people.

But when love of your country is in direct exploitation of other people, you've gone past patriotism.

You've gone into idolatry.

And that's what's going on here with Jonah.

He wants God's grace, God's love, God's favor for his people, even at the removal of love and care for another group of people.

That is racial nationalistic arrogance.

That's his sin that's going on here.

So Jonah preaches.

These people repent and it angers him.

So he leaves the city, he goes and he sits up outside the hill.

Now he doesn't have to do that, he could stay in the city.

These people repented.

He could stay there, he could be comfortable with them.

They don't want that.

With these people, because he's he still has all this in him, all this racial, nationalistic arrogance.

So God appoints a plant to grow up over Jonah.

He has shade, he's comfortable, he's so happy, he doesn't have to be with those people.

Plus, now he has comfort, he is so happy about this.

And then the next morning, God appoints a worm, the worm eats the plant, the plant goes away, and he's burning up.

That's where we read back in verses 8 through 10.

When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint.

And he asked that he might die.

Second time he asked this, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.

But God said to Jonah, Do you do well to be angry for the plant?

And he said, Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.

And the Lord said, You pity the plant.

Now that word pity could also be compassion.

You have compassion, heart, for the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in night and perished in the night.

So here are what we see over these verses.

Verses five and six, Jonah went and got appointed.

Verses six and seven, Jonah was glad and got appointed.

Verses eight and nine, Jonah said and God said.

Verses nine and ten, Jonah said and God said.

And what we see repeatedly through this is point number three, God is relentless, relentless in relationship toward you.

And if you go back through and look at all these God saids and God appointed, they are not all rainbows and lollipops.

God cares for you too much to not pursue you by all means.

Even if it's by means we don't understand.

Now Jonah's furious.

His idol of country has been taken from him.

Now his idol of comfort is taken from him.

He'd rather die.

And then that verses 10 and 11, God says, You had compassion for a plant.

Like that's what your heart was for.

Your heart was for a plant?

For your comfort?

And then God says, My compassion is for people.

All people, every tribe, every tongue.

And now we get to know this love in Christ, in the work of Christ.

And the good news for us is even though we fall short of our heart being for all people, all of our sin is put upon the cross.

And his righteousness is given to us.

So even in all of our shortcomings and failings and our just messed up thinking and doing all of that, we're still beloved in Jesus.

On the way back from Florida last week, on the way back from Blue Skies, we stopped at a new Chick-fil-A in Noonan.

This brand new one.

And we show up into the parking lot, we pull in, there's like you know, 17 drive-throughs, 75 people in the parking lot routing you, right?

I mean, it's unbelievable.

We go in and we get in line, we get to the counter.

The kid at the counter called, I'm not kidding, he called me sir eight times.

It was amazing.

I I ordered something else.

I went back through just to feel respected that highly.

There's a poster in there about how Chick Flace started, and you're going, oh man, they're like they're for family.

There's another poster about their cans.

You're like, oh, they love my kids.

There's another poster about just the employees there at that restaurant, like where they've graduated and they're going to different colleges.

You're like, oh, they're like they love their people and they're for education.

I go to use the restroom, right?

And you get in the restroom, and you know what happens when you get in the restroom.

You are serenaded by sweet, instrumental Christian praise music.

I wanted to stay in there.

It was so clean, it was amazing.

And we leave, people help us leave, help us throw our trash away.

We have a lot of trash, what time all of us eat.

And you leave there and you have been wooed.

You have been wooed by a song.

We care for you.

And we want you to be a part of our family.

Now I'm being a bit dramatic and hoping for some Chick-fil-a coupons, obviously.

But the point is, is we are being wooed by a constant, constant love and care by God.

I mean, look, think of the story.

Think how obnoxious Jonah is.

And we're a lot like Jonah.

God never walks out.

God appointed, God said, got appointed, God said, got appointed, God said.

Keeps questioning him.

Does it do you well to be angry?

Like you, does it do you well?

Does it do you well to be bitter?

Does it do you well to be racist?

Here's what I think this means.

Two things.

First, fathers, happy father's day, or background Father's Day.

If you know you're constantly being wooed and cared for by a perfect love that's big enough for all your mistakes and insecurity, perhaps you don't need your career to do that for you.

Perhaps you don't need your spouse to do that for you.

Maybe you don't even need your children to do that for you.

But now, all of a sudden, you become free in the love of Christ to be present with your children.

A non-anxious present love and care for your children.

Now, all of us.

Like, oh I mean, there's just so much judgment in him toward these people.

And we say, uh, we understand it, right?

Like we get the judgment.

These were horrible, these people have done horrible things, but still it's there.

He hasn't released it, he hasn't let go of it.

And because he holds judgment towards an enemy, he also holds judgment toward himself.

He wants to die.

His judgment toward them is not putting him in a good position.

Now, priest and author Henry Nowen, he writes, he breaks this down, he says, if we remain addicted to judgment on others, we will also forever be held captive by judgment within ourselves.

Because judgment towards somebody else is always rooted in self-righteousness and comparison.

As soon as you put judgment upon somebody else, you automatically are enslaved.

And you've created judgment within yourself.

That's why Jesus says in Matthew 7, 1, judge not that you be not judged, for with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.

Now that's powerful.

That's powerful because chances are use it in judgment upon someone.

Or you will.

Soon.

A person from your past.

From like, oh yeah, that long, long time ago.

Oh yeah, the thing I boxed up and I shoved way down.

Either that thing, or recently.

A difficult person.

And you can find profound freedom in your heart by releasing that judgment of what they do and don't deserve.

And in releasing that judgment, you're also releasing yourself of that comparison and self-righteousness.

And this would be a deliverance for us.

This would be a deliverance from judgment and pride by the work of the Spirit and the love of Christ.

So, my brothers and sisters, all your sins, all your sins have already been judged in Christ Jesus.

May you know and live in this radical love, forgiveness, grace, and mercy.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for your grace and mercy that is sufficient for us.

That while we're created beautiful in your image, we are sinners.

We hurt people and we have been hurt.

And as we are hurt, we love to hold bitterness, resentment, anger.

God, while you teach us about healthy boundaries, you also call us to release judgment, to let go of anger.

You ask this question to us this morning: do you do well to be angry?

God, we confess that we do not.

And yet for that person, and we know who it is, for that per for that person we hold anger.

And would you help us?

Would you help us in faith in Jesus, in the great work of Jesus, that we are forgiven of all of our sin?

Would you help us?

Have mercy on us that we might let go of judgment upon them, and that we might live in a newfound freedom in Christ.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.