Whenever I read anything from Jonah, my mind goes back to my Confirmation days when we had to act out different Bible stories and my group was assigned the story of Jonah. We had about 5 minutes to act out the whole 4 chapters, including being eaten by the fish a.k.a a sleeping bag, and I was somehow cast as Jonah… I try not to take it personally. Because, for better or for worse, Jonah often reminds me of a toddler. God tells Jonah to do something, he doesn’t want to, is surprised when disobeying God doesn’t work out well for him, and then finally does what God asked in the first place but doesn’t like the response so he throws several more tantrums in today’s reading. Jonah is experiencing what many would classify as “life isn’t fair.” The events didn’t go as Jonah hoped, so now he’s going to complain about it. Apparently, wishing for death is better for him than watching God be merciful to these Ninevites. And, though this seems overly dramatic depending on how you read it, I’m sure we can think of some examples of how this looks in our world today.
Well, this connects surprisingly well with our Gospel story today in which Jesus tells the parable of the workers. Some who work all day, others for just part of the day, and they all are paid the same. When the first group of workers complains about how this isn’t fair, the owner reminds them that they agreed to their price and deemed it fair before they started their work at the beginning of the day; the owner was under no obligation to raise their pay because the other workers received the same wage. They like Jonah are upset by the situation not working out as they would hope.
Especially in our capitalistic society, we expect more pay for the more work that we do. And, we are often trained to seek the highest pay in our field. Yet, either way, the owner made sure that every worker was paid an equal wage, and isn’t that helpful for the workers who were deemed un-hireable throughout the rest of the day? And, shouldn’t this be a good thing? Everyone was given an opportunity to work, to support their families. Just because they got a late start because of other peoples’ choices, it doesn’t mean that they are totally out of luck. As we heard the other day in the debt Gospel, most people would have had debts to pay or wouldn’t have been able to provide for their families because of the low wages. We should want to celebrate with the workers who are being given equal pay. And, I think this story is sometimes difficult for us to hear because it reminds us of our own income inequality in our country, whether it be because of gender, age, race, etc.
It’s hard to know what to make of these two stories because we can see both sides of the stories because we likely have been on both sides. There is a part of us that remembers the times when life felt unfair to us too, and that makes this more difficult. Because as much as we want to care about the well-being of other humans, it is still in our survival instinct to provide for and support ourselves first, right? But, what is really happening here is an expansion of God’s kindom, which as I’ve mentioned before is uncomfortable to the people who were already a part of the kindom. So often, it feels like this expansion to include others means that we will be less special or important, but God doesn’t say that. Instead, Jonah’s reading reminds us that God cares about all that God has created, even when that is uncomfortable for us. If Jonah can care about the bush, then doesn’t it make sense that God cares for the people of Nineveh?
It’s a question about identity and value, of seeing people as valuable and loved in the eyes of God, even when our human systems see them as unvaluable or at least less valuable than others around them. Today’s readings are about the evil Ninevites and the people without jobs. I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard for us to think of people that would fit those categories in our world today too. Because our identities in our world are almost always defined by our value, whether that is the value we add to our families, to our society through jobs and volunteer work, to the economy as shoppers. But, today’s readings serve as a reminder that God calls us beloved and important to God, despite how others have determined our value in the world. God is turning the systems on their heads to say that the people who society deems the most valuable and important are not better off in the eyes of God. Instead, God is looking out for the people that have been cast aside and dismissed. Perhaps we can see how this would be good news to the workers who had been waiting all day to be hired, or to the Ninevites who turned from their evil ways. And, we can also hear how this may not feel like good news to those chosen first or to Jonah and the Israelites.
“Many who are first will be last and the last will be first” (Matthew 19: 30). We don’t know what to do with this information because this is not how we were raised, or at least not how I was raised. We are raised to see the first as the most valuable, whether that is the person who gets a gold medal at the Olympics or the person who is picked first for the games at recess, this sense of competition with others around us is engrained into us. For me as a kid, I always wanted to be first. I’d race to the bus stop in the morning and jockey my way to the front, I would always be the first to hand in my papers at school, much to the dismay of my teachers who keep scolding me to slow down. I’ve told you before that I’m a competitive person, so this idea of the last being first and the first being last is hard to wrestle with in our brains. Although this is good news for the new kickball team that I joined because we’re currently last in our league; unlike Emily’s team, which is one of the top teams!
Yet, this changing of the social structure in God’s eyes ultimately shows the goodness and mercy of God, who cares about the well-being of all creation. This isn’t meant to be an insult to us or to the Israelites who felt like God should be for them and for them alone. This is meant to embrace the wholeness of creation more fully. To draw us together in love and service to one another. To hear that all of us are beloved, even when that is hard to believe because we don’t often have those feelings ourselves. It is God’s way of reminding us that God’s ways are not our ways, that God’s love and mercy are in fact a lot broader than we would like it to be. So, we are essentially left with two options today. The first is to be like Jonah and the first workers, throwing a tantrum because life isn’t fair, or we can rejoice with God and our siblings that God is merciful and faithful; that God cares for the greatest and the least. And, that there is enough of God’s love to go around for everyone! Also, to my colleagues on internship that said to preach on Jonah instead of the Gospels because the Gospel is too political lately and Jonah is easier, I’m still wondering if we’re reading the same book of Jonah!