Jonah did what God sent him to do. But he wasn't happy about it. Because God is more forgiving than Jonah, and Jonah, knowing that about God, didn't really want to be a part of how God worked it out.
That's something we can relate to, if we're honest about it. Think about the person you find most difficult in your life--the person you dislike the most. It could be someone who hurt you badly in a relationship, or betrayed you; someone you just can't forgive. If that person were to get a "comeuppance"--if somehow something bad happened, it would seem like it would only be what that person deserved after what that person did to you, wouldn't it? And that person's misery would make you happy (the German term is "schadenfreude"), wouldn't it? We don't like admitting these kinds of things, but I suspect most of us have felt pretty much these feelings about someone--or more than one someone.
But God wants us to forgive--because God will forgive. And that doesn't sit well with us. Why should we forgive? And why should we wish good things for this person? And why should GOD forgive, and why should GOD desire good things for this person? In our experience--and our opinion--this person clearly doesn't deserve forgiveness, or good things to happen,
But this is how God works. And that is what God does to this wicked city of Nineveh, and it really ticks Jonah off. Jonah didn't want Nineveh to get a second chance--Jonah wanted Nineveh to be overthrown. No matter how much repenting the Ninevites did, it wasn't doing to change Jonah's mind. But it changed God's mind, and Jonah is upset about it--passionately upset. "He prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. 3And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." (Jonah 4:2-3) Jonah would rather be dead than be a party to God's extravagant forgiveness--"if this is how it's going to be, God, kill me now." But that is how God works, and Jonah knows it.
This is a great passage for World Communion Sunday, because God invites everyone to the table. People we find unforgivable are welcome at the table, sharing in the Sacrament of God's forgiveness. God's forgiveness and welcome are universal, offered even to those who don't know they need to be forgiven. You know, maybe that's us too, sometimes?
OLD TESTAMENT Jonah 3:10-4:11
10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.
1 But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. 3 And 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, ‘Is it right for you to be angry?’ 5 Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city.
6 The Lord God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush. 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, ‘It is better for me to die than to live.’
9 But God said to Jonah, ‘Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?’ And he said, ‘Yes, angry enough to die.’ 10 Then the Lord said, ‘You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?’