Jonah and Jesus
Mark 16:1-8
April 21, 2019 anno Domini – Redeemer
Jonah said, “Throw me overboard and you will live.” Jonah lived around 800 years before Jesus of Nazareth was born. He was a reluctant prophet. The Lord told Jonah to go to Nineveh because the people there needed God’s Word. Jonah loved God’s Word, the Ninevites, not so much. Knowing his luck the Ninevites would believe God’s Word and end up in church with him. So he ran. He rebelled against the Lord. Nineveh was east so Jonah books passage west on the SS Escape.
Rebelling against God is dangerous to your health. You can read all about it in the Bible. Adam and Eve rebelled and then they blamed each other for their marriage problems and they died. God’s people tried to build a tower to heaven, rebelling against God’s command to fill the earth. God confused their languages and the nations have been arguing ever since and then they die. Jacob’s sons sold their brother into slavery and they all ended up slaves and then they died. If you don’t believe the Bible, look around. Stop by a nursing home, visit the hospital or drive by a cemetery before you head to your Easter buffet.
Jonah’s rebellion causes God’s wrath. The Lord sends a storm upon that little ship and the sailors are at a loss. They cast lots to determine whose fault it is and when the lot falls to Jonah they ask “What should we do?” He said, “Throw me overboard and you will live.” Reluctantly they threw Jonah overboard and God’s wrath died down.
You know the rest of the story – Jonah was swallowed by a big fish. Three days later, covered in fish slime, he was deposited back on shore. He preached to Nineveh and just as he feared they believed and the next Sabbath they were sitting right next to him at Synagogue.
So you might be wondering. Pastor, are we working you too hard? Have you written one too many sermons this week? Umm, it’s Easter. Jesus rose from the dead. Hopefully you’re halfway done with your sermon but you haven’t mentioned Jesus. Maybe you should take tomorrow off? Thank you, I will.
Jonah lived, got swallowed by a fish, and vomited out on a beach because of the resurrection of Jesus. The Holy Spirit didn’t put Jonah’s life in the Old Testament so children could have a fun Bible story. Jonah preaches Jesus.
“Throw me overboard so they can live.” In essence that is what Jesus said to His Father at His cross. The world is in rebellion against God and His wrath is evident all over the place. If you look in the mirror of God’s Law you’ll see your own rebellion. You fear, love, and trust in many things other than God. Today you’re keeping the Sabbath, but will you next week? Do you honor and respect the authorities God has place over you – mom, dad, governor, president, pastor? Are you content with the spouse God has given you or not given you? Are you satisfied that God has given your neighbor more than He gave you or do you scheme to redistribute their wealth? The rebellion isn’t out there in all those Ninevites. The old rebel lives right here – I’m a Jonah and so are you!
God’s wrath is seen in every death you encounter. There are little deaths in life – the loss of a job. Your children take your car keys and tell you no more driving. You leave your home for “senior living” which in reality is “senior dying.” There are big deaths – you lose an unborn child, a grown child, or the beautiful helpmeet God gave you for 60 years. God allows you to lose, to suffer many deaths, so that you finally look to Christ, just like those sailors, at wits end, looked to Jonah who said, “Throw me overboard.”
The women on the way to the tomb thought they lost and certainly believed God’s anger burned against them. They had followed Jesus for three years. They had cared for Him and his meager band of men but now He was dead. God had thrown Him overboard. They were on their way to the tomb to put a little perfume on death, because that’s the best we can do.
If they had remembered Jonah (or the three times Jesus foretold His resurrection) they should have known Jesus wouldn’t be there. Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and Jesus Himself told the crowds why. “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.”
The Son of God took on flesh to be thrown overboard so you could live. You rebel against God you die. Sin is the first cause of every death. The sailors knew that. Someone was guilty and brought this storm on their little ship. When you have trouble someone is guilty and the first cause is always you. You said it this morning, “I, a poor, miserable sinner.” Not my wife, not my parents, not getting the wrong kind of Captain Crunch in my toddler years, I. God should throw me overboard, but Jesus wouldn’t let Him. The Son said to the Father, “I’ll go. Throw me overboard.”
Christ Jesus died in your place. He became the target for God’s wrath. Jesus willingly went to death. It was as if He said, “Father, You are righteous. I know Your anger burn against what they have done – the perversion of Your gifts, their selfish gluttony, their abuse and neglect of their own children. But You love them, so burn against Me. I can take it.” Jesus alone could take it because He is both true God and true man. It wasn’t easy – He was after all a man. He sweated blood in the garden contemplating the cross. He died a horrible death by suffocation. But worst of all His Father threw Him overboard for you.
The last words Jesus spoke from the cross were, “It is finished.” He’s talking about God’s wrath and judgment. God’s anger is finished. The sea is calm. The ship is safe. Death has swallowed up Jesus, the final Jonah. But as I love to say death couldn’t stomach the Son of God’s sacrifice. How do we know? Because the angel preached it to the women, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid Him.”
That sermon ought to be enough for you to believe. The women looked. The angel was right. No Jesus in the tomb and to this day no one has found the body and there have been lots of people looking for it. However, we have far more than a sermon. Mark wrote down the women’s testimony for us in his Gospel. Eventually they did tell the disciples. But there’s more than a sermon. There’s the risen and real body of Jesus. Mary Magdalene saw Jesus and hugged Him. He preached an 8 mile long sermon to two disciples on the road to Emmaus and ate with them. He appeared to the 10 and then to the 11 and Thomas stuck his finger into the nail holes. One morning after slamming the crappies the disciples had shore lunch with Jesus. Later in Galilee Jesus appeared to over 500 people at once. We don’t just have a sermon from an angel (although that should suffice). We have a risen Jesus, a living flesh and blood Jesus who walks, talks, eats, drinks, and even let’s people hug Him and touch Him. The storm of God’s anger is stilled. You’re forgiven. Death isn’t the end. All of that is preached in the sermon from the tomb and the substance of Jesus, “He was crucified. He is risen. He is not here. See the place where they laid him.”
The earliest Christians had a favorite story they liked to preach at death. They put pictures and symbols of this story on their burial chambers and ossuaries (bone coffins). It wasn’t Jesus. He only appeared six times. Noah even beat Jesus. He had 8 appearances. The number one story that preached life in the midst of death and the resurrection of their dead bodies was Jonah. Jonah appears 108 times –resting in the ship, tossed into the sea, freshly resurrected from the belly of the fish. Jesus is the final Jonah. He was thrown overboard to still the storm of God’s anger. Your rebellion is forgiven and unlike Jonah God is delighted that you’re sitting with Him this morning. In the name of Jesus. Amen.