Jonah: A Comedy (2015)

Tucked away in the middle of the often bleak and sometimes scathing Minor Prophets we find a comedy: The book of Jonah. This reluctant prophet turns out to be the most successful evangelist in the Old Testament. But how it happened is funny. When God calls Jonah to travel five hundred miles East and preach to Israel’s despised enemies the Ninevites, Jonah buys a ticket on a ship sailing two thousand miles West! In his flight from God, Jonah accidentally converts a ship full of heathen sailors, is swallowed by a whale, and is finally spit out on the shores of Nineveh. After Jonah’s bleak doomsday sermon everyone in the great city of Nineveh repents. Even the animals repent and don garments of mourning. Imagine cats and dogs, cows and pigs wearing burlap to show sorrow for their sin. Yes, this is a comedy. What we find in the dramatic comedy of Jonah is an Old Testament theology of mercy — a theology that will eventually find full expression in the life and teaching of Jesus.