A Whale of a Tale

By Eloise Reah - 4 October 2024

Jonah and the whale (or big fish) is such a well-known story, children love it for many reasons. It’s a great story to tell, one of those satisfying narratives where people get what we feel they deserve; Jonah gets his punishment for disobeying God and not wanting to see people saved, the people of Ninevah get their chance to repent, which they do (at least temporarily). Along the way is the truly crazy episode of Jonah being swallowed by a whale and imagining being in that fishy interior and subsequently being vomited out is gruesome enough for most children to enjoy.

Revisiting the story as adults we stroke our metaphorical beards and think “well, I suppose in some ways this is a story about racism. Jonah thought the people were unworthy of God’s love, that it should be the preserve of people like him.” And of course, that’s right. But the problem with this is that it gives people like me the chance to distance ourselves from the story. I don’t think I am racist, therefore this account in the bible is not really for me, it’s for other people. 

The sad truth is though, that however nice and unprejudiced that I think I am, there are certain people that unleash the Jonah in me. Maybe this doesn’t happen to you, but every now and then I catch myself thinking or feeling something, and when I listen carefully I hear the unpleasant attitude behind it. Sometimes it relates to our own personal skills or values. If you are a very organized and efficient person, maybe you have no time for people who are scatty and chaotic. If you are someone with a high capacity for hard work, maybe you have no patience with people who are unemployed. Maybe you consider yourself the “salt of the earth” and dislike anything pretentious. Maybe you are adventurous and spontaneous and can’t bear being with people who like routine and plans. Every now and then I notice myself feeling dismissive of someone, I feel like I can’t be bothered with them. If you can catch yourself feeling like this, it is worth grabbing the thought and following the thread of it to see where it leads.

For me, I find myself discounting people who come across as show-offs, people who like to talk loudly and maybe with a touch of arrogance. If I follow this thread back it takes me to my own values, values that I have learned from my family and the people I choose to befriend. If pressed I would say that I see more value in people who work quietly not looking for praise and glory, that I’m not impressed by worldly wealth. Sounds good doesn’t it? Sounds consistent with biblical teaching about work and service. But really what I’m doing is judging other people. I’m considering myself and my friends as better than them. My judgement gives me permission to hold this person at a distance and not care about them, because they’re not worth my time or care. That’s my inner Jonah, hardening my heart and deciding who is worth caring for and praying for. Rather than distancing myself, I should be asking God to help me see this person as he does, to love them, to share God’s love with them.

Sometimes my prejudices are aroused because they cause conflict with things that I can do, my skills. I’m not perfect by any means, but generally if I say I’ll turn up to help with something, then I’ll be there. I’ll put the event in my diary, set a reminder on my ‘phone, and most of the time, this is enough to ensure I keep my commitment. When someone habitually fails to turn up to something, or forgets their promise to help, I find my inner Jonah rises again. Catching the thread of the thought goes something like this “that’s so typical of them! Why do they always let people down?” While it might be reasonable to be frustrated at being let down, that attitude of writing people off, and judging them as inferior to myself is not a Godly response.

What I’m really saying to both the flashy show-offs, and the no-shows, is “why can’t you be more like me!” Jonah did not want to see the people of Ninevah saved because fundamentally the people were not like him. What a massive show of pride this is. Pride in my values, my skills, my identity, to think that others would be better if they were like me. It’s a very subtle, sneaky way of displacing God, and putting ourselves in His place.

Naturally we choose to be friends with, to spend our time with people, who are like us. There’s nothing wrong with that, being with people who have a similar sense of humour, taste in food, and enjoy the same sorts of activities brings great joy into my life. The issue comes when we only spend time with people like us. Being in an echo chamber reinforces our view that our thoughts, feelings and values must be the right ones. Being with people who are not like us is uncomfortable. It forces us to exercise patience, self-control, kindness, all those things that don’t come naturally, but supernaturally. Drawing close to people we naturally feel impatient with is an active choice, a discipline.

Jonah was not the only one in the bible to reject those who were not like him. Fast forward through the bible to the early church. How exciting to be at the start of the church. To see all those miracles, to see all those people being saved, it must have been amazing! And yet…reading through Paul’s letters reveals all kinds of interesting insights. As people were saved and added to the church they did not change overnight, but dragged much of their mess and baggage into the church with them. Rows over property ownership being settled in court, people getting drunk on the communion wine, affairs and immorality, this is baggage on a grand scale!

So those who had grown up as Jews, who were familiar with God the Father and had met and loved Jesus the son, and been baptized by the Holy Spirit, must have been very uncomfortable with all this mess and mayhem. Hundreds of new Christians, saved and loving Jesus, carrying their real life issues into this context, must have presented a real challenge. Is it any wonder then that there was a knee-jerk reaction to start telling all the new Christians that they must become circumcised, that they must start following the food laws that the Jews had followed for hundreds of years. In the face of the mess people’s answer was “they need to become more like us”. Paul was quick to challenge this, reminding them that actually “they need to be more like Jesus”. We are not the model for others to copy, we are not the standard or the template.

Matthew 7 v 3-5 Jesus says: “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

It is so easy to look at others and see what is wrong with them, to judge them and write them off. It is so much harder to see our own prejudice. It is so much harder to draw close to those we would condemn, but often the more we know and understand people, the softer our hearts are towards them. “Othering” people, attributing negative characteristics to those who are not “like us” is a device used by the enemy to sow tension and to separate and disempower the body of Christ.

God has used Jonah, and the example of the early church to warn us of this tendency. Ephesians 3 v 12-14 gives us an active alternative: “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

In his goodness to us, God equips us for the task of loving each other and pointing each other to Him. Whilst we must make the choice to do so, His Holy Spirit gives us the gifts we need to accomplish his will.