Certainties transformed: Jonah and Acts 10:9-35

Ecumenical Review, The, July, 2004 by Simon Oxley

Even in an unsure world, most of us have our certainties. We might want to describe some people's certainties as prejudices, but we usually see our own in a positive light. Not all certainties are propositions, but they may be expressed in attitudes and behaviour. It could be argued that these are a better guide to what we are actually certain about than our words. The cost and size of cars in church (and ecumenical organizations') car parks in North America and Western Europe may say more, for example, about our real certainties than our statements about the poor or the environment.

For the purposes of this Bible study, let me tell you of one of my certainties. It is that the church as the locally gathered community of believers does not have just the opportunity or even the responsibility but the duty of discerning the mind of Christ in their understanding and practice of faith. How they do that and what resources they use is a matter for another kind of discussion. Let us take my Baptist certainty, as rather simply stated, as my example. Now take one of your own certainties--not for examining, just for stating to yourself. If you have any experience of cooking by using a recipe from a cookery book, you will know that sometimes you have to do some preparation and then lay it on one side until later. That is what we will do with our own examples of certainties.

In Jonah 4 and Acts 10:9-35, we have two very powerful stories. One of the positive aspects of the range of critical tools we now have for engaging with the Bible is that not all of them are knives for dissecting the text. We can approach stories holistically as stories and ask, "What is going on here?" At first sight, it may seem absolutely clear what these stories are about. However, there is something else equally important that we can discover from them.

Jonah is such a good story that we have put it into attractive picture books and presumed it is just for children. This can lead adults to think that this story is not serious enough for them. If we take this attitude to Jonah, it is a major loss to us.

To remind ourselves of the outline of the story: Jonah was called to preach judgment against the wicked people of Nineveh. He responded by fleeing as far from the Lord as possible. The ship in which he had taken passage was overtaken by a storm, so sailors threw Jonah overboard to placate his god. Jonah was saved by a big fish sent by the Lord. Jonah prayed for deliverance and the fish coughed him up on shore. Jonah went to Nineveh, preached, and the people repented. God also repented and did not destroy them. Jonah became angry and frustrated. He had presumed that his preaching was not to produce repentance but to give the Lord a good excuse to destroy them when they rejected the message. Then the Lord went and forgave them--unacceptable to Jonah. He received an object lesson from the fate of the plant under which he was sheltering.

God's mind is changed

The NRSV describes God as having a change of mind about destroying the people of Nineveh because they "turned from their evil ways" (Jonah 3:10). Another place where God is characterized as having a change of mind is after the making of the golden calf in the exodus story (Ex. 32:14). The people did not suffer a disaster, as God was minded, because Moses reminded God whose people they were. This underlines the significance of God's acceptance of the people of Nineveh.

The second story is so significant that Luke includes it twice--once "as it happens" in Joppa (Acts 10:9-16) and again as Peter recounted it in Jerusalem (Acts 11:4-10). Peter may not have travelled as far as Paul, but he was active in his own mission to the Jewish believers. Peter was visiting Joppa when he had a vision of being told to kill and eat the various "unclean" animals lowered in front of him. On resisting, he was told, "What God has made clean, you must not call profane" (Acts 10:15). Meanwhile, a God-fearing Roman centurion in Caesarea had had a vision suggesting he send for Peter. The emissaries arrived as Peter was puzzling over the meaning of the vision. Peter went to Cornelius and recognized that "God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him" Acts 10:34-35). This was confirmed by reception of the Holy Spirit by Peter's hearers and their baptism. Peter had to face the criticism of those in Jerusalem who believed that it was necessary for all believers in Jesus first to enter the Jewish faith and keep within its ways. In retelling the story, all were convinced: "Then God has given even to the gentiles the repentance that leads to life" (Acts 11:18).

All these years on, it is clear what these stories mean. After all, Jonah and Peter each grudgingly or joyfully accepted the universality of God's love and of the potential for new life for anyone. We ourselves are inheritors of this understanding because by both Jonah's and Peter's original understanding we would have been unacceptable to God, whatever we might believe or do.