The Third Sunday After the Epiphany
January 21, 2024
Pastor Tim Weiser
Text: Jonah 3:1–5, 10
Sermon Theme: What is your Nineveh?
Goal: That you will be assured that no matter where you go and no matter the circumstances, the Lord will act for you and through you.
Basis for this sermon was obtained from Concordia Pulpit Resources by Rev. Daniel L. Gard. The outline of the story of Jonah shows us a very reluctant prophet. He did not choose to be called to that vocation. He was a weak and sinful man, very much like the rest of us, and when his call came, he wanted desperately to avoid it.
So, let me ask you: In your vocation, are there things you need to do because Scripture tells you? I ask myself, and now also you: Have you avoided that Christian duty? This is the Epiphany season, and it’s all about the Light that is Christ shining on us and on every place like Nineveh. Let’s consider this:
WHAT IS YOUR NINEVEH?
Nineveh is a frightening place to go. Assyria’s kings gained and held the throne by threats, destruction, and oppression. Preaching in this corrupt and evil capital of international terrorism, as Jonah knew, would not exactly be a vacation.
Yet it is into this corrupt culture that Jonah was to go and proclaim the destruction of the city. The message Jonah had to proclaim would not be a popular one: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (v 4). His life was in true peril, and he could no longer run away. Yet our Lord will work his purpose even in Nineveh.
Jonah preached the Lord’s message, not his own. The people of Nineveh “believed God” and “called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least” (v 5). The fasting and sackcloth would be futile and meaningless without repentance.
Our Lord is merciful and does not desire the death of a sinner. We humans can easily write off those who seem to us the epitome of evil humanity. Surely there can be no salvation for people such as these! So, in our own self-righteousness, we turn away from those we consider to be unredeemable.
But God does not! The miracle of divine grace is more powerful than the worst of human sin. “When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do” (v 10).
Jonah was a prophet, but he was a very faulty human being too. He had been given a second chance to go to Nineveh after he ran from the first call. He himself had been forgiven and restored. The Lord would work through his preaching to bring Nineveh to repentance. But when he saw that the Lord had relented, he was exceedingly displeased (4:1). How quickly Jonah forgot the forgiveness the Lord had extended to him after he tried to run away to Tarshish!
So, the Lord asked, “Should not I pity Nineveh, that great city?” (4:11). The grace of our Lord is sufficient for all “Ninevehs.” Wherever human sin is strongest, the grace of God is stronger. Our world is filled with places that can be called modern Ninevehs.
The ancient Assyrians were truly a frightening empire, and Nineveh was the center of it. Yet that same desperate evil has permeated all of human history. From Cain who murdered his brother Abel to this moment, from Assyria to Rome to modern nations, human hate and violence have brought a divine sentence of wrath and condemnation on all. Make no mistake about it—though God is the world’s Creator, he is also our Judge. And that judgment is pure and perfect justice.
The Lord sent Jonah into the midst of ancient Nineveh to bring them to repentance. And he sends his people today into the darkest and most rebellious places. But everything would change that day when the Father would send his own Son into our world. He came and, from the moment of his miraculous conception, confounded every sin and evil of the ancient Assyrians and of every place and time, including our own.
He, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, would be the great and final prophet whose sacrifice and proclaimed Word would redeem our fallen and hurting world. This prophet, the Christ, would defeat sin, death, and hell by dying and rising. He continues to bind the power of Satan every time a sinful human being is baptized and every time the redeemed gather for his blessed Sacrament of Holy Communion.
The Lord’s mercy is yours. You see, God’s judgment is also perfect as to its mercy. What changed eternity for Assyria, for Jonah, for Israel, and for you came not through destruction but, instead, through the punishment for all sin, inflicted not on the sinner but once and for all upon the sinless Sacrificial Lamb.
No, wrath was directed not upon this broken human race but upon the Christ whose body was broken for us and whose blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sin.
Human sin must be met with divine justice. But the love of Jesus Christ compelled him to offer himself as the bearer of all of humanity’s sin. The center point of all history is found on that hill called Calvary and in the message that came from an empty tomb: “Christ is risen!” This is the heart of all things, the redemption of every empire and every race and every language of this created world.
There are places to which you and I might not want to go and times we would rather not speak the precious Gospel. No matter what your vocation might be, the Lord will lead you through a world with many places as rebellious and broken as that ancient city of Nineveh. But nothing can take you from God’s hand. He who created you and redeemed you in Jesus Christ has not only visited you but embraced you in the water of your Baptism and in the blessed meal of his Supper.
Children of God, never fear the world or satanic powers, no matter where your vocation might take you. All of sin, death, and hell have been bound by the incarnate Word of God. And it is he who is the Savior for all people, of every time and nation. He is yours, and your life is found in his resurrection, and nothing can take that away from you. Jesus lives, and you, too, shall live! Amen.
