Pastor Dan Eddy

Jonah 1:1-3

Sign of Jonah…Taking up Your Cross

2-17-10

Let us pray: Lord, grant Your Word success. Let it be Spirit-inspired, conveyed from my lips to these ears for repentant hearts, forgiven souls, and for strengthened faith in You. In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen.

The text for this Ash Wednesday meditation is from Jonah 1:1-3. Dear Christ Lutheran members and visitors in Jesus.

I. Introduction – Fleeing…or answering the call

Fire Battalion Chief Joseph Pfeiffer was working on a gas leak in downtown New York City with a few of his men. A low flying plane drew their attention away from the task at hand. Unfortunately, they were the first to see American Airlines Flight 11 hit Tower One of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. They rushed to the scene where he set up a command post in the lobby of the burning skyscraper.

Glass had been blown out, because burning jet fuel, cascading down an elevator shaft, caused a fireball. While other people were fleeing from the World Trade Center…fireman after fireman were entering and they did not look scared. Serious, yes. Grimly determined, certainly. Anxious, for sure. But fearless. Absolutely. This is what they do best. This is what they were trained for. When the firemen were called, they answered heroically.

II. Jonah…fleeing from an assignment he didn’t want

Too bad Jonah didn’t take the same attitude when the Lord called him to go and preach to the Ninevites. This highly successful prophet and preacher in the Northern Kingdom of Israel caused much repentance to happen in his land. So God asked him to step out of his comfort zone, travel to the Gentile world and take on what would seem like an impossible challenge. Jonah would have probably rather enter a building on fire then take on the capital of the world power of that day, the Assyrian Empire.

This nation was renowned for its bloody and inhumane warfare. When the armies of Nineveh arose (and they arose OFTEN) the wake of their destruction was utterly complete.

When Assyrians took over a town in battle they would take any survivors and impale them on stakes in front of the town. After a battle they would pile up the skulls of their enemies making pillars out of them. Their leaders would often remove the heads of their enemies and wear them around their necks. This was not a friendly nation or city! Not a place to take your family on vacation.

So, on the one hand, we can see why Jonah wanted to jump on a ship and head 500 miles in the opposite direction. If the Lord was calling Jonah on the phone…he would probably ask someone else to pick up the line.

Calling Jonah to go to the Ninevites would have been like asking a Christian Jewish person in 1942 to go from New York City to Berlin to see Adolph Hitler, and tell him that God loved him, and that everything he did would be forgiven if he would just repented. But instead this person got on a train and went to San Francisco, then got on a ship to Antarctica! He wanted nothing to do with it.

On the other hand, Jonah actually hung up on God! Have you ever had someone hang up on you? It doesn’t feel very good, does it? It can make you angry. The Lord was not pleased with Jonah’s decision to reject Him.

So, how do we flee from God? Where are we avoiding our Lord?

When He calls us to live the forgiveness He gave us in Christ Jesus. We flee from our Lord when we fail to look inward and reflect on where we are not serving Him well. We would rather go into a burning building than face the jealousy we have for our co-workers, the anger we have for a family member or spouse, the lust we may have for another, the greed for another’s money or possessions, the language of gossip we use that tears down, instead of building up others. We flee from praying for and being a witness for Christ to weaker believers and unbelievers. We want to focus on our successes not our failures; on our strengths not our weaknesses.

We know what it feels like when people avoid us. Now you have an idea of how God feels when we avoid Him trying to lovingly correct and build us up again. We want to flee from any discomfort, any danger; we don’t want to see our dark side.

So we, like Jonah, will go through the high cost of paying to travel in the opposite direction in order to avoid, avoid, avoid…to deny, deny, deny, because we are scared, anxious and fearful. We do this when we avoid prayer; we deny the Lord strengthening us in worship; we are scared to read His Word. Unfortunately this all leads to more sins and before you know it we are on a steep slope, slipping away from our Lord and Savior. The stakes are high; the cost of our fleeing can be great.

You know, the Lord really didn’t need Jonah to go to Nineveh. He could have had someone else deliver the sermon to the scary powerful people…or God could have done it directly. But, the Lord challenged Jonah because He loved him, and wanted him to stay close to Him….to have Jonah trust Him more, to do better, to do the impossible, to do great things for Him.

III. You can run but you can’t hide, because of the Sign of Jonah…Jesus Christ

As you will learn through this Thursday night devotional series…you can run but you can’t hide from God. The Lord does not flee from you. You may think He does, but that’s an illusion Satan convinces us of. No, God sent His Son into the world. Christ never flees from you and me. Jesus frequently went outside His comfort zone…to teach, to heal; and Jesus never fled the cross but picked it up and carried it, even after being beaten with whips and spikes. He could have fled suffering and dying by calling on legions of angels to level all the enemies at Calvary, defeating the Roman Army, the Sanhedrin Council. Those angels would have made the Assyrian Army look like wimps by comparison.

But no, Jesus didn’t fee. He took up His cross for you and me. But the key in all of this is seeing the Sign of Jonah…which is Jesus. In our Gospel reading, the Pharisees were testing Jesus. They were looking for their own sign, not one from God. They wanted to go their own direction like Jonah, not God’s direction. They wanted a sign on their own terms, not God’s.

So Jesus gave them a sign. He said in Matthew 12:38 (ESV): “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days in the heart of the earth.”

You see that’s when Jonah stopped fleeing; When he told the shipmates to throw him overboard and a great fish snatched him up. Sitting in the fish’s belly he repented, and afterwards went to Ninevah and did what the Lord wanted him to do…and there he was a great success.

From Luke 11:32 (NIV), Jesus said, “The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.”

The greater Jonah is the greatest from God…Jesus Christ.

Christ’s suffering was on a scale much greater than sitting in the belly of a fat, smelly fish for three days. Jesus’ verdict was death because of your iniquities and mine, and for those all of humankind. It’s what Jesus does best. It’s what God the Father prepared Him for. When God called Christ Jesus, He answered heroically.

As a result, Christ does not flee from you in the Word and the waters of your baptism. He does not flee but gives you His body and blood to eat and drink to assure you He has not fled, and never will, because He loves you that much.

Just like God was to Jonah so the Lord is with you…gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, even when we try to flee. Even when we hang up on God’s call to lead a more repentant life.

IV. Helping you to face God; face your sins; answer the Lord’s call for your life

You know in the ancient world when people repented of their sins, lamented their transgressions, they put on these very uncomfortable sack clothes, made of goats’ or camels’ hair. Wool would seem like velvet by comparison. And people usually sat in ashes.

Well tonight we are not going to give you sackcloth to wear nor make you sit in ashes. But I am going to recommend two things:

First, if you are truly repentant come forward here in a few moments and receive the Imposition of Ashes…to give you a physical reminder of God’s love and forgiveness. When you get home tonight…have someone take a head shot of you with the cross of ashes. Print out a copy and put in on your desk at work or on the dresser, put it on your computer desktop or on your cell phone…to remind you everyday…Christ loves you and has forgiven YOU, your sins. And He wants you to repent (point to the head) which literally means to change your mind toward sin. Flee from sin and run toward God.

Second, we are going to give you the Sign of Jonah, tonight…these wooden crosses. (Hold up wooden cross) This Lenten season…I would like you to take 5 minutes out of your day…morning, midday, afternoon, evening before bed…at home, at work…five minutes. I want you to take this cross and set it on your night stand, kitchen table, dresser, desk, wherever…and reflect on that which you’ve been fleeing…where are the areas in your life where you have not done good and where you need to repent…thoughts you have been indulging in, people you haven’t prayed for, unkind words you often speak, words of love that need to be spoken, and actions that if Christ was standing (take cross) next to you know He wouldn’t approve of, or times where you know He wanted you to act. I want you to reflect on those…lift them up to the Lord in prayer, pleading for His forgiveness. Then ask Him to be along your side as you take on the fires in your life, and change your thoughts, words, and actions.

Did not Jonah know the Lord would be by his side as he approached the deadly and dangerous Ninevites? Do you not see Christ along side of you, doing the same as you take on your fears, and humbly do good for Him?

By the way, on Sunday mornings throughout Lent we are going to add pieces to your cross to help you better reflect on specific areas in your life with Christ. You will get another piece this Sunday….in just a few days.

The result is the more repentant life you lead in Christ…the more you appreciate His temporal and eternal blessings. The more you do His will, the more it shows to your family, friends and even strangers; the more others will be attracted to Him and to His Church. The less you flee, the closer you are to Jesus. And as we do this, we will fearlessly take on the challenges of life…because God has equipped you to handle any calling…it’s what you’ve been trained for…it’s what you do the best because of Him.

V. Conclusion

The Lord is calling you through Christ Jesus…don’t hang up, don’t flee…answer the call, see Him as the Sign of Jonah, take up your cross, and be at true peace with Him. Amen.