1-2 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai : ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.’ 3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord. 4-6 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.  All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. The captain went to him and said, ‘How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.’ Jonah 1:1-96 New International Version

After some months in Jeremiah I thought a short break might be good, and to take a look at one of the other prophets from all those years ago. The New Testament book called Philemon was about a runaway slave whose flight was interrupted by God. Jonah was also on the run, but not from an earthly master – he was running from God. But God interrupted his flight too.

The opening chapter doesn't tell us why he headed for Tarshish (Spain) which was the opposite direction to where God told him to go, but Jonah himself tells us why in Chapter 4. He eventually did get to Nineveh and told the people that God was going to destroy the city because of their wickedness. But they took his message to heart and, from the King in the palace to the common man on the street, they humbled themselves before God and turned from the evil things they'd been doing. And we read: “When God saw their actions, that they had turned from their evil way, God relented from the disaster which He said He would bring on them, and He did not carry it out. But to Jonah this seemed very bad, and he became very angry. He prayed to the Lord, 'Lord, wasn’t this exactly what I said when I was still in my own country? That is why I previously fled to Tarshish, because I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and you relent from sending disaster.'” (Jonah 3:10-4:2) What would you say was Jonah's problem, or, the problem with Jonah?

It seems he did not want God's compassion to go out to people who he didn't like or didn't care for. He wasn't even bothered about the lives of the sailors in the storm who were in danger of drowning. Jonah was like that son in a story Jesus told who was angry when his father welcomed back with open arms his rebellious brother who'd left the home and wasted all his inheritance. But think a moment on Jonah's lovely description of God as being someone who is “gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in mercy, and a God who relents from sending disaster.”

Surely that's the attitude God wants us also to have towards people who are helplessly lost in sin. Are there people whose well-being we show less interest in? Do we pray more for Jewish people to be converted than we pray for Muslims? Do we try and reach out to a neighbour who is a real nuisance and who we don't get on with? The life of Jonah reminds us that there aren’t some people who don't deserve God's mercy, and others who do. No-one deserved to be saved! Sin puts us all on the same level. That's what grace is all about. It is God's mercy to the undeserving. That’s good news!