|
Exegesis
January 25,
2009
Third
Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
Rev.
Timothy Schehr
Jonah
3:1-10
X
1
Corinthians 7:29-31
X
Mark
1:14-20
Peter, Andrew, and the sons of Zebedee were familiar with the sea and how to
harvest it. Peter and his bother knew just how to cast a net to get optimum
results. James and John understood the value of keeping their nets in good
order. One break in a net and its usefulness is greatly reduced. But once
they meet Jesus they learn their skills as fishermen all over again to bring
people into the kingdom of God. They learn how to cast and to mend nets of
an entirely different kind.
In the final verse of the gospel
reading James and John follow Jesus leaving their father Zebedee in the boat
along with the hired men. In chapters that follow this scene will be
replaced by scenes in while Jesus is in a boat with his apostles. The sea
will become a place of instruction for them. While in a boat they will hear
Jesus teach. While in a boat they will witness Jesus calming a stormy sea.
While in a boat they will hear Jesus chastise them for not understanding
their need for spiritual bread. And while in a boat they will see Jesus
walking on water. It seems even these seasoned fishermen have a lot to learn
while with their Lord in a boat on the sea.
Jonah learned a lot while he
was at sea too. The first reading picks up in the middle of this prophet’s
story. This is the second time God directed Jonah to go to Nineveh. This
reluctant prophet tried to escape his mission the first time. Instead of
crossing overland to that great city on the Tigris River, Jonah took a boat
in the opposite direction. But God does not allow Jonah to run away from his
work. The people of Nineveh must have their chance to hear the word of God.
And so the famous great fish swallows Jonah and brings him back to where he
belongs. When God calls this second time Jonah complies.
As the reading says, Nineveh
was an enormously large city. It was one of the royal cities of the Assyrian
empire; its boundaries embraced an area some twelve miles in circumference.
Jonah had his work cut out for him. It would take three days for him to
reach all its citizens with the word of God proclaimed in its squares and
plazas. But one day’s preaching was enough for this city! An amazing outcome
given the fact that the prophets of Israel spent decades preaching in
Jerusalem with only minimal response from the court or its people. By
contrast, every last one of the citizens of Nineveh displayed sincere
repentance. They chose life, and God gave them life.
It seems Jonah learned his lesson from his experiences on the sea. He knew
he could not escape his responsibility to preach God’s word to a people who
so needed to hear it. But of course Jonah’s journey is not yet over. The
final chapter reveals that Jonah still has a lot of inner work to do. We
discover his reason for avoiding Nineveh as not fear but anger. He did not
think such people should receive God’s gracious mercy. He does not yet see
the world as God sees it.
Jonah could have learned a
lesson or two from Paul. In the second reading the great apostle to the
Gentiles urges his brothers and sisters in Corinth to stay focused on the
eternal life that awaits them in heaven. The present world has its limits.
They must not allow the experiences of this world to divert them from their
heavenly goal. Those fishers of men Peter, Andrew, and the sons of Zebedee
certainly would have agreed with that message!
|
