Nineveh – The Noontimes

Luke 11:29-32: Keeping Our Eyes Open

Luke 11:29-32: Keeping Our Eyes Open

Wednesday, February 15, 2023

We ask for miracles. We beg for outcomes. We can see the plan of our lives laid out in comfort and success, if only we might have control. We ask for perfection while it already lies in our hands. Jesus reminds us of this today.

As the crowd swelled, Jesus took a fresh tack: “The mood of this age is all wrong. Everybody’s looking for proof, but you’re looking for the wrong kind. All you’re looking for is something to titillate your curiosity, satisfy your lust for miracles. But the only proof you’re going to get is the Jonah-proof given to the Ninevites, which looks like no proof at all. What Jonah was to Nineveh, the Son of Man is to this age”.

We might picture ourselves in the throngs pressing closer to Jesus, searching for answers we already have; but our mood is all wrong. We are looking for proof and we are looking for the wrong kind. We think we want to peak our curiosity, to satisfy our self-plan, to assure that our lives will run smoothly with no lack of anything. We ignore the Jonah-proof, the astounding fact that the city of Nineveh turns back to God after Jonah preaches its coming destruction. We hear the same word from Jonah and we also ask for signs and miracles while the miracle rests with us in every moment of every day and in every place.

The Son of Man, Jesus, the manifestation of God on earth presents himself to us in the form of the poor, the naked, the lost and forsaken. And we turn away. We have kept our eyes open, but what do we see?

Today, as we reflect on how we best might keep our eyes open, we remember our Lenten practice for the week: Rather than thinking: “I am misunderstood,” let us think instead, “God is so understanding”.

Tomorrow, the many forms of murder.

For more information about Jonah and the city of Nineveh, visit: http://www.bible-history.com/biblestudy/nineveh.html.

To learn about how Jonah prefigures Jesus, visit: http://catholicexchange.com/9-ways-jonah-prefigured-jesus

Image from: https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-asia/nineveh-0010595

February 15, 2023

Jonah, miracles, Nineveh

1 Corinthians 1:18-25: Wisdom’s Paradox

1 Corinthians 1:18-25: Wisdom’s Paradox

Saturday, December 28, 2019

At that time Jesus said in reply: “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Matthew 11:25

The paradox of creation is that the weak are strong and the strong are weak. This Theology of the Cross, then is present in all suffering and opposes the norms usually associated with power and wisdom. From La Biblia de América: This foolishness of the cross becomes present in all debility, anguish and the profundity of God’s love. This is the surprising path of salvation opened to all humans by Christ.

We look for signs yet the only sign relevant to us, Jesus tells us, is the sign of Jonah – – – the prophet who finally did as God asked to save the city of Nineveh, after spending three days in the belly of a whale. God does not exact the punishment he had meant to carry out, because all of the inhabitants repent – – – inspired by the reluctant prophet. Jonah then complains about his surprising success. We are so often determined to be disappointed!

Notes will tell us that God’s ways are inscrutable because we insist on having things “our way” rather than in God’s way in God’s time. The wisdom and mercy we experience with God is incomprehensible to us because we have not yet learned to trust that this paradox about which Jesus speaks is real. Our viewpoint is too narrow, our perspective too self-centered to fathom the kind of acceptance and love the creator has for his creatures.

From the NAB comments on Jonah: The prophecy, which is both instructive and entertaining, strikes directly at this viewpoint [of forgiving wicked enemies]. It is a parable of mercy, showing that God’s threatened punishments are but the expression of a merciful will which moves all men to repent and seek forgiveness. The universality of the story contrasts sharply with the particularistic spirit of many in the post-exilic community. The book has also prepared the way for the gospel with its message of redemption for all, both Jew and Gentile. (Page 961)

These are God’s ways. This is God’s wisdom. We live the paradox that when we are weakest we are strongest . . . because we are nearest to God. In this Christmastide, let us celebrate God’s coming to us as an infant, defenseless and small. And let us remember that in a few short months we will journey through the Lenten time when we flourish in God’s forgiveness and mercy. Let us take time today to reflect on the lesson we might learn as we watch this tiny child grow into a man who offers both his humanity and divinity so that we might be free from fear, so that we might be saved. And let us bask in the wonder of this gift so freely given. Let us grant forgiveness, as we are forgiven. Let us bless with mercy, as we are blessed. Let us cradle and heal those who are broken . . . just as we are cradled and healed by God in his immense love.

When we suffer at the hands of others – – – either intentionally or unintentionally – – – let us gather up our wounded-ness, and our broken-ness. Let us make of ourselves wounded healers in God’s great plan, in God’s great love, in the paradox of God’s great wisdom.

LA BIBLIA DE LA AMÉRICA. 8th. Madrid: La Casa de la Biblia, 1994. Print.

Image from: http://stirringthedeep.com/2011/04/15/sister-wisdom-part-ii/

First written on April 20, 2009. Re-written and posted today as a Favorite.

December 28, 2019

creation, forgiveness, God’s way, inversion, Isaiah 29:11, Matthew 11:25, Nineveh, sign of Jonah, Theology of the Cross, wounded healer

In the Belly of the Whale

Tuesday, December 20, 2011 – Jonah 2 – In the Belly of the Whale

When the Pharisees and teachers of the law challenge Jesus in Matthew 12 and Luke 11 about his authority and ask him for a sign, Jesus points out the wickedness of this demanding approach to miracles, and he says that the only sign they will receive is the sign of Jonah. Today we look at an interesting point in the story of the man who lived in the belly of a whale for three days to be delivered in order to do God’s work. Commentary tells us that Jesus refers to his own three days between death and life that he will experience in order to save the world. Further commentary tells us why the psalm we read today is so important to us.

The story of the great fish is miraculous only in the sense that God supernaturally provided a whale to swallow Jonah. There are three critical issues here:

The great fish may indeed have been a large whale, which would not normally have been found in the eastern Mediterranean, but the provision of the whale so far from its usual habitat is the miraculous part of the account.
The word for “belly” . . . in Hebrew is imprecise and does not necessarily mean “stomach”. Jonah may have been in the oral cavity of a large-mouthed whale.
A whale, being a mammal, is a warm-blooded air breather that periodically resurfaces for air. It therefore would have provided Jonah with oxygen, while its body heat would have prevented hypothermia.

Jonah’s psalm (ch.2) makes no sense in context. The prophet is depicted praising God for his salvation while still inside the fish . . . The psalm is intelligible if we reconstruct events as follows: (1) Jonah, cast overboard during a storm and unable to swim, sank immediately (2:6). (2) A whale scooped him up and carried him to the surface, allowing him to breathe. (3) When the whale kept Jonah near the surface, the prophet recognized God’s provision and was able to praise him. (Zondervan 1474)

When placed in this context, the story of Jonah has special importance for us as we traverse the last days of Advent.

Jonah is called by God to do something he does not want to do and so he flees. Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. (Jonah 1:3) We may also want to reject a task God has laid out for us.

Once on board, Jonah admits to the sailors that he has indeed fled the Lord. They try to save him but the storm is too great for them and Jonah volunteers to go overboard. But the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah. (Jonah 1:17)

On dry land, Jonah goes to Nineveh to do as the Lord has asked. When the people have a change of heart and heed the prophecy Jonah delivers, the Lord has compassion on them for turning from their evil ways. (Jonah 3:10)

The dialog between Jonah and Yahweh continues in chapter 4 where we see a push-pull relationship between the two. The conversion in Nineveh greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry; (Jonah 4:1) still, God abides with his servant and continues to present to him his own pathway for conversion. God continues to provide a journey away from anger toward compassion. God might be speaking to us when he says to Jonah: Do you have a right to be angry?

Jonah runs from the Lord and finds that he has come up against an obstacle too large to overcome. Leaping into the raging storm he expects death . . . and yet he is saved.

Tomorrow’s Noontime will be a Prayer from the Belly of the Whale . . .

ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDY BIBLE (NIV). Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2005. 1474. Print.

December 20, 2011

anger, Joanh, Luke 11, Matthew 12, Nineveh, reluctance

Tag: Nineveh

Luke 11:29-32: Keeping Our Eyes Open

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1 Corinthians 1:18-25: Wisdom’s Paradox

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In the Belly of the Whale

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