JONAH IN THE RAGING SEA On the one hand Jonah fled from the service to Joppa to sail to Tarshish in insubordination to God, a fact that enraged the sea with a strong tempest, which did not subside until Jonah was thrown overboard, on the other hand Jonah represents the Lord Jesus, the bearer of our sins, who threw Himself in the raging sea of our lives to grant us amazing peace through the sacrifice of reconciliation. 1- Jonah’s calling. 1-2 2- His fleeing to Tarshish 3 3- Jonah and the strong gales. 4-7 4- Jonah and the sailors. 8-12 5- Jonah in the whale’s belly. 13-17 1- JONAH’S CALLING “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me” [1,2]. In the Septuagint it is said “the cry of its wickedness come up to me.” It was a unique calling. For the first time a prophet was called to a pagan nation, not to condemn it but to call it to repentance so that the anger of God would not descend upon it. Any prophet could not accept such a mission, not out of hatred of the Gentiles, but out of love for his own people. As aforementioned the salvation of the Gentiles is realized through the falling of the Jews, and the faith of the world through the ungratefulness of the Jews (Rom. 11:11). However, although Jonah, with his human level of thinking, could not accept the calling and he fled, yet God, who knows the purity of Jonah’s heart, used his fleeing to bring about his Divine goals for the Gentiles. The Septuagint version “the cry of their wickedness has come up before me,” so if a sacred life is shown in its completeness in the Lord Jesus who, “...will not cry out, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets” (Matt. 12:19) on the contrary an evil life which cries out in God’s ears and which produces noise which is not acceptable in heaven, shows the loss of inner peace. Evil Cain murdered his brother, Abel, and he kept quiet about it, but the fingerprints of his evil cried out through his brother’s flowing blood. The Lord said to Cain,”...the voice of your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground” (Gen. 4:10). It was also said of the evils of Sodom and Gomorrah: “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great...” (Gen 18:20). Jonah (lit. = dove) was called to be a missionary in the great city Nineveh whose cry of evil rose up to heaven, as though God wanted to destroy the cries of evil with the meekness of a dove, treat the inflamed wounds with soft oil and put out the fire with water. If the world had become a noise and bitter cries of oppression then it is in need of the Church or the true believer who has “dove’s eyes” (Song of Songs 1:15; 4:1), the eyes of Christ the Lord who said, “Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart” (Matt. 11:29). To have the eyes of the Holy Spirit, the true dove, so that with meekness we inherit the earth (Matt. 5:5) for Christ, the Lord, so that his kingdom would become filled with joy and peace. 12 If the evildoers are earthly not heavenly because of their love for earthly things, and because of their obsession with fleeting pleasures, we then carry within us the genuine Jonah, to win them over with the meekness of His Holy Spirit and change them from earthly to heavenly beings. St. John Climacos says, [The Lord finds contentment in meek hearts while the disturbed spirit is the throne of the devil. The meek shall inherit the earth, or as a matter of fact, shall manipulate it, while the evildoers shall be thrown out from their land1.] If the great city Nineveh represents the body whose evil cries of lust rise up before the Lord, then no one else would be able to relieve the body of these cries but our True Jonah who fills the spirit and sanctifies the body also. 2- JONAH’S ESCAPE TO TARSHISH “But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord” [3]. Why did Jonah want to “Flee ... from the presence of the Lord” instead of going to Nineveh? 1. St. Jerome notes that Jonah could not get himself to go to Nineveh and bring salvation to them at the expense of his people Israel; so he disobeyed God not out of hatred in his heart but rather out of jealously for his people, as though he was emulating Moses, the zealous prophet, when he said, “...if you will forgive their sin.., but if not, I pray, blot me out of your book which you have written” (Exod. 32:31-32). Moses resisted the lord but he earned God’s mercy for his people and God did not erase his name from his hook. In the same spirit, St. Paul, the Apostle, said, “For I could wish that I myself accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites? (Rom. 9:3-4). He wished that he would deprive himself so that his brethren would live in Christ, counting his death a gain. For this love, he did not die but was rewarded the life he wished for his people. In the same manner, Jonah feared that his preaching the Assyrians, the enemies of Israel, would be the cause of the damnation of Israel so he fled to Tarshish, i.e., in the opposite direction. Some say that Tarshish is Tartessus, in south Spain near Gibraltar2, or Carthage in north West Africa. 2. St. Jerome notes that Tarshish literally means sea or a meditation on joy; and Joppa3 in Canaanite language literally means “beauty.” Jonah, instead of conforming with God’s instructions to bring salvation to Nineveh, preferred to descend to the beauty of his human thinking and humane wisdom, i.e. the sea of this world or happy meditations without a real struggle and actually carrying the Cross. This behavior represents that of a person who would rather follow his own instincts rather than follow the difficult commandment of God. 3. The prophet Jonah, who knew that God is...”the God of heaven, who made the dry land…” [9] And he witnessed to that, by depending on his human thinking outside the faith resorted to fleeing from God. St John Chrysostom says, [It is true that he (Jonah) fled from the seashore but he did not escape God’s wrath. He escaped from land 1 Step 24:7-8 2 Herod. 4;152. 3 Joppa: an old city on the Mediterranean Sea, 35 miles north—west of Jerusalem. 13 to bring on himself the tempest at sea1.] He should have fled to God rather than away from God, because in Him alone does the believer find peace and safety. 3- JONAH AND THE GREAT TEMPEST Jonah fled away to the sea from the Maker of the sea Himself, hence God recalled him in a language that is more appropriate to a fugitive and that is the language of consecutive hardships: “But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up” [4]. God then talked to him through strong winds, a great tempest and a ship off balance, events which suited Jonah and which unveiled what was within him of disobedient strong winds, a great tempest of inner unrest and the off balance vessel of his heart. St. Jerome says, [Jonah’s fleeing represents the status of man in general, because in his disdain to obey the commandment of the Lord, he fled from His presence and gave himself to the world whose tempestuous nature caused his drowning. Then he was obliged to meditate on God and returned to the one he fled from. The ship was in danger and the waves were high because of the gale, because when God is angry nothing is safe.] The aliens heard God’s voice despite the fact that they did not know Him, while Jonah’s ears were oblivious to it. “Then the mariners were afraid; and every man cried out to his god, and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep” [4,5]. The sailors were pagans, and their knowledge of God was distorted, yet when God spoke in a language of crisis and hardships, they were filled with fear and did nothing before each of them cried to his god, so God was first and foremost for them despite their ignorance of Him. St. Jerome says: [they thought that the ship with its usual cargo is heavy, not realizing that the weight was because of the fugitive prophet. The mariners were filled with fear and each prayed to his god because they did not know the truth but they were not ignorant of Divine Providence. Through their false beliefs, they realized something and understood some spiritual depth, but with Israel neither abundance nor pain could have led them to knowing God. Thus Joshua often wept for the people but the people’s eyes were dry.] The pagans were crying to their gods and throwing baggage overboard, everyone doing his best and praying; yet Jonah, who realized that he was the cause for this disturbance went down into the ship to go into deep slumber as though he did not want to face the waves of God’s anger, or like someone who took a sedative to escape his painful reality. Although Jonah’s sleep represents some kind of laxity, yet he gives us a glimpse of a good prophetic facet, for he represented a humanity, which finds comfort in God in the midst of the turbulent waves of this world. When Herod planned to put St. Peter to death, St. Peter “was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and the guards before the door were keeping the prison” (Acts 12:6). On the other hand, Jonah represented our Lord Jesus Who fell asleep on the Cross as in the ship to raise the new Eve from His wounded side, to enjoy a real peace in Him. He also fell asleep on the Cross-to be buried in the belly of the whale, to rise again, granting us the might of 1 Conc. Stat. 5:18. 14 resurrection. St. Jerome says, [While others were in danger, he slept at peace and arose. At His request and by the mystery of His suffering, salvation was realized to those who aroused Him1.] The sailors and their captain acted very wisely in meekness and kindness. It is said, “So the captain came to him, and said to him, What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish. And they said to one another, “Come let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah” [6-7]. The captain showed meekness in his conversation with Jonah who was fast asleep at a time when everybody else was crying, praying and throwing baggage overboard. He talked to him quietly without hurting his feelings, urged him kindly to pray, a feature not often found in the faithful themselves and sometimes not either in the leaders, because they lose their own peace when they reprimand, and lose their calmness when they try to rectify others. God who had talked to the prophet either through a vision or a declaration to work in Nineveh, came back to talk to him through the turbulent nature moreover when he turned a deaf ear God talked to him through the pagans telling him. “What do you mean, our God will consider us, so that we may not perish [6]; as though He is telling him, why are you asleep in your heart, the God you are escaping from, He Himself can save us the Gentiles from destruction. If you really love your people and your nation, hear our pleading and do not undermine our faith because if we do not yet know the God you worship, with faith we will accept Him and we will not perish! Strangely enough, the sailors cast the lot and it fell on Jonah thus they knew that he was the reason for God’s anger... St. Jerome says that if God led them through the lot, He really talked to them through their thoughts, so this does not condone using lottery or lots. God guided Balaam by means of a donkey (Num. 22:28) to show him that the mute animal comprehended that which the humans in their evil did not. In the same manner, God spoke to the Wisemen through the star, and He allowed Caiaphas to prophesy unknowingly when he said that one has to die for all the people. At any rate, if Jonah in his love for his people undermined the salvation of the Gentiles, God showed him through the lot that He does not disdain Gentiles but rather talks to them in their own language. He reveals to them the truth even through their practices, the lot conveyed to hidden Divine reproach to Jonah who thought lightly of the salvation of the Gentiles. 4- JONAH AND THE SAILORS Then they said to him, Please tell us! For whose cause is this trouble upon us? What is your country? And of what people are you? And he said to them. I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land” [8-9]. In the midst of the strong currents, the gales and the immediate danger, one would have expected the sailors to lose their peace and tranquility, but they proved that they were wise; for when they realized that there was a secret in Jonah’s life they started to quiz him about it, seeking the actual truth. Their questions were a mild reprimand used by God to straighten Jonah’s ways, for while they were asking him, Jonah should have been reviewing his deeds. St. Jerome says, [the goal of casting lots was to pressure him into a 1 PL 26:25 In Matt I. 15 voluntary confession of the reason of this gale and God’s anger, i.e., to confess of his disobedience and fleeing from God, the Maker of the sea and land. The questions were fruitful, for he said: “I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, Who made the sea and the dry land” [9]. And as St. Jerome says: [He did not say I am a Hebrew, referring to his origin from one of the tribes of Israel, but meaning “I am a traveler like my father Abraham,” as though he said, “I am weak and a nomad like the rest of my fathers,” and as it is said in the Psalm: “When they went from one nation to another, From one kingdom to another people... and I fear God of heaven and not the gods whom you seek, who cannot grant salvation, I implore God of heaven, Maker of sea and land, the sea I fled to and the land I fled from!”] Jonah confessed his sin and thus the sailors came to know rightfully the Awesome God, for it was said, ‘Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, “Why have you done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them” [10]. They realized that he was a blessed man running away from a Holy God, so they questioned him without judging him but as St. Jerome said, to understand the reason for his action. After enjoying their knowledge of God they asked Jonah: “What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?. For the sea was growing more tempestuous.” [11]. St. Jerome says, [As though they were saying that Jonah told them that he caused the wind, the waves and the turbulence at sea, i.e., he told them of the cause and they expected him to tell them of the cure too. ‘The sea is rising against us and we know that we are the target of anger because we took you in, we erred because we hosted you, so what should we do to avert God’s anger against us? What should we do with you? Do we kill you? But you are a believer. Do we keep you? But you are a defector from God! We can do nothing but to obey your orders. Command the sea to calmness because its turbulence testifies to God’s anger... we cannot put things off on the face of the Maker’s vengeance!”] And Jonah said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me” [12]. Jonah gave them the solution, which was to throw him into the raging sea. The gale would calm down because originally that gale was the result of his disobedience, and it would not calm down unless he was thrown in repentance. On the other hand Jonah was a representative of Christ, bearer of the sins of the world. It was necessary for Christ to be thrown on the Cross and laid in the tomb so that the believers in Him would enjoy the reconciliation with the Father and enter into His eternal peace. St. John Chrysostom says, [Jonah expected to run away by means of the vessel, but behold, the vessel was his tethers1] He thought that he could flee from the Lord of the sea by means of the ship, and he was caught in the midst of the raging water inside the ship to be surrounded with oppression and to lead him to repentance. God used the very means, which Jonah thought were his escape from God to hold him and bring him back to God. St. John Chrysostom put it beautifully when he said: [There was no need for many days or continuous advice but simply that all things should lead him to repentance (i.e., God used all means for his salvation). God did not lead him directly from the ship to the 1 Gonc. Stat 6:14. 16 city but the sailors handed him to the sea, from the sea to the whale, from the whale to God and from God to the people of Nineveh, and thus was the errant guided to know that there was no escaping from the Hand of God1.] St. Jerome comments on Jonah’s words to the sailors, saying: [This gale is searching for me, threaten you with drowning so that you would apprehend me and be saved through my death. I truly believe that this gale is on my account, and the waves command you to throw me in the sea so that you would find calmness. We should note here that the fugitive does not keep his problem as a secret or denies it after he confesses his fleeing from God, but wholeheartedly accepts the punishment. He wants to die so that he would not cause anyone’s destruction]. Another of St. Jerome’s beautiful comments on Jonah’s words as a prophecy of the works of Jesus Christ, our true Jonah, Who accepted death to save the whole nation, says; [Our Jonah, says: Truly I know that I am the reason for this gale and when the winds saw that I was going to sea with you to Tarshish (lit, means to ‘joyous meditation”), leading you to glory, so that where I am you would be also with the Father, and this causes anger. The world cries and nature is in turmoil. Death wants to swallow me and kill you at the same time, not knowing that I am only bait, for with my death it dies! Take me, then, and throw me in the sea]. 5- JONAH IN THE WHALE’S BELLY “Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to bring the ship to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them. Therefore they cried out to the Lord and said, “We pray, 0 Lord, please do not let us perish for this man’s life, and do not charge us with innocent blood; for you, 0 Lord, have done as it pleased You” [13-14]. This Book projected, in simple terms, the good in those Gentiles. They did not start by throwing their luggage overboard or by putting into practice their nautical experience except after everyone cried to his god; so they put their gods ahead of their nautical experience, something which a lot of believers neglect to do. Again, when the lot fell on Jonah, they did not hurt his feelings or insult him despite the losses they suffered on his account. Even when he confessed and advised them to throw him in the sea, they tried to save him in any possible way. However when they utterly failed to do so, and realized that it was the will of God to throw him overboard, they were in awe and fear of God’s anger, and asked Him not to allow them to perish for the life of that man. Were not these actions filled with love, wisdom and gentleness enough to needle the fugitive Jonah, whom God called for the salvation of the Gentiles in Nineveh? God gave him a sample of the Gentiles who surpassed the believers themselves. Should the Gentiles be compared to the Jews who had the law and the prophets and who saw the wonderful works of Christ and the witness of heaven, earth, sea and all creation even the Gentile Pilate who washed his hands before them and yet they cried out saying: “His blood is on us and on our children”, would they not surpass them? St. Jerome comments on the behavior of the sailors, saying: [They wanted to pull the oars and beat nature so that they would not expose God’s prophet... they thought they could save the ship from danger and they did not take into consideration that Jonah had to suffer.) 1 Ibid 5:19. 17 [Great is the faith of the sailors, they themselves were in danger. yet they were praying for someone else’s life. They knew perfectly well that a spiritual death is by far worse than natural death for they said, “Do not charge us with innocent blood.” They made God their witness so that He would not charge them for what was beyond them, as if they were telling God: “We do not want to kill Your prophet, but he announced Your anger and the gale emphasized Your will, 0 Lord, which we will undertake.”] [While the Gentiles did not desire Christ’s death, confirming it was innocent blood (Matt. 27:25) the Jews said. ‘His blood be on us and on our children,” thus when they lift their hands up to heaven their requests will not be answered because their hands are covered with blood.] “So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging” [15]. St. Jerome says: [It was not said that they “caught him” or “pounced on him” but “picked him up” as though in respect and reverence, and threw him in the sea, giving himself into their hands without resistance, then the sea ceased from its raging because it found what it was looking for. When we follow a mirage, we pursue it with all our might and once we catch up with the prize we stop. Thus was the sea raging without Jonah, so when its depth received him whom it yearned for, it rejoiced, feasted and calmed down in happiness]. St. John Chrysostom sees in throwing Jonah overboard a symbolism of throwing out sin from the ship of our life so that we retrieve the true peace, which was taken away from us by our sins. He says: [The city was disturbed because of the sins of the people of Nineveh, and the ship was disturbed because of the disobedience of the prophet; so when the sailors threw Jonah to the depths, the ship was secured. Let us also throw away our sins so that our city would be in perfect peace1.] St. Jerome sees that throwing Jonah overboard represents the suffering of the Lord Jesus, which snatched away the raging from our sea, and saved the ship from danger. Through the suffering of the Lord Jesus, the world was filled with amazing inner peace. “Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows” [16]. When Jonah was thrown into the sea, i.e., Christ suffered unto death, He saved us from old idol worship, granting us His great fear, and offering His unique redeeming sacrifice and fulfilling our vows to God, i.e., completely dedicate our lives to Him. St. Jerome says: [When Jonah, the fugitive, died in the sea, salvation came to the ship, which was rocked by the winds, and the idol worshipers were saved.] He also says: [Before the Lord’s suffering, they prayed to their gods out of fear (1:10), but later after (His) suffering they feared Him, i.e., worshiped and glorified Him... They feared Him greatly with all their soul, all their heart and all their thoughts (Deut. 6:5; Matt. 22:37), consequently they offered a sacrifice, that could not have been actually done, because there were no sacrifices at sea; but the sacrifice to the Lord is an honest spirit. As it is written: “Offer to God thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High” Ps 50:14. 1 Ibid 5:18. 18 Thus, by throwing Jonah in the sea or by the suffering of the Lord, the spirit of Divine fear descended on us thus we became eligible to offer a holy sacrifice and pay our vows to Him. “Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights” [17]. Events did not just happen without Divine providence; for God sent strong winds which caused great gales announcing God’s anger against disobedience. He sent a big fish by the ship to swallow Jonah and thus supply him with a safe sleeping place rather than death, and to show him God’s care for him. St. Jerome says: [The Lord showed His anger when Jonah was in the ship, and showed His joy when he entered unto death], explaining that there he represented Christ the Lord Who trampled death by His death. Truly Jonah appeared as a victim of death who was swallowed by Hades, that could not stomach him for more that three days and three nights, but spat him out from its depth so that the prophet would say, “0 death, I will be your plagues! 0 grave, I will be your destruction” Hosea 13:14. Christ emphasized that what happened to Jonah inside the whale was a symbol of what happened to Him: “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly in the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” Matt. 12:40. How is the time of burial of the Lord Jesus calculated? First: St. Jerome says that the Jews consider a part of the day as a whole day and thus the repose of Christ is calculated from Friday to Sunday despite the fact that He died on the Cross on Friday at the end of the day and arose at dawn on Sunday. St John Chrysostom says that if the Lord had waited till the end of the day on Sunday to rise from the dead, the soldiers would have been off duty by then and the Jews would have believed that the soldiers left their posts; but He arose while they were guarding the tomb. Second: St. Jerome also presents another argument, which was supported by some, that the darkness, which came over the land when Christ was on the Cross, was a different, unique kind of night. Third: Others consider the time of burial started when the Lord gave His Body to His disciples at the Last Supper, as though He was buried inside human earth in order to raise it up with Him; a heaven for Himself with His resurrection on the dawn of Sunday. At any rate, the Lord was buried for three days and rose again. This is the reality which the disciples witnessed and which God validated with many evidences, so that we may live it as the mystery of our daily resurrection and our victory over death and Hades. Jonah was used as a living proof of the resurrection of the body at the end of time by his encountering death and emerging from it1. 1 Tert. On Resurrection of the Flesh 58.
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