Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Why the Big Fish is Not the Craziest Thing in Jonah

The most shocking element of the Jonah narrative is not the fish that swallows the cantankerous prophet. It is the providential mercy of God who saves both the cantankerous prophet and the people of Assyria.

Why Was Jonah’s Sin?

When Jonah receives word to go to Ninevah, he disobeys God and heads into the dark hull of a ship destined for the other side of the known world. Though some scholars believe Jonah’s revulsion to the Assyrian empire was driven by racism and cultural prejudice, the author of Jonah makes no such claims. Jonah most certainly did not view the culture that made a name for itself by creating towers with its captives’ skulls favorably. But he did not run from them because of unsubstantiated fears about what they might do to him. He ran from his God because he desired to save the wicked.

Though Jonah’s nebulously short sermon might appear to be an early Bible-thumping, fire and brimstone message, it was nothing of the sort. It contained illusions to both God’s wrath and his mercy. The word translated ‘repent’ in Jonah 3:4 could also mean to overturn or change. In other words, Jonah’s message could have had a double meaning: destroy sin or be destroyed by sin. Moreover, Jonah’s mention of 40 days would have also reminded the original Hebrew listeners of both Moses and Noah. After 40 days, Moses came down from the mountain and condemned the nation of Israel for having worshiped a golden calf. Conversely after 40 days, Noah emerged from the Ark having survived the flood. Thus, number 40 contained both the potential for death and salvation. And it was this very possibility of forgiveness that troubled Jonah’s soul.

When the prophet gives us unfiltered insight into his motives, he says, “That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster (4:2).” Jonah ran not from geopolitical realities but from the idea that God would save the sinners…sinners who cared nothing for the laws and regulations of God’s word
In other words, Jonah took no issue with the salvation of those who offered sacrifices and faithfully read the Torah. When God miraculously sent a great fish to save Jonah from his suicidal embrace of sin, the prophet rejoices in God’s salvation. We too rightfully rejoice in the knowledge that God saves believers who wander into the darkness of sin and unbelief. Many a Christan can say with Jonah: “Out of the belly of Shoel I cried, and you heard my voice (Jonah 2:1b).

Why Did God Save Jonah?

The struggle comes not when God extends the grace to our friends or to those share our political affiliations or to those sit next to us at church. The struggle comes when God saves those that we hate because they have unquestionably sinned against us and those that we love in the cruelest of ways. It’s one thing to see your friend’s marriage restored or to praise God for liberating the hostages taken by Hamas. It’s quite another thing to pray for the salvation of the man or the woman who almost destroyed your marriage or to encourage you child to share the gospel with the leaders of Hamas. It is this tension that drives us into the crux of Jonah’s anger and into the gloriousness of the gospel. God’s mercy is undeserved.

Jonah did not make it to Nineveh on his own merits or efforts. When Jonah threw his second temper tantrum because God had killed the plant that had shaded Jonah from the hot sun the day before, God reminded Jonah of the plant’s origin. Jonah 4:10 records God saying, “You pity the plant for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night.” In other words, the earthly salvation that Jonah so loved came freely from the Lord and not from Jonah. Similarly, the only thing that Jonah brought to the story of the great fish was his suicidal bent towards destruction that made God’s saving grace necessary. Jonah had no more right to lay claim to God’s mercy than any sinner in Nineveh. God’s mercy is always underserved, unmerited, and freely given. Since Jonah deeply longed for even little displays of God’s mercy, he could not begrudge God for extending that same mercy to even worse sinners. In short, the message of Jonah is that we should praise God for saving us and our enemies. Same mercy that saves the kid in Sunday school saves the terrorist abusing his neighbor.

How Do We Apply Jonah to Our Lives?

At this moment, the realities of God’s love shatter the imperfections of our love. When God calls us to love our enemies, he calls us to do more than avoid overtly sinning against them (which for many of us is the summation of our love for our enemies). We cannot slander or rage against those who have campaigned against our political party, disrupted our family get-togethers, or destroyed our marriages. But love demands that we must do more than refrain from doing them evil. We must work for their salvation. Those whom we can’t stand are the very men, women, and people groups that we should be praying for and evangelizing. Augustine compared the Christian’s love for his enemies to the physician’s love for the sick, writing, “He loves the sick, not that they remain sick men but so that they may become healthy instead of sick.” To love as God loves, we must long to see our enemies saved from the wrath to come. This is the most radical aspect of the book of Jonah…the sovereign mercy of God. May God give us the grace to love the Ninevites in our life as God loved us.

Peter Witkowski Discipleship

The Resurrection, Incomplete Theology, & Action: A Lesson in Grieving Well

On the Sabbath after Jesus’s death, all that remained of his once large entourage was two women: Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James of John…two souls that knew the chaotic and unsettling depths of grief. But even in their sorrow and confusion, we still find them walking to the Messiah’s tomb. And in so doing, they provide us with a wonderful picture of godly grief. They reveal that godly grief consists not necessarily of great theological depth but of obedience in accordance with one’s knowledge of the Scriptures. In other words, to know whether we have handled or are handling our grief well, we need to only answer one simple question: “Am I obeying the Lord in accordance with my understanding of the Scriptures?”

What the Women Did Well

Though the women’s presence at the tomb proves quite commendable, it also reveals a noticeable kink in their theology. They do not expect Jesus to rise “After three days” even though the Lord predicted just that several times (Mt 27:63). Their theology was as incomplete as that of the disciples who had all run into hiding when Jesus was arrested and wrongfully convicted.

What set the women apart from the apostles and the many others who missed that narrative arch of Old Testament would be completed in Jesus was the women’s willingness to act on what they did know. Without question, they believed that Jesus was the Messiah who would accomplish, “the resurrection on the last day (Lk 11:24).” Though they did not know how a dead Messiah would triumph over death and most likely possessed more questions than answers as the moved along that first Easter morning, they never doubted the coming resurrection. And until that day came, the women would continue to worship Jesus, beginning with the preservation of his corpse. In so doing, they reveal that what glorifies God in our grief is not necessarily the development of theological papers derived from years of academic reading (though such papers certainly have their place in Christendom and even in grief) but profound obedience in light of what one does know. J.C. Ryle noted, “As a father delights in the first daisy that his child picks up and brings him, even so the Lord is pleased with the weak attempts of his people to serve him.” God delights in our expression’s of true faith however small.

Application for our Grief

When we lose a grandparent, close friend, a child, or a spouse, our souls will often melt into a puddle of confusion. During those first long days, most can barely manage to put together a funeral and navigate all the paperwork that floods their phones. At such times, most do not have enough head space or energy to discuss the ins-and-outs of divine simplicity. When we grieve, our minds often stop answering questions and start generate thousands of new ones such as, “Why?” Why did they die? Why this disease? Why this end?

But thankfully as these women at Jesus’s tomb reveal, we do not have to find answers to all of these questions to grieve well. Though we should long for a deeper knowledge of the Scriptures and should aspire to never be called “spiritual infants (1 Cor 3:1),” we do not have to read a systematic theology to survive grief.  We need only to act upon what we do know. When are faces are stained by tears and our stomach muscles pulse, we need to only place our hope in the most basic and fundamental of truths, beginning with: Jesus is the resurrection. He is good. He who died for me loves me and will support me. As the psalmist, we need only realize that, “This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life (Ps 119:50).”

Act

Then equipped with these promises, we act. Admittedly, none of us will get the opportunity to physically care for Jesus on this earth like these ladies did. But we can still care for Christ by caring for our brothers and sisters. When explaining the final judgement in Matthew 25, Jesus equates caring for the least of these with caring for him. Matthew records Jesus saying, “And the king will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me (Mt 25:40).” In other words, when grieving believers care for their fellow church members they care for Christ.

For some of us, that care might entail leading family devotions with our kids. For some of us, that might mean going to church and worshiping. For others of us, that might mean watching our grandkids or continuing to serve in the church nursery. For some of us, that might mean preaching sermons or teaching Sunday school classes. For others of us, that might mean visiting homebound members or bringing meals to a sleep deprived new mom. For some of us, that might mean discipling the young, single man who just joined the church. And for some of us, that might mean continuing to pray over your church family for an hour each day. Even though we might not understand all that is happening when a loved one dies, we understand enough to know that Jesus saved us from our sins and will come again, and that he should be obeyed. We know enough to act. In other words, we should go to the tomb.

Conclusion

When all seems dark and confusing, we don’t need to craft new ministries or redraft our life goals. Nor do we have to be the sharpest tool in the theological tool shed. Rather, we do need to act upon the essential gospel truths that we do know. If we do, we too shall experience Jesus’s goodness again and behold the favor of his face. Joy will come in the morning. The tomb is empty. Go and serve the risen Christ.

Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Don’t Speak; Listen: Instructions on How to Navigate Our Spiritual Highs

When the apostle Peter encounters the transfigured Christ whose “clothes became white as light,” the apostle (somewhat understandably) does the one thing he should not do…he speaks (Matt 17:4). Before he can fully explain why he wants to create three tent or hut like structures, the heavenly Father graciously interrupts the apostle’s meandering daydream. Matthew reports: “He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him (Matt 17:5).” In this brief rebuke, the Father reveals that the proper and best human response to divine glory consists not of human ingenuity but of human listening.  In other words, to make the most of our experiences of spiritual euphoria, we must not first speak but listen.

Does Jesus Still Speak?

Were it an option, I suspect all of us would happily purchase a ticket to the next transfiguration. But Jesus does not offer us or even the other disciples this opportunity. Jesus no longer invites us to climb mountains. Rather, Jesus instructs us to read the Scriptures. Speaking of his experience on the mountain and of the centrality of the Scriptures to all future Christian experience, Peter writes, “And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (1 Pt 1:19-20).” God’s glory does not abide permanently upon the mountain but in his revealed Word.

Least we think Peter has gone rogue and replaced the glorious revelations of Jesus with the boring binding of a book, we should recall Jesus’s words in John 14:26. The ideas found in 1 Peter have their genesis in Jesus who said, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” Jesus always intended for his earthly ministry teaching ministry to give way to the completion of the Scriptures. Thus, as John Piper often says, if we want to hear the voice of God, we need to read the Scriptures out loud. To commune with Jesus, we must listen to his Word.  

Today’s Mountain Tops

As we submit our lives to the Scriptures, we should expect to experience moments of joy, euphoria, and inspiration. Just as Jesus led the disciples atop the mountain, Jesus through his spirit continues to expose his children to the glories of his presence. We can experience such moments on walks while reciting scripture, at church while the service weaves its way through prayers, songs, and sermons, and at home while reading the Bible in the quiet of the early morning.

 And when they do occur, we like Peter can be tempted to think that our next idea (especially if it has a religious bent to it such as going on the mission field) is of the Lord. Why yes, I should start an orphanage, travel to the South pacific, marry that girl, preach that sermon, or give that donation. While we should praise the Lord for such impulses, we still must stop and listen to Jesus before we act. We must ensure that our newly discovered desires line up with Scripture and our spiritual gifts and competency. Perhaps you should start an orphanage but maybe you should not because you lack organizational skills. Perhaps you should go to the mission field in time, but if you leave college now, you will break your promise to finish school that you made with your parents whom you are to honor (Eph 6:2; Ex 20:12). Perhaps you should be a preacher or a missionary, but you first need to stop sleeping with your girl-friend and earn the support of your local church (1 Tim 3:1; 1 Thess 4:2-8). Yes, the desire for marriage is a good desire, but that boy is an avowed atheist and not someone a faithful Christian should marry (2 Cor 6:14; 1 Cor 15:33). And yes, God does love a cheerful giver, but he also calls you to pay your bills and would not be glorified by you defaulting on your rent so that you can meet that need (2 Cor 9:6-7; Jas. 5:4,10).

Before we act, we must check our desires and motives against the Scriptures. A profound spiritual experience does not guarantee that all that comes out of our mind has been sanctified or redeemed. Though God’s Word is always true, our hearts are not. We must take time to listen to the Son, trusting that he will provide us with the skills, resources, and opportunities to fulfill all that algins with the Scriptures.

What if We Spoke?

Though the Father calls us to listen to his Son, all of us at some point or other have inserted our foot into our mouth along with the apostle Peter. We have made a commitment, headed off to seminary, started a job, begun an adoption, or even entered a marriage without considering God’s revealed word. We have awoken to the disaster of a stressed schedule, a unhealthy work environment, a low GPA, a dysfunctional family, and an unbelieving spouse.

But even if we have acted foolishly and endured great hardship because we spoke before we listened, we should not lose hope. God will not cut us off from his grace.  When Jesus speaks to Peter at the end of the Transfiguration narrative, our Lord offers his impetuous and foolish disciple mercy. Matthew writes, “But Jesus came and touched them, saying “Rise, and have no fear (Mt. 17:7).”  Those who have trusted in Christ do not have to fear that their foolishness will forever separate them from the goodness of God. Jesus died for our sins and stands ready to help us. He came precisely because he knew that we have far more in common with the apostle Peter than we wish to admit. And the Jesus who lifted Peter from the ground will enable us to be more than conquerors through his Spirit who sanctifies us through his Word. Jesus will forgive us and walk with us. Hear the words of Jesus: “Rise and have not fear!”