Village Shepherd

Some prisons have recently introduced a scheme whereby very dangerous prisoners who pose a high security risk earn spending power through playing sport or helping with cleaning. Thus these prisoners may be paid for playing Scrabble. This has produced something of an outcry amongst some sections of the general population. They find it outrageous that men who have committed horrendous crimes such as rape and murder, should be paid for playing games. Prison should be for punishment, they say, not a holiday camp.

The rationale behind the scheme is an attempt to begin to socialise these isolated and anti-social men. It is seen as a great step forward if a dangerous prisoner who has no idea how to treat other human beings, can actually sit down and join in a game with them, or even play in a team. But this idea is scathingly dismissed as 'do-gooding' or being 'soft on crime' by some, who think that prison should only be about punishment, the harsher the better, and not at all about attempts at rehabilitation or giving someone a new start in life. The argument is that since the prisoners have chosen to commit their horrific crimes with no thought for their victims, they should pay for their actions, perhaps for the whole of the rest of their lives.

While the Bible is hot on justice and regards God as a God of justice, that justice has always been tempered by love and forgiveness. The story of Jonah was written about five centuries before Jesus was born, to counter the very narrow and vindictive viewpoint of some orthodox Jews who wanted to keep the Jewish religion 'pure' by keeping God to themselves as the Chosen People and by making sure that God's wrath was poured on any nation which opposed them.

The occasion is after the exile, when the Jews have returned to their homeland, some with bitter memories of the years away in Babylon as virtual prisoners of the Babylonians and subject to foreign religions. Now they were back home, many Jews reacted by becoming intensely nationalistic and longing for terrible punishments to be visited upon any who threatened them in any way.

The Book of Jonah was written as a comic parable to show that God's mercy is free for all, not just for Jews.

Jonah was called by God to go to the great city of Ninevah, at that time the capital of Assyria, Israel's current enemy. Jonah is horrified at this request and runs away from God, rather than follow God's bidding. Assuming as many Jews did even after the experience of the exile, that God is only to be found in Israel, Jonah boards a ship which puts out to sea. But a great storm arises which terrifies the sailors and threatens shipwreck. In a humourously modern quirk, the sailors wonder whose fault it is that the storm has arisen, and they draw lots to discover the answer. Obviously the storm is Jonah's fault, and although the sailors try to row to land to offload Jonah, they are unable to do so. They throw Jonah overboard.

Jonah is swallowed by a large fish and remains inside the fish for three days and nights before he is spewed up unharmed onto dry land. In today's reading from chapter three, God speaks to Jonah again, repeating the message that Jonah must go to Ninevah and call the people their to turn from their evil ways.

This time Jonah reluctantly obeys God, although he doesn't say much. He apparently only says, "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" But this is sufficient for the people of Ninevah. They hear God's message as proclaimed by Jonah, they believe it, are horrified by its implications, proclaim a fast and demonstrate their change of heart by donning sackcloth.

God is moved and delighted by their response and immediately we're told, 'changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.'

But as the book continues, we learn that Jonah is disgusted by God's reaction. Jonah is deeply disappointed that the Assyrians have repented and at the beginning of chapter four we read, 'his greatly displeased Jonah. In anger he prayed to the Lord, "It is just as I feared, Lord, when I was still in my own country and it was to forestall this that I tried to escape to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, long-suffering, ever constant, always ready to relent and not inflict punishment. Now take away my life, Lord. I should be better dead than alive."' (Jonah 4:1-3)

But the parable isn't quite finished and as it continues, we readers realise that it is more about the lessons Jonah had to learn than about the city of Ninevah.

Jonah goes out of the city and sits down to wait and see what happens to Ninevah. God causes a gourd to grow, throwing its shade over Jonah and affording him welcome relief from the burning heat of the sun. Jonah is 'very glad' of the shelter. But at dawn next day God causes a worm to attack the gourd, which withers. And when the sun rises, God causes a scorching wind to accompany the sun, so that poor Jonah becomes faint from sunstroke. Again he prays for death.

God asks him whether he has the right to be sorry about the gourd dying and Jonah robustly declares that he has every right to be sorry. Then comes the punch line. God says to Jonah, "You are sorry about the gourd, although you had nothing to do with growing it. Why shouldn't I be sorry about the great city of Ninevah with its 120,000 inhabitants?" (Jonah 4:9-11)

Like Jonah we are often only too ready to virtuously demand justice and desire punishment for others whom we can see have done terrible things. But like the man in the story told by Jesus, who wanted to take a speck out of his friend's eye while having a great plank in his own eye, none of us is innocent.

For Christians, justice must be tempered by love, for we have a God who is gracious and compassionate, long-suffering, ever constant, always ready to relent and not inflict punishment. And we are called to be like him.