Messengers Needed

 Jesu Juva

Jonah 3:1-5, 10                                                          

January 21, 2024

Epiphany 3B                              

 Dear saints of our Savior~

        There’s a sense of urgency on this third Sunday of Epiphany.  Intensity and immediacy ring out in all the Scripture readings.  There’s no hesitation.  Jesus calls Simon and Andrew; and immediately they left their nets and followed him.  As soon as Jesus calls the sons of Zebedee—immediately they left their father and followed Jesus.  Everything happens immediately in Mark’s gospel.  If all you had was Mark’s gospel, you’d think everything happened in six months or so—one thing immediately after another.

        The first words out of Jesus’ mouth in Mark’s gospel are urgent:  The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.  Don’t wait.  Don’t procrastinate.  There’s no, “let me think it over for a week and get back to you.”  Now is the time of God’s favor.  Now is the day of salvation.  When the King says follow me, you drop everything and go.

        You sense that same urgency in today’s epistle reading.  The Corinthians were bogged down by petty divisions and soul-crushing confusion.  That congregation was a hot mess.  Paul seems to be saying that there’s no time for that.  Get it together!  The appointed time has grown very short—like the two minute warning in a Packer playoff game. It’s the difference between playing to win . . . and playing not to lose.  The present form of this world is passing away.

        And finally, there’s Jonah, at long last preaching to the evil city of Nineveh.  The Lord had a message of repentance for the people of Nineveh; and Jonah was the messenger He wanted to deliver it.  Of course, everyone knows this was a job Jonah did not want.  Jonah initially told the Lord to take this job and shove it, as he set sail for sunny Spain.  But Jonah learned the hard way that the Lord can be rather persuasive in redirecting His wayward messengers.  Three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish was all it took to convince Jonah to catch the next flight to Nineveh.

        When the Lord has need of you, there’s no time to lose—no time to pause and ponder.  The clock is ticking.  Now, Jonah had good reasons to re-think his assignment.  Nineveh was a terrible place—a city full of lies and blood.  Jonah thought (and even hoped) that it was far too late for Nineveh.  Any message of repentance he delivered would only fall on deaf ears.  Why bother?

        We might ask the same question:  Why bother?  Why bother speaking God’s truth in a culture of lies?  In a culture that casually calls the murder of the unborn “reproductive rights,” and calls the castration and mutilation of little children “gender affirming care,” in a culture that thinks the ultimate key to happiness is legalized weed, can’t we pretty much conclude that this culture and its people are a lost cause?  Can’t we just close up shop, keep the good news of the gospel to ourselves, and hunker down to await fire and brimstone?

        It turns out we can’t.  It turns out that this dying world and her sinful inhabitants are loved by the Lord.  They are died-for.  God desires not the death of sinners but that they turn and live.  Repent and believe in the gospel!  He sent His Son to speak the truth to a world of lies.  He sent His Son into this wicked and bloody world—so that His blood would be shed at the hands of the wicked, to save the wicked from their sins.  Judgement is coming and that right soon.  The appointed time has grown very short.  But between now and that deadline with disaster, the Lord has laid down a wonderful way of escape and deliverance through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.  Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.

        But not everyone knows this.  Not everyone understands this.  Not everyone realizes just how high the stakes really are.  And so the Lord sent a reluctant preacher to Nineveh.  And so Jesus called Simon and Andrew, James and John, from their secure and predictable lives to follow Him to the ends of the earth. 

        And in a sense, nothing has changed since Jesus called His very first disciples.  The Lord still needs messengers.  The Lord still needs witnesses.  He needs fishers of men and fishers of women.  He needs as many people as possible to simply let down the nets and to pull as many people as possible into this boat of repentance and faith we call the church.  The kingdom of God is at hand!  Repent and believe in the gospel.  And the need is now—immediately, urgently.  It’s critical.  There’s no time to lose.

        Yet that sense of urgency for the Lord’s mission is often lost on us.  Outside of Sunday mornings we give scant attention to things spiritual and things eternal.  The present form of this world is passing away; but the majority of our mental and physical energy is spent on the present form of this world.  We’re all about things temporal—time bound.  What will we eat?  What will we drink?  What will we wear?  Will Trader Joe’s have my favorite cheese in stock?  What about dinner reservations, concert tickets, and spring break travel?  Fair enough.  There’s no sin in asking those questions. 

        But today’s take-away from God’s Word is the immediate, intense, urgent need for messengers—for people like us to walk right into Nineveh—or stride right into Corinth—with an invitation—with the good news about Jesus that changes hearts and minds forever.

        And don’t say I could never do that.  Jonah was the worst, most lackluster messenger the Lord ever called.  Nobody did discipleship worse than Jonah.  He preached the most half-hearted, uninspiring sermon in the history of sermons (“Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown. Amen”).  Jonah leaves no doubt that the results are in the Lord’s hands.  And what amazing results!  The people of Nineveh believed God!  They repented.  They turned.  They changed.  They fasted. They covered themselves in sackcloth and ashes—from the greatest of them to the least.  Nobody saw that coming!

        This is every reason for us to speak up in word and deed—to bear the message of the gospel on our lips and in our lives.  Don’t be afraid to speak up about the sanctity of human life, or about God’s design for marriage, sexuality, or gender.  The need for messengers is immediate.  It’s urgent.  Better still, we have a powerful and positive message to share.  And the success of this message doesn’t depend on our power or persuasiveness.  The results are—always—in God’s hands.  It’s not our message; it’s God’s.  He simply invites you to speak it on His behalf.  If not you, then who? 

        I first told you in December about an opportunity coming your way soon to give away a beautiful edition of Luther’s Small Catechism. Nobody’s sending you to Nineveh.  You don’t have to leave behind your calling and career.  In fact, you get to carefully and prayerfully consider the recipient of your catechism.  To whom can you be a messenger of good news?  Who do you know that could benefit from this beautiful summary of God’s Word?  Who might just accept an invitation to come here and learn more?  Think it over.  Pray about it.  No messengers have ever had such a great message to share.  And remember, the results are in God’s hands.

        In Jesus Christ we can see what God really thinks about the residents of this fallen world.  Through Jesus we come to see how the hands that knit you together in your mother’s womb—those hands were also stretched out on a cross for you—to pay the price of all your sin.  The hands of the resurrected Jesus are still scarred and always will be—loving reminders that He can remove every sinful scar and stain from those who repent and believe.  And with those same hands, Jesus will one day embrace you, face to face in heaven.

        In this world you usually get what you deserve.  But with our God, the plot doesn’t run quite so predictably.  The bad guys of Nineveh didn’t get what they deserved.  Jonah got to be the Lord’s messenger despite a lackluster effort.  Ordinary fishermen followed Jesus and became fishers of men.  They all received grace and compassion.  And that’s how it works for every child of God—including you.  The punishment and wrath we deserve for our sin—that’s not what we get.  Jesus takes the punishment.  Jesus takes the wrath.  Jesus takes our sins.  He got what you deserve; and you—you get grace and forgiveness.

        We call that the gospel—the good news of God’s love for you in Christ.  That’s the message that matters most—a message you are privileged to share and bear on your lips and in your life.

        In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.