I knew it! I told you so! And you still did it! A few of us friends were discussing Jonah’s anger at God for saving Nineveh. He couldn’t abide God‘s mercy. But just a minute, we asked, wasn’t this what prophets do? Get a win and not get all frothy with God for a good outcome? Did Jonah really drive away in wah-wah-wambulance of self-pity, whining at God for being gracious, compassionate and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster?
We were kerflummoxed. This was the same Jonah, right? The prophet who was growing algae instead of hair after hanging out inside a giant fish. How could he think he knew better?
We’re critiqued if we don’t. So, Jonah told God, I’ve trained hard as a prophet and I know this city. It must be destroyed. This is my job and I trust my professional opinion. But here, Jonah’s trust was misplaced. He forgot what they told him in prophet school: hard work flows from transformation, it’s a result not a precursor. Our skills are worked out of faith. They never buy it. Never. Jonah thought he owned his knowledge. And so, the reversal: Trust me, God, I’m right on this one.
OK, so he looked to his training instead of to God. But some of us were still confused. Wasn’t this dude just saved from a whale? How could he not trust God? Do people ignore miracles? Yes, all the time, we reluctantly agreed after thinking about it. People still ask if God really meant it. Or, in pride and fear, channel CS Lewis who said we’re not actually doubting God, we’re just “wondering how painful the best for us (or Nineveh) will turn out to be." Whatever our pride and insecurities, woe to us for retreating into trusting ourselves, unrepentantly seeking solace in the world, anchoring our worth in shifting sands.
OK, so we felt the woe. Why didn’t Jonah? Well, just like he worked hard to become a good prophet, he was actually right about Nineveh. The suffering of innocent civilians had to stop. It was time for consequential justice. No need to pray like Nehemiah before facing danger, this was a time of action. His trained response as a religious prophet-surgeon was do a terrible cure for Nineveh. But here, Jonah was wrong again. God is sacred justice. He healed rather than destroyed the city.
That was the real reason for Jonah’s anger: he looked inside himself for the surgical plan, trusting his trained sense of legal righteousness instead of God’s. Sounds crazy for a prophet to be that way, but how about us surgeons? Jonah’s danger is ours. When we’re right we, too, just want to get it done. We’re criticized for delay. We must get to work.
And then, the Counsellor spoke. With perfect empathy, God asked Jonah (and us) what was right. God used Jonah’s own sense of right and wrong to help him see beyond himself. He encouraged thought rather than confrontation. God engaged with mercy and forgiveness.
We turned the page to see how it worked out. Alas, not well. Jonah sulked outside the city in his failed, selfish logic. He never did repent. We knew some surgeons like that but were still shocked to discover the book of Jonah ended without resolution. What? Raised on movies where the good guys always won, Jonah’s no-answer was no way to finish.
Or was it? In one of the greatest nonstatements of the Bible, Jonah was given another chance to figure it out. We who are loved, searched for, taught, and made not much lower than angels…we too are given that choice.
Later, Scripture told us our antihero Jonah likely said yes to God. Would we? Let’s see. God said, give up yourself. Trust Me completely. Even when you’re right, sacrifice yourself to knowing I am God and may have an even better answer. Where did we think truth came from anyway? So die to our own learned, trained, surgical sense of right.
Die? Give up all our teaching? No. Last month we said that’d be like Nehemiah giving up all his street smarts learned as a cup-bearer to King Ataxerxes. No. Die instead to the false sense of personal responsibility that once touched by God, it’s now our turn to act with all our new knowledge and spiritual insight. Jonah made that mistake after being vomited by a whale. He was resuscitated but wasn’t truly changed.
Thankfully, we can be fully transformed. Now, instead of saying thanks, God, we’ll take it from here, we surgical experts can join with Christ and operate with Him at our sides, grace in our hands, and wisdom in our minds. And we don’t have to smell like a fish. Well, not always. 3 AM perforations might still do that. But once touched by God, Jesus says open yourselves to the freedom of caring with Christ, celebrate that union, live rather than survive, love rather than live. We get to choose. Life in a piscine duodenum? Or love in the Divine? Make that choice and know God. Pray before each patient, pray in the operating room, listen even when the alarm bells are demanding action. God will always be there.
Christopher Moir, MD
PAACS Academic Dean
