Proper 20: Do You Do Well to Be Angry?
‘Jonah Under His Gourd’ (1561), by Maarten van Heemskerck. ALAMY
Lections – Jonah 3:10–4:11 (NRSV); Psalm 145 or 145:14–21; Philippians 1:21–27; Matthew 20:1–16
Thank you, Fr Morgan, for the warm welcome. What a joy to worship with you here at Corpus Christi. Let me open by reading from an article posted online this past June:
‘On June 11, 2021, lobster diver Michael Packard found himself in the mouth of a humpback whale off the coast of Provincetown. Forty seconds later, he resurfaced.
“It was like I was being squeezed...I was just enveloped by his mouth, it was just hard, dark, and scary,” Mr. Packard recalled in the 2023 documentary about the experience, entitled: In the Whale: the Greatest Fish Story Ever Told. “This is it, this is how I’m gonna die in a whale’s mouth.” [spoiler] Mr. Packard survived the whale encounter…’ (https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2026/06/13/film-documents-true-whale-tale)
The documentary is supposed to release on streaming platforms. But I have a bone to pick with the title, because the greatest fish story ever told is Jonah.
This morning we’ll focus on Jonah’s closing chapter (3:10-4:11). By way of outline, we’ll review context and then ask three questions:
1) What does this reveal about God?
2) What does this reveal about Jonah?
3) What does this reveal about us?
Let’s start with context: a little refresher to a familiar story. Jonah was a prophet of Israel, but God told him to deliver a message of judgment to Ninevah.
Ninevah was located along the Tigris River in what is now northern Iraq. It was a booming metropolis (“3 days journey in breadth,” 3:3) and future capital of Assyria, Israel’s great nemesis. Jonah would have needed to travel east at least a month, deep into enemy territory.
We aren’t told what Ninevah did to incite God’s fierce anger (literally, “burning in his nostrils”), but all sin offends God. We do know Ninevah worshipped Ishtar, the goddess of sex and fertility on the one hand and war and violence on the other, so it’s not difficult to imagine.
What does Jonah do? He books passage to Tarshish, the most western point in the known world. Merchant vessels took 3 years round trip from Joppa to Tarshish.
You recall what happens next: the Lord sends a violent storm. Jonah tells the sailors to throw him overboard, but instead of drowning, Jonah is swallowed by a big fish—the catch-all Hebrew term for large sea creatures.
After 3 days and nights, the Lord answers Jonah’s prayer and the big fish vomits him onto land. When God again tells him to go, Jonah makes the 550 mile trek to Ninevah and delivers the message: “In 40 days, Ninevah will be overturned!”
His enemy does the unthinkable. They heed his warning. They seek to appease the Hebrew God by showing sorrow for their evil ways through fasting, wearing sackcloth, and sitting in ashes; these were not typical Assyrian religious practices. They repent—all of them—from the king to the animals. They fast. They mourn. They cease their violence. They pray.
That’s where today’s reading picks up.
So let’s ask our first question. 1) What does this reveal about God?
Jonah 3:10 says,
“When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.”
God changed his mind. That can also be translated God relented, repented, or turned. This is not because God is changeable, fickle, or made a mistake. Rather, this is in keeping with his mercy.
Turns out that’s why Jonah didn’t want to go to Ninevah in the first place. He didn’t want God to show mercy to the enemy. He says in 4:2,
“…for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.”
Listen to that again.
That’s who God is. That’s how God described himself to Moses in Ex 34:6-7. He is undeserved grace and mercy. He’s slow to anger—literally “long of nostrils.” There’s no end to his promise-keeping love. He’s ready to forgive all who turn to him.
God explains this to Jonah in 4:11,
“And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”
The verb for “be concerned” encompasses pity, compassion, benevolence and mercy—what God feels for every living thing in the city, both human and animal. “Not knowing their right hand from their left” is an idiom for such total darkness that you can’t even see your own hands—in this case, spiritual darkness.
God shows mercy to Ninevah, a pagan city and Israel’s enemy because he has compassion for them and they turn to him.
God also shows mercy to Jonah. Not only does God rescue him, but even after Jonah obeys, the Lord cares about the state of his heart—about his anger and lack of compassion. More on that in a moment.
Jonah’s closing chapter grants us a glimpse of this gracious and merciful God. It is the same grace and mercy fully revealed when Jesus died to forgive us and rose to give us eternal life. If Jonah is a peek behind the curtain, then the cross rips that curtain wide on a love so vast that forgiveness and new life are offered freely to all.
That’s good news for us, for our neighbors, for our enemies, for everyone.
Except Jonah didn’t think so. That brings us to our 2nd question: 2) What does this reveal about Jonah?
Let’s start with the positives; there aren’t many. Jonah does obey, in the end. He speaks truth about God’s nature. He doesn’t stop praying. He keeps talking to God, even when he’s angry. You gotta hand it to him for being honest.
3:10 says God’s mercy toward Ninevah
“…was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry.”
What an understatement. The good that God did for Ninevah was evil upon evil in Jonah’s eyes, and he burned with anger over it. His nostrils flared. He was so angry that he’d rather die. Have you ever been that angry?
Here’s the thing: God can handle our anger. God doesn’t condemn Jonah. He doesn’t command him to stop. Instead, he invites Jonah to reflect. Listen to 4:4,
‘And the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”’
Put another way: Do you do well to be angry? Does it do you good?
In the ‘90s, Abbott Laboratories wanted to test a new pharmaceutical designed to treat anger. Problem was, they couldn’t find volunteers for clinical trials. Apparently, few people with volatile tempers saw their anger as a problem. (Chicago Tribune, 28 July 2000).
Maybe Jonah’s anger was justified. Or maybe it was petty. The text doesn’t say. But it doesn’t matter. Jonah’s anger gets in the way of the good God wants for him.
So the Lord arranges an object lesson: a bush that grows overnight to provide shade. To Jonah the bush is delight upon delight. Until a worm withers the bush.
And again God invites Jonah to reflect on his anger, picking up at 4:9,
‘But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?” And he said, “Yes, angry enough to die.”’
Stubborn, stubborn Jonah, feasting on his anger like a “toothsome morsel” when, as Frederick Beuchner says, “the skeleton at the feast is you.”
Jonah’s anger burns so hot that it’s easy to overlook the hope in 4:10,
‘Then the Lord said, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow…”’
Jonah’s concern for the bush is the same word as God’s concern for Ninevah. We already talked about that; it’s pity, compassion, mercy. We never see Jonah show pity to the bush. But God knows the heart. He calls out that sliver of compassion Jonah feels for the bush; he tugs those heartstrings. That right there, he says. That’s the same compassion that moves me, except so much greater.
I’d like to think that Jonah had an ‘aha’ moment, that the object lesson worked and he understood the antidote to anger is compassion. But we aren’t told. Jonah ends like a ‘choose your own adventure’ novel. We’re left with not what would Jonah do, but what will we do?
That brings us to our final point: 3) What does this reveal about us?
Ah. We never struggle with anger, do we? No, not faithful saints like us. Except we do. Or maybe it’s just me.
That’s one takeaway from Jonah. Keep it real. Keep it honest. We can talk to God about our anger. He can handle it.
Maybe we’re like Jonah or like those in the parable we read in Matthew 20:1-16, who begrudge the Lord’s generosity to others. Maybe we’re angry about trauma in our past or injustice in the present. Maybe we struggle with anger toward a parent or spouse or child or someone in the church. Maybe we’re angry with God.
In prayer, the Lord invites us to sit with his question: is it right for you to be angry? Do you do well to be angry?
Maybe? If we can be angry and not sin (Eph 4:26). But more often we experience James 1:20,
“…the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”
Anger gets in the way of what God wants for us. It gets in the way of relationships, of building up the church. It gets in the way of our witness and sharing Jesus. It gets in the way of loving others.
God didn’t snap his finger and evaporate Jonah’s anger. Rather, he arranged circumstances to lead Jonah toward growth.
We have something far greater. We have the Holy Spirit working in us to make us like Jesus, yet the Spirit doesn’t operate in a vacuum. He works as we yield to him, and he uses our relationships in the Body of Christ, as we live and serve and love together—just as Paul encouraged in our reading from Philippians 1:21-27. The Spirit uses the church to produce in us the character of God—so that we too might become “long of nostrils,” that is slow to anger and moved by godly compassion.
You may have heard that Annie Dillard died this week. If you don’t know her, she was a brilliant author. Her early books are nuanced observations on creation and the mystery of the Creator. We can’t know the state of her soul at the end, but her later writings suggest anger and disillusionment separated her from church and rattled her trust in God. That saddens me.
Church, you’re here so you’ve already chosen a different path.
Can we keep being honest in prayer? Can we sit with the question: is it right for you to be angry? Let’s talk to God about anything that gets in the way of what he wants for us.
And then, can we yield to the Spirit as he files down our sharp edges? That may require confession, forgiveness, reconciliation—things the last few Sundays have addressed. It will certainly require growing together as church family, whether on retreat, in formation groups, or in sharing Jesus’ love with neighbors.
Before I close in prayer, will you take a moment to sit in silence with however the Hoy Spirit is speaking to you and to offer yourself back to him?
Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to you, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly yours, utterly dedicated to you; and then use us, we pray, as you will, and always to your glory and the welfare of your people; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. [2019 BCP Collect 73. A Prayer of Self-Dedication – William Temple]
