Looking into the lectionary
17th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 20)
25th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Jonah 3:10-4:11
September 20, 2026
Who is your arch-nemesis?
My husband once playfully asked me this while we were dating. My answer came surprisingly quickly: the person who consistently parked their car in front of the Evergreen Café on Penn Avenue in Pittsburgh’s East End, narrowing the busy two-lane thoroughfare to one lane at an extremely inconvenient point.
We were tickled when, months later, the car’s owner was voted Pittsburgh City Paper’s winner for Best Jagoff — Pittsburghese for “jerk.” Apparently, I wasn’t alone in my annoyance.
Jonah 3:10-4:11 asks us to consider what happens when God’s mercy extends to the people we find irritating, frustrating or morally bankrupt. Jonah knows that God is merciful. His problem is that God insists on being merciful to those people, including the owner of the car in front of the Evergreen Café.
Many evil forces in the world – systems, institutions, and people – profit from death and suffering. But the preacher may find it more revealing to begin closer to home when exploring this week’s theme of mercy.
What sets us off, kicking our feet and muttering about “those people”?
Is it our neighbor whose dogs bark way too late into the night?
The radically conservative pastor whose church has an amazing ministry caring for foster children, while we barely have enough energy to plan worship this week?
The church with the rainbow flag that pulls in dozens of volunteers to run its food bank, while we can’t get anyone to lead VBS?
The coworker who is constantly interrupting us?
Jonah is a prophet for those of us with a long list of “those people,” who find it easier to have compassion for a plant than another person. This story contains layers of anger and resentment.
First off, Jonah is furious that his God extends mercy to the people of a violent, power-hungry empire.
Then, we have the book’s original audience: the post-exilic people of Israel. While the story is set before Assyria captured the northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BCE, most scholars date its composition to the postexilic period (between the 5th and 3rd centuries BCE), after Israelites were allowed to return home following Babylon’s destruction of Jerusalem. In other words, this book about God’s concern for a foreign city was written for people rebuilding their understanding of self, including who was on the inside and who was on the outside of God’s favor.
Against this backdrop, “Jonah teaches us that it is God’s prerogative to offer mercy everywhere, all the time, to everyone, even if we think it is unjust, inappropriate, or not for ‘those people,’” Old Testament scholar Lisa Wolfe writes.
We reach the heart of the story in Jonah 4:2 when the writer reminds readers of Exodus 34:6, an ancient creed in which God’s steadfast love outweighs divine punishment about 250-1.
According to Wolfe, this thread of YHWH’s lovingkindness is not a fluke or minority view. We see it throughout the Old Testament in Numbers 14:18; Deuteronomy 4:31; 2 Chronicles 30:9; Nehemiah 9:17 and 31; Psalm 103:8; Jeremiah 32:18; Joel 2:13; and Nahum 1:2-3.
God’s mercy toward Nineveh is consistent with who Jonah knows God to be. And Jonah hates it.
The fascinating thing about the book of Jonah is that we never see Jonah discern the wickedness of his heart. The story is unfinished. God’s ultimate question – “Don’t I get to love ‘those people’ too?” – is left unanswered. We never hear Jonah’s response.
In my reading of Jonah, I am reminded of another story about extravagant mercy found in Luke 15:11-32. A younger son squanders his inheritance and returns home expecting judgment. Instead, his father runs to meet him, embraces him and throws a party.
The elder “faithful” brother stands outside the party, furious that mercy has been extended to someone who, in his estimation, does not deserve it.
The father goes out to him, too. And Jesus’ story ends before we find out what happens to the elder brother.
Jonah sits outside Nineveh.
The elder brother stands outside the party.
Both are confronted by a God whose mercy has crossed a boundary they would prefer to maintain. And both stories leave us outside with them, deciding what we will do next. That may be where the preacher should leave the congregation, too.
Who are “those people” for us?
Where have we become so convinced of our own righteousness that another person’s existence irritates us? Where do we begrudge compassion because we believe someone doesn’t deserve it? Where are we more concerned about the plants that shade us – our comfort, institutions, preferences, our way of doing church – than the people beyond them?
The final question of Jonah is God’s question: Should I not care about them, too?
The question passes to us.
Christ, through the Spirit, continues to tell this story: the story of a God who loves beyond the walls we establish between people, beyond the fences we put up between churches, beyond the categories of deserving and undeserving we carefully maintain.
While we are busy building barriers, God is busy loving the people on the other side.
The question Jonah leaves us with is whether we will join God in that work.
Questions for reflection on Jonah 3:10-4:11
- When you think of “those people,” the ones that get under your skin and cause your stomach to sour, who comes to mind? How do you expect God to interact with ‘those people’?
- What impact does God’s mercy have on your life? What impact does God’s mercy for others have on your life?
- Both Jonah and the elder brother are left outside, faced with a choice. Where might God be inviting you to cross a boundary, release resentment or join in God’s mercy?
View the corresponding Order of Worship for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
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