The Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jonah

One Sam's radical approach to the "Sign of Jonah"

          Ok, let me say up front, that I wouldn’t go to the stake for this one, but I think I have as good a chance of being right as anyone.  I have been teaching through the minor prophets and have come to Jonah again.  This coming Sunday I am going to suggest that the “Sign of Jonah,” which sounds like it could be a new M. Night Shyamalan movie, actually refers to the entombment of Jonah in the belly of the great fish, his resurrection, and then regurgitation to resume his mission.

In Matthew 12:39-41 and Luke 11:29-32, Jesus says that no sign would be given to “this wicked generation (meaning, the religious leaders of his day, primarily),” except the sign of Jonah.  So what is that sign?  Well, that’s where we run into difficulties…the most explicit Jesus gets is by saying that there is some relationship between Jonah being in the belly of the sea monster for three days and nights and Christ’s own burial.  In both cases, the presumed dead resurface to complete their mission.  I do not necessarily think that the similarity has to be that both die, but that does seem to be a fairly obvious possibility.  Another possible similarity is that both are presumed dead.  This might make some nervous, seeming to suggest that Jesus didn’t really die.  Another possibility is that both endured something harrowing that left them bearing distinct marks, in Jonah’s case, perhaps the bleaching/partial digestion of his skin and hair, and in Jesus’ case, the marks of his execution, or whatever it is that keeps his disciples from recognizing him at first.

For now, let me appeal to the second chapter of Jonah.  First, I’ve always thought that Jonah was thrown over the boat, practically into the mouth of the great fish.  However, as I read through chapter 2:3-7, its seems that he was likely adrift for a while: “For You had cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the current engulfed me. All Your breakers and billows passed over me.  So I said, 'I have been expelled from Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.'  Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me, Weeds were wrapped around my head.  I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, But You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God.  While I was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, And my prayer came to You, Into Your holy temple.”

The picture here is of Jonah slowly sinking to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.  Finally, when he is moments away from drowning to death he remembers Yahweh and the covenant relationship they have.  He says that the bars of the earth closed around him and that God had to bring his life up from the pit.  Let me suggest that Jonah died there and God then appointed a mobile burial spot…the great fish.  Three days later God raises him from the dead.  He awakes to the startling reality that he is in a sea monster, and then he calls out to the Lord…because what else could he do?  The beast feels nauseated (he had some bad Israelite a couple nights back), and the rest of the story is history.

So, how does this fit in the book.  Well, let me suggest that there is a strong undercurrent of justice and life and death in Jonah.  Nineveh deserves death and Jonah is afraid that God will spare them and so he runs away.  When the storm comes Jonah knows that he has sinned with a high hand and deserves death, and is thus thrown over.  The men know that life is not theirs for the taking and so pray earnestly to Yahweh for forgiveness, and are apparently granted it.  Jonah, who really did deserve death (and perhaps did die), is given new life.  Nineveh, slated for a just execution, is let free due to their repentance and God’s compassion.  Jonah cares greatly for a plant that God appoints to die, and in the end God explains that his hand of justice was stayed because of his compassion for a blind people.

In the end, Jesus’ resurrection is meant to have the same impact.  For those who were unbelieving before his death, it should have been the final wake up call when he was found alive.  It is a great condemnation of the religious leaders of the day, that hearing of (and perhaps seeing?) the living Christ did not move them to the same repentance as Nineveh.  I love the king’s ignorant hope, “Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish.”

So what do you think?  Did Jonah die and rise again, or am I all wet?

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