The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany of Our Lord

(Audio)

Matthew 8:23-27; Romans 13:8-10; Jonah 1:1-17

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” But what is “the sign of the prophet Jonah?”

The LORD commanded Jonah to go the great city of Nineveh, notorious for its worldly and fleshly wickedness and godlessness, to call its inhabitants to repentance. Jonah disobeyed and promptly boarded a ship sailing in the opposite direction. What you need to understand here is that Jonah wasn’t afraid to go to Nineveh and preach repentance, but he believed that the Ninevites didn’t deserve it. Jonah wanted the Ninevites to remain in their sins and be condemned by God. Jonah knew that if he called them to repentance that the Holy Spirit had the power to turn their hearts, and that this was indeed God’s will in sending him. Thus, Jonah failed in showing love and mercy to sinners that the LORD desired to forgive and restore. That’s why Jonah fled.

And so, “the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.” Believing that the gods were angry with someone on board the mariners called out to their gods in terror, and they cast lots to determine who was responsible. The lot fell on Jonah who did not deny that the LORD, the God of Israel, had sent the tempest because he had disobeyed and fled. Jonah told them to throw him overboard, which they did at once, all the while praying to the God of Jonah and Israel, and the wind and the waves ceased, and all was calm.

What then is “the sign of the prophet Jonah?” The sign of the prophet Jonah was that the LORD was about to judge His people. Jonah, whose name means “dove” or “pigeon” was a type of Jesus Christ. As the LORD sent Jonah to preach repentance to the Ninevites, so did the LORD send Jesus to call the world to repentance and to offer Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. A dove or a pigeon was the sacrificial offering of the poor under the Law of Moses. Thus did Joseph and Mary offer the sacrifice of two doves for the redemption of their first-born son when Jesus was presented at the temple forty days after His birth according to the Law of Moses. Likewise did Noah send out a dove from the ark to see if the flood waters had receded. When the dove failed to return Noah knew that God’s wrath had been assuaged and that the LORD was at peace with mankind once again. Thus, the sign of the prophet Jonah was that God was about to judge the world innocent, not guilty, by laying all the sins of mankind upon His Son Jesus in His sacrificial death upon the cross. “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

Whereas Jonah did not want to preach to the Ninevites because he had already judged and condemned them, “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.” After the mariners called upon the God of Jonah and threw Jonah into the sea, “the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” Though Jonah was as good as dead, he was not the Christ but only a type of Jesus. The LORD spared Jonah’s life and the fish spit him out on dry land. Then Jonah went and preached to the men of Nineveh as the LORD had commanded and they repented and were saved. History and archeology both demonstrate that Nineveh, modern day Mosul in Iraq, had an ancient, significant, and continual Christian population even unto the present day, a population that has been the target of Islamic genocide in recent history.

And this fact gets at the heart of why this story appears in the Epiphany cycle. The world epiphany means “to make manifest” or “to show forth.” The Scripture lections for the Epiphany season each manifest and show forth who Jesus is and what He has come to do. An important fact that is revealed about Jesus during Epiphany is that He has come not only for the Jews, but for the Gentiles as well. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s covenant promise to Abraham that through an heir from his own flesh all the nations of the world would be blessed. The Gentile Mariners came to call upon the God of Jonah and Israel. The Gentile Ninevites repented and were saved and became the foundation of a lasting Christian community.

Also revealed in today’s lections, and throughout Epiphany, is that Jesus is God in the flesh, God with us, dwelling in the midst of His people. The same LORD who caused a mighty tempest to come upon the ship in which Jonah fled from the LORD calmed the wind the waves that threatened His fearful disciples by His Word from the mouth of His Son Jesus Christ. “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey Him?” What sort of man indeed! This man Jesus is the Lord, God in the flesh come to save His people from their sins.

We prayed in our collect this morning, “Almighty God, You know we live in the midst of so many dangers that in our frailty we cannot stand upright. Grant strength and protection to support us in all dangers and carry us through all temptations.” Because we live in the midst of dangers and temptations, and because we are frail and weak, we are often filled with fear, anxiety, and foreboding. Our fear can keep us from fulfilling our God-given vocations, lovingly serving one another with the love of God. St. John teaches us how fear can stifle our love saying, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” The prophet Isaiah comforts and encourages us that we have no need to be afraid for God is with us saying, “fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” And St. Paul encouraged a young pastor Timothy with these words, “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”

Do not be afraid. The LORD is with you. He who created you, the wind and the waves, the world and everything in it, and sustains it still, will deliver you from all your distresses. “He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed.”

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.