Yesterday, we heard the stories of Jonah and the Good Samaritan, probably two of the most familiar stories of compassion told in Scripture. In Jonah we see the unrelenting compassion of God; and the Good Samaritan illustrates the potential for human compassion.
Yesterday, we had the beginning of Jonah’s story (Jonah 1:1-22). God came to Jonah and told him, “Set out for the great city of Nineveh and preach against it …” But Jonah is a reluctant prophet. He decides that he will run away from the task that the Lord has asked of him. He takes passage on a ship going the Tarshish, about as far away from Nineveh as you could go in the ancient world.
As I have said many times in these Daily Reflections, God is persistent when he wants something. God is not happy that his prophet is unwilling to do as God had commanded. He hurls a violent tempest and the mariners fear that the ship would break apart. They discover that the cause of God’s rath is Jonah and ask, “what shall we do … that the sea may quiet down for us.” Jonah would prefer to die than go to Nineveh. He tells the sailors to throw him off the ship into the stormy sea to die, and they do just that.
We might sympathize with Jonah not wanting to do what God asked of him when we consider that Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, a great enemy of Israel. But God is persistent when he wants something. God sends a “large fish” to save Jonah from drowning in the sea. The “large fish” swallows Jonah, carries him in his stomach for three days and three nights, then spits him out on a beach not far from Nineveh.
We could understand Jonah’s fear of going to the great city, but as we learn today, it is not out of fear that Jonah is fleeing, rather he does not want to warn the Ninevites of their impending doom (Jonah 3:1-10). He hates the Ninevites, and every sin that they are committing. He is wishing, wanting, and waiting for their destruction! He wants God to destroy them and their city. He doesn’t want to go warn them because he is worried that they might repent, and that God might spare them.
Is not that our attitude too? “Let them stew in their own juice”; or “He/she made his/her bed now let him/her lie in it”; or “They deserve everything they get.” When we say those things, we are not praying for the well-being of those people. These epitaphs usually indicate our lack of compassion, our desire that they will receive their punishment. We want revenge.
Did I mention that God is persistent when He wants something? God, again, TELLS Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach His message. Jonah relents, goes to Nineveh, and tells the Ninevites that God is going to destroy their wicked city in 40 days. Just as Jonah feared, the Ninevites, from the king on down, repent, fast, and pray to God for forgiveness. And God forgives them.
You would think Jonah would be happy. His preaching has converted an entire city. But no, Jonah is furious. The Ninevites are horrible people. God should not be sparing them. They deserve to die. God’s plan does not fit Jonah’s plan. Then God kindly shows Jonah the error of his ways.
Then we have the story of the “Good Samaritan” (Luke 10:25-37). It is important to remember that Samaritans were not Gentiles. They believed in the same Torah that the Israelites believe in. They were bound by same the law of love of neighbor (Leviticus 19:18) that the Israelites are bound by. Yet it is the Samaritan who is moved with compassion to help the injured man. Despite the cost of time, effort, money, and personal danger, he freely demonstrates unconditional love to the one in need, mimicking the kind of love that God offers to us.
It is also important to look at the setting of this parable. Jesus tells this dramatic story in response to questions put forward by a “scholar of the law”. The lawyer first asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus gives him the opportunity to answer his own question: the well-known combination of love God (Deuteronomy 6:5) and love of neighbor (Leviticus 19:18). Then the lawyer asks his second question “Who is my neighbor?” It is at this point that Jesus tells the Good Samaritan story. After Jesus completes his story, he once again has the lawyer answer his own question. Note that the lawyer cannot bring himself, in his answer, to name the hero as a “Samaritan”. He simply says, “the one who treated him with mercy.”
How like this lawyer are we in our smugness and our self-righteousness? How many times do we “test” God’s mercy for us? How rarely do we extend that same extravagant mercy to others? And certainly NOT to our enemy! When asked to be “merciful as God is merciful” (Luke 6:36), we run away from the task as Jonah does. We bemoan the task as impossible, and indeed it is a high standard, but it is what we are to do, “to inherit eternal life.”
Then we hear the story of the two sisters, Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38-42). I am sure I am not the only one who feels a little twinge at the story of Martha and Mary. I can picture the scene so clearly. Martha, in the kitchen, muttering under her breath and banging pots around while Mary sits in the other room, chores forgotten, as she listens to Jesus. I’ve had my share of those harrumphing moments, moments it seemed to me someone was getting out of doing his or her fair share while I … See, it doesn’t take much to develop that train of thought. Let’s take a deep breath and derail that train.
Some say the two sisters symbolize two essential aspects of the Church: prayer and service. Martha, busy about many things, welcomes Jesus with her hands, preparing for the meal. Mary, like a rabbinic disciple, sits at Jesus’ feet and welcomes him with a listening heart. Both are doing “the one thing necessary,” listening to the word of God, but in different ways. Service without love will not do. Prayer without action will be deficient. Holding these in balance can be a challenge for all of us.
We can so easily fill our lives with busyness, with watching what other people are doing, that we fail to look inside of ourselves. What really matters? Yes, of course, the dishes will have to be cleaned eventually, but isn’t it better to savor a moment with the family? Isn’t it better to take the time to take that breath and be thankful for what I have and for the people in my life? Sometimes we must let go, put down the dishtowel and let God take our worry and our anxiety, to see that our focus remains true.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!