Jesus referenced the story of Jonah as if it really happened. Here is one of its many applications.

3 min read

“I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in mercy…” -Jonah 4:2

The story of Jonah is legendary, but it isn’t mythical. This famous biblical drama of a man being swallowed by a huge fish and then regurgitated a few days later stretches our imaginations to the limit.

But lest we frame it as an old fictitious story that makes for cute Sunday School lessons, we should remember that Jesus didn’t see the story of Jonah that way. For him, it was non-fiction.

When some of the religious leaders asked Jesus to give them a “sign” of his legitimacy, he knew that no matter how many miracles he performed and no matter how many lives he changed, it would never satisfy them.

So, rather than doing a trick-on-demand for his doubters, Jesus reached way back to the epic tale of Jonah, a story which, as Hebrews, they surely knew well:

But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 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. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.” -Matthew 12:39-41

In short, Jesus referenced the story of Jonah as a historical event that had a predictive element to it. As crazy as it may have sounded, Jonah’s story from hundreds of years before foreshadowed the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

Just like Jonah was written off as fish food on one day only to resurface alive a few days later, so Jesus would be swallowed into the depths on behalf of sinful humanity on a Friday only to burst forth very much alive on Sunday.

It would be hard to top Jonah’s story, but Jesus, as one “greater than Jonah,” would do just that. The cross and empty tomb would make for the most epic up from the bottom story of all time.

Everyone’s Overboard

So, a thoughtful reading of Jonah begins with the recognition that those four drama-filled chapters are not in the same category as Homer’s Odyssey, or Melville’s Moby Dick.

Jonah was a real guy who thought he had a better plan than God and ended up going overboard. But God had mercy on Jonah and, by way of a big fish, he rescued Jonah and gave him another opportunity. God was faithful to Jonah, even when Jonah was at his worst.

Really, Jonah’s story is our story, for we have all gone overboard. We’ve all chosen our own way and ended up in way over our heads. We have all taken a disastrous cruise on the ship called MYWAY.

But like Jonah, we also have survived to tell the story. By Gods grace, we’re saved. We ran, but he pursued us. We were soaking wet in a sea of desperation, but praise be to God, his love is waterproof.

It’s a new day with God. Run with it.