{"id":8317,"date":"2019-11-01T17:11:21","date_gmt":"2019-11-01T17:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=8317"},"modified":"2019-11-02T16:35:35","modified_gmt":"2019-11-02T16:35:35","slug":"concerning-grumbling-and-thoughts-about-jonah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=8317","title":{"rendered":"Concerning the grumbling of the Pharisees and a look at Jonah"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to\nlisten to Him.<\/em> <\/em>Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to\ngrumble, saying, \u201cThis man receives sinners and eats with them.\u201d<\/em> Luke 15:1-2<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\nsome reason, this scene brings to mind some thoughts I had when reading the\nbook of Jonah recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You see, it hit me\u2014Jesus closely related to the prophet Jonah. Of course, Jesus knew He would be buried for three days in the tomb just as Jonah experienced three days in the belly of that humongous fish (see Matthew 12:40). The Lord thought about that eventuality\u2014probably often\u2014and took comfort that as Jonah was vomited out of the fish after three days, He, too, would be blasted back to life by the power of God. I believe He kept His thoughts on Jonah\u2019s deliverance as a faith-builder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However,\nJesus and Jonah had another similarity. Both were called to preach to a volatile,\nrebellious people. Both knew the chances of rejection were huge and could very\nlikely end in a violent death. Jesus, though, knew that undergoing this kind of\ntortuous death wasn\u2019t a mere probability; it was fact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both\nmen also understood that their obedience could lead to widespread,\nhistory-changing repentance and reconciliation to God. Jesus delighted in that end;\nJonah, on the other hand, recoiled from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast-forward\nto Jesus\u2019 day. Although the educated and religious folk of His time probably\nscoffed (as I have in the past) at Jonah\u2019s rank disgust at the thought of the\nrepentance and reformation of his foes in disregard to God\u2019s plan, here they\nhad a Man before them who unashamedly preached repentance and life transformation\nto the non-religious around them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did they say to themselves, \u201cNow, here\u2019s a Man\u2014unlike Jonah\u2014who willingly embraces sinners and the dregs of society, and by His preaching, their entire lives are miraculously changed and made whole!\u201d? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, they grumbled<\/em>. They had no interest in \u201csinners\u201d; they had no interest in the transformational intersection of a human with his\/her Maker. They could care less about the secret fears, sorrows, or pains of those with whom they were spiritually charged. They were Jonah<\/em>\u2014yet a Jonah who never turned to offer repentance and hope of God\u2019s forgiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus, like Jonah, preached repentance as the doorway to the kingdom of heaven. He didn\u2019t sugar-coat His message and made no exceptions concerning sin; but He preached repentance out of a heart of love and compassion for those stuck in the quagmire of their lives. And their lives, deemed valuable to this Shepherd, were transformed as they gave Him their hearts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

May you and I see our lives and those around us with the eyes of Jesus, not Jonah\u2014and certainly not with the eyes of the \u201clearned\u201d religious ones of Jesus\u2019 day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dorothy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a9 2019, Dorothy Frick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, \u201cThis man receives sinners and eats with them.\u201d Luke 15:1-2 For some reason, this scene brings to mind some thoughts I had when reading the book of Jonah recently. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[534],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bk-of-luke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8317"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8324,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8317\/revisions\/8324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}