Surprising Sources of Violence

 

Jonah 3:1-10- 4:1-5

This is probably one of the more surprising passages in all of scripture. It is surprising for many reasons. One of those reasons is the surprising sources of violence. The first source of violence is the pagan society of Assyrian. When I say pagan I mean a worldview. Paganism believes in many gods. When you look across history and the various societies/cultures that believed in paganism you discover that those societies/cultures were often violent cultures. For example the ancient Roman socieity was pagan and violent. Rome built the Colosseum. The Colosseum, by some estimates, could seat up to 50,000 people. These 50,0000 people would gather and cheer as they  witnessed gladiators kill each other, lions eat people and others burned alive. And in those pagan cultures there was no concern for the poor or weak. In fact many of the gladiators that fought to the death in front of cheering crowds were slaves.

Well why are pagan cultures so violent? Christian thinker and theologian Augustine (354 to 430) in his book titled The City of God gives a critique of paganism. In fact Augustine's critique of paganism was so intellectually devastating that paganism would not seem viable for centuries. Augustine’s argument basically says that if there is one God, who is the supreme power and law giver over everything in the world means that the world is essentially, inherently, originally an orderly peaceful place. God’s project is to bring peace and justice into the world. Those that seek to follow God are to join in on this project.

However, believing in many gods means having many powers who are all at war with each other. There is no one supreme law giver or judge or truth. Polytheism therefore believes that the universe is essentially violent. That the world is essentially a chaotic and violent place. Augustine suggests that if paganism is true then you can’t have a justice society. Because if polytheism is true then it means that the world in its very nature is violent. Therefore justice and peace are totally unnatural. You have no hope for justice or any basis for justice because there is no one truth or law giver. Who is to say what justice is? Thus within a polytheistic worldview there is no bases for even talking about justice or peace. Augustine says if you want proof then just look at the history of Rome. Roman culture was pagan and it was not a culture seeking truth and justice but one of power and subjugation.

What is it our current culture? Our culture wants to suggest that everybody has truth and that everybody has their own gods.  Not only that be we have also been taught that this world is an accident in which the natural order of things is that the strong eat the weak. Thus the world at its core is violent. If there is no God and there is no truth then reality is by its very nature violent. It would seem that we have much in common with the pagans of old. Our current culture finds really has no bases upon which to talk about justice and peace. If there are multiple truths/gods and all of them are equal then just what is justice or peace? Who is to say what is just? Who is to say who is right?

Our culture suggests that tolerance is the answer to figuring out issues of justice and peace. Well why? If this world is all there is and if this world is nothing more than an accident then that means that reality it basically violent and chaotic. It means that there is no way to define truth and justice. Give one good reason why people should not do whatever they want? Why shouldn’t we take power and use it to our advantage over others? The dirty truth is that being tolerant is just another form of oppression and violence. This is one source of violence that the book of Jonah highlights.

There is another source of violence as well. The word for violence in Hebrew does not just mean physical violence. The word also means other forms of violence like the stronger hurting the weaker and the rich oppressing the poor. Jonah arrives in Nineveh and tells the people to  give up their violence ways. Amazingly they do! Every social worker, every mayor, every city official, every minister, every church attender worth their salt wants that. The people of Nineveh hear Jonah and say you are right. We have been wicked and violent and we are going to change. One might expect that this is where the story would end. Fade to black and roll the credits. Yet that is not what happens.

Instead we are given the very astounding chapter 4:1. In the original Hebrew Jonah 4:1 literally reads Jonah became evil by the evil he saw. That is difficult to translate. Basically what it means is when Jonah saw God refusing to be violent with the violent Jonah became violently angry. What is Jonah so angry about? What does Jonah want? Jonah goes and sets up a tent to watch the city.  He is hoping to watch the destruction of the city. Jonah is sitting there because he wants to see fire balls coming out of the sky and smashing buildings. Jonah wants Sodom and Gomorrah. Jonah wants violence. What the Bible is telling us then is something really amazing. The Bible is suggesting that religion can also be a source of violence.

Jonah is violent not in spite of the fact that he is religious, not in spite of the fact that he is a prophet, not in spite of the fact that he is so moral. He is being violently angry because he is religious. These are the pagans. These are the heretics. These are bad people and we are the good people. Why haven’t you bombed them yet? The danger of morality if it is not put into a context of  Gospel grace is that it often leads very moral people to reasoning something like this . . . The reason why I can look myself in the mirror, the reason why I am an alright person is because I am moral and I obey the truth. I know the truth and that is what makes me better than other people. When you are not just moral but moralistic and turn that into moralism then you again have the seeds from which violence can grow and power can be abused. That is really astounding.

In Jonah 4:2-3 Jonah basically says to God – I knew it! Compassionate! I knew that at the drop of sackcloth you would relent! I knew that you were characterized by hair trigger compassion! Jonah tells God that the people of Nineveh have not really converted. They have not called you Yahweh. They have not used your name so they must not be converted. God, they haven’t changed! They are just scared! Maybe heartfelt but it is superficial. They have not even converted for crying out loud. They are a violent people and you relented and gave them another chance. Jonah gets so full of hate and anger that he tells God that he no longer desires.

It is hard to find another place where the Bible has unmasked the kind of wickedness that can be nurtured in the heart of a moral religious life. The Bible is unbelievably nuanced more so than its critics. The Bible tells us that pluralistic relativism and moralistic absolutism are the seeds for violence. That means that just about every kind of a person and very kind of society and very kind of group has tremendous potential for oppression and cruelty and violence.

Conservative type commentators are always saying that the problem with America is that we have lost our values. We have to get back our moral values. This overlooks the fact that religiosity and moralism is one of the great reasons why there is violence. On the other hand secular/liberal commentators suggest that what is wrong with America is fundamentalism. If we would all just be tolerant and not place one truth over another truth then we would all get along. Well that raises a question. Why are we not worried about Amish terrorist? Amish are by every single definition fundamentalist . . . to the core. Why aren’t they being investigated or hauled off to jail? Because at the core of their fundamentalism is Jesus. The God who comes and serves and gives his life in service to others. If that is your fundamental then that sucks the violence right out of you.

One of the lessons that the book of Jonah it attempting to communicate is how to deal with others when they have hurt you. Nineveh had caused many, including Israel, to suffer and hurt. God says, through the story of Jonah, that He will not allow vengeance nor will He allow resignation. Vengeance sets out to pummel those who have hurt me. In seeking vengeance a person is not seeking justice and truth. They seek to make others suffer like they have suffered. They are dealing with their hurt by making others hurt.

Resignation says just let it go, don’t bring it up, don’t say a word, forget it , just get past it because no matter you do it is not going to be able to undo hurt. Resignation always looks a bit more spiritual but the fact is you are also not thinking about truth and justice. What you are thinking about is your own hurt. To either pummel or avoid are both selfish because both don’t want to deal with the evil doer. Now if we are not supposed to do vengeance and we are not supposed to ignore then what do we do? The Bible says we are to forgive. Forgiveness is not pummel nor does it let things go. That is not what God does in Nineveh. Forgiveness is dealing and getting rid of hate and anger before you deal with the wrong doer. In vengeance you are dealing with hurt in our hate and anger. In resignation deals with hate and anger by avoiding the wrong doer. This is what Jonah does. He hates Nineveh on the inside and on the outside he wants nothing to do with them. God says you love your enemy first then confront them. The Bible does not say pay evil for evil nor does it say avoid evil. It says overcome evil with good. Even it if mean punishment and confrontation. You might just punish someone in a positive way if you have gotten rid of the hate and anger in your heart.

To be able to be a forgive you have to have the right identity. Jonah has forgotten who God is. God asks Jonah “Do you have the right to be angry?” This question tells us that if you stay in your bitterness towards someone it is because you think you are better than they are. When you see Jesus Christ paying the cost by going to the cross rather than making you pay . . . then we have a secret to what it means to forgive somebody else and deal with your hatred. Jesus cries over the city that will eventually kill him. When he is placed on the cross he takes all the violence without paying it back. Jesus over came violence with forgiveness. Forgiveness is painful but so is wood and nails and pain. Forgiveness is not for wimps. Pain, wood and nails are the currency of forgiveness that leads to healing and resurrection. If God can use imperfect Jonah to bring repentance to the violence city of Nineveh they maybe God can use us to the do the same.