Road to Emmaus Third Sunday of Ordinary Time

Jan 21, 2009

(Cycle B)

First Reading – Jonah 3:1-5, 10

Responsorial Psalm – Ps. 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9

Second Reading – 1 Cor. 7:29-31

Gospel Reading – Mk. 1:14-20

This Sunday’s readings from the prophet Jonah and the Gospel of Mark primarily focus on the theme of repentance. Let’s begin our reflections by considering the situation in Jonah’s time.

Jonah and the Assyrians

Jonah was a prophet who lived during the time of the divided Kingdom. This is a time when a Davidic king reigned over the two tribes in the south, the Kingdom of Judah, and a variety of kings reigned over the ten tribes in the north, the Kingdom of Israel.

Jonah was from the Northern Kingdom and prophesied during the reign of King Jeroboam II (cf. 2 Kgs. 14:25). We are told that King Jeroboam II "did what was evil in the sight of the Lord" (2 Kgs. 14:24). He comes after a long line of kings in the Northern Kingdom who "did what was evil in the sight of the Lord," beginning with Jeroboam I, the first king in the north (cf. 1 Kgs. 15:26, 24; 16:25, 30; 2 Kgs. 3:2; 13:2, 11; 14:24; 15:9, 18, 24, 28; 17:2).

Other prophets also spoke the word of the Lord to those in the North, prophets like Elijah, Elisha, Amos and Hosea. Each one spoke of Israel’s sin, which was primarily idolatry. Then, each one spoke of the forthcoming punishment that would befall those in the north if they did not repent. However, they would never repent and thus would suffer the consequences.

This is where Jonah fits in. In the book of the prophet Jonah he does not prophesy to those in the north, rather God sends him to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. Assyria was the dominant world ruling power of the day, much like Egypt had been and Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome would be.

Assyria was also a wicked nation and deserved punishment for their sin if they did not repent. Jonah would eventually go there and offer only one sentence of prophecy, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh will be overthrown!" (3:4b). What is their response? "And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them" (3:5). This is in stark contrast to the response of the People of God in the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

This, however, throws light on why Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh. Being a prophet he knew God’s plan. Jonah knew his people would not repent, and probably had a sense that the Assyrians would. He knew that God would then use the Assyrians to bring punishment upon the Northern Kingdom. And being a patriotic Israelite, he would not want this to happen. He probably wouldn’t have minded going to Nineveh, but precisely on the fortieth day in order to see its destruction.

However, Nineveh, unlike those northern Israelites, did believe and repent. As a result God would use Assyria to bring judgment upon those in the north in 722 B.C.

How does this relate to Sunday’s Gospel reading? Let’s see.

Jesus, a greater Jonah

After Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan he goes out into the desert for forty days and is tempted by the devil. Jesus comes out of the desert and begins his public ministry with the words, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the Gospel" (Mk. 1:15). Here we see a common theme with the Old Testament reading from Jonah, namely repentance and belief.

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So, as Jonah preached repentance, so too does Jesus. As Jonah preached the forthcoming destruction of Nineveh if there was no repentance, so too Jesus preached the forthcoming destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple if there was no repentance. Jesus said, "Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left one stone upon another that will not be thrown down" (Mk. 13:2). Jesus makes clear that, "…this generation will not pass away till all these things take place" (Mt. 24:34). A generation was forty years. Thus, Jonah prophesied destruction in forty days and Jesus prophecies destruction in forty years. And in 70 A.D., within a generation, the Temple is destroyed.

Jesus had warned "…this evil and adulterous generation…" about what was to come (Mt. 12:39). They came seeking a sign, but Jesus told them, "no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah" (Mt. 12:39). What sign was the sign of Jonah? "…Jonah was three nights and three days in the belly of the whale…" (Mt. 12:40). Of course, after this is when Jonah went to Nineveh. Jesus goes on to say, "So will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Mt. 12:39).

This sheds some light on why Nineveh repented. It wasn’t just Jonah’s words that caused repentance and belief, but also the fact that Jonah experienced a sort of death and resurrection, if not an actual death and resurrection. The Ninevites saw this sign, heard Jonah’s words and thus believed and repented.

However, Jesus says that his generation will not even believe and repent because of this kind of a sign. His death and resurrection won’t even do the trick. He says, "and behold, something greater than Jonah is here" (Mt. 12:41b).

Jesus is a new and greater Jonah. This is shown in some other ways in Scripture that might be of interest. It has to do with some parallels between what happened with Jonah and Jesus’ calming of the sea in Matthew 8:23-27. In both events:

1. There is a setting sail on a boat.

2. They are caught in a storm.

3. Someone is found asleep.

4. There are frightened sailors.

5. The sailors call upon the Lord.

6. Jonah, and then Jesus, is instrumental in bringing about a great calm.

7. The sailors marvel at the outcome.

The difference we see in these two events is that it was not Jonah who calmed the sea, but the Lord. Then we have Jesus, the Lord, being the one who calms the sea. Here we have two miracles over nature.

And, interestingly, the Old Testament attributes to God alone authority over the sea. "You [Lord] rule the raging of the sea; when it waves rise, you still them" (Ps. 89:9). "Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the Lord on high is mighty!" (93:4). "Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from distress; he made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed" (Ps. 107:29). With this we come to the understanding that Jesus is in fact God.

Simon, Andrew, James and John

How might this theme of repentance apply to Jesus passing along the Sea of Galilee and calling Simon, Andrew, James and John to follow him, which also forms part of the Gospel reading for this Sunday?

What we can presuppose is that these men have repented. This is very clear in the case of Andrew. We know that he was a disciple of John the Baptist, and to be a disciple of John the Baptist he would have to had undergone his baptism of repentance (cf. Jn. 1:40). We might also consider plausible from the context of John 1:29-42 that Simon, Andrew’s brother, was a disciple of John the Baptist as well. Some also speculate that John the Evangelist may have been one of the two disciples mentioned in this passage, and thus originally a disciple of John the Baptist.

In any case the immediacy of their response indicates that they were spiritually in a position to respond to the Lord when he called them to follow him. So too, if we care to be ready at all to respond to the Lord when he calls we must undergo a metanoia (repentance), which is a complete turning over of our hearts and lives to the Lord.

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