We need mercy. And God is a God of mercy. This is the lesson that God aims to teach Jonah. Like Jonah, we often admire the idea of the second half of the lesson: God is a God of mercy. This is a good attribute of God, especially for any person who may need mercy. However, we often, like Jonah, stumble at the first half of the lesson. We don’t stumble at the fact that humanity in general needs mercy. Rather, we stumble when it becomes personal: I need mercy. Our hearts protest to this because it implies that we’re in the wrong and there is nothing we can do to right ourselves. So instead, our legalistic flesh works for mercy in order to get to a place where we wrongly think of it this way: I deserve mercy. And when we find ourselves thinking of mercy in this wrongheaded way, we often, like Jonah, project it negatively onto others: They don’t deserve mercy. But if we are to stand a chance spiritually, we must swallow this truth: We, I, you need mercy, and there is nothing we can do to deserve it.

 

Mercy in Jonah: The Pagan Sailors
This is a truth, our need for mercy, that the pagan sailors, who desperately—as a last resort—hurled Jonah into a raging sea, recognized as their words attest,

 

Therefore [the pagan sailors] called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you” (Jonah 1:14).

 

First, notice the final clause, “for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” This tells us that these pagans recognize that God is sovereign over their situation as Creator of all things (i.e. Jonah 1:9) and rightfully does all that he pleases. Second, the sailors recognize that, in light of who God is, they are completely at his mercy. They plead no merit. They have done nothing to deserve mercy as pagans who have never worshiped him. These pagan sailors recognize they need mercy that they don’t deserve. So what do they do? They bank their lives on God being merciful.

These pagans stake everything on God being merciful to them. They cast themselves upon his mercy simply based on who he is. And they learn that God delights to give mercy to those who trust him for it,

 

So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows (Jonah 1:15–16).

 

We need mercy. And God is a God of mercy.

 

Mercy in Jonah: The Ninevites
This is a truth that the Ninevites recognized as the king’s words attest,

 

The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “…let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish” (Jonah 3:6–9).

 

Notice the king of Nineveh does not imply that any of their actions will necessarily merit their preservation. Rather, their actions rest on God’s mercy alone, “Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish” (Jonah 3:9). The Ninevites recognize they need mercy. They recognize that only God can give it. And they bank on him being merciful to them, despite their rebellion. And God has mercy on them (Jonah 3:10).

 

We need mercy. And God is a God of mercy.

 

Mercy in Jonah: Jonah
What about Jonah? Jonah too is a recipient of God’s mercy, and he seems to recognize that as his prayer attests (e.g. Jonah 2). So what’s the hole in Jonah’s theology that God tries to point out and correct? Jonah’s response to God’s mercy on Nineveh in 4:1–2 offers a clue. There we read,

 

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster (Jonah 4:1–2).

 

God’s mercy displeased Jonah or, more literally, was evil to Jonah. And, Jonah became angry. And Jonah confesses the reason he was a resentful, unwilling prophet was because of the merciful character of God. Why does Jonah begrudge God’s mercy on Nineveh? Well, the answer cannot be that Jonah begrudges God’s mercy. Why? Because Jonah just availed himself of that mercy two chapters earlier. What gives? What upsets Jonah? The only variable here is the recipient of God’s mercy—Nineveh. Jonah did not want God to give mercy to Nineveh. Why? Well, they are Israel’s enemies to be sure, but there is more to the story. God offers Jonah one more object lesson on top of the great fish to reveal the heart of Jonah.

While Jonah sits outside of Nineveh to hate watch what happens to them, God causes a shady plant to spring up in order to give Jonah a reprieve from the hot sun. Jonah loves it. But the next day, God sends a worm to destroy it. No more shade. Then God sends a heat wave upon Jonah. And once again we find Jonah furious. And God says to Jonah,

 

“You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” (Jonah 4:10–11).

 

Why does Jonah pity the plant? Because it benefited him. Jonah likes God’s mercy when it benefits him. He doesn’t like it when it benefits Nineveh. Why? What’s the difference in Jonah’s mind between God showing mercy to him and God showing mercy to Nineveh? There’s only one possible answer. Jonah has a fundamental misunderstanding of mercy. Jonah thinks Nineveh doesn’t deserve the benefit of God’s mercy. And he’s right. They don’t. That’s not Jonah’s mistake. Jonah’s mistake is how he thinks about God’s mercy as it applies to himself. Just as with the shady plant, Jonah believes he deserves the benefit of God’s mercy. But the entire point of mercy is that no one actually deserves the benefit of it. In fact, the benefit of mercy is that it doesn’t give us what we actually deserve, the full wrath of God. Jonah has failed to recognize the fundamental lesson: he personally needs God’s mercy, a mercy he does not deserve just like the pagan sailors and just like wicked Nineveh. God is teaching Jonah that all important lesson: We need mercy, and there is nothing we can do to deserve it. And God is a God of mercy.

 

Mercy in Jesus
What secures such mercy for us? The greater Jonah (Matthew 12:38–41). John Stocker sums up God’s mercy for us in Jesus well in his hymn “They Mercy, My God” (1776).

 

Great Father of mercies, Thy goodness I own,
And the covenant love of Thy crucified Son;
All praise to the Spirit, Whose whisper divine
Seals mercy, and pardon, and righteousness mine.

 

The God of mercies gives us mercy in his crucified Son. Through God’s mercy in Jesus we are sealed as God’s own where once we were his enemies, pardoned as innocent where once we were guilty, and made righteous forever where once we were once sinful. Let’s learn the lesson that God taught Jonah. We need mercy—a mercy we don’t deserve. And God is a God of mercy, who delights to give us mercy in Jesus.