Jonah and the Whale, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt University Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://act.library.vanderbilt.edu/artworks/59138 [retrieved May 28, 2026]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jonah_and_the_Whale,_Folio_from_a_Jami_al-Tavarikh_(Compendium_of_Chronicles).jpg.
Special to United Methodist Insight | May 28, 2026
“Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah…, go at once to Nineveh… and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me. But Jonah set out to flee… from the presence of the Lord.” Jonah 1:1-3
A man was stopped by a game-warden with two buckets of fish leaving a lake well known for its fishing. The game warden asked the man, "Do you have a license to catch those fish?" The man replied to the game warden, "No, sir. These are my pet fish."
"Pet fish?!" the warden replied. "Yes, sir, every night I take these here fish down to the lake and let them swim around for a while. I whistle and they jump back into their buckets, and I take em home."
"That's a bunch of hooey! Fish can't do that!"
The man looked at the game warden for a moment, and then said, "Here, I'll show you. It really works."
"O.K. I've GOT to see this!" The game warden was curious. The man poured the fish in to the river and stood and waited. After several minutes, the game warden turned to the man and said, "Well?"
"Well, what?" the man responded.
"When are you going to call them back?" the game warden prompted.
"Call who back?" the man asked.
"The FISH."
"What fish?" the man asked.
I like fish stories. The fishiness of the well-known story about a bumbling fool of a prophet named Jonah has less to do with a miraculous fish and everything to do with this reluctant prophet’s stubborn refusal to believe that God is merciful --- and forgiving of people of all nations no matter how evil they may seem to be.
It is a plain fact that, sooner or later we will all find ourselves in the belly of some great fish, as Jonah did when he tried to run away from God. Or we may find ourselves pouting under a bush, as Jonah is seen at the end of the story, because God won't let us have our own ways. But that is how we learn (or fail to learn, as seems to be the case with Jonah) how forgiving and loving God is despite our persistent foolishness and stubbornness.
Former senator Paul Tsongas died in 1997 at the age of 55, just five years after he ran for President. Tsongas beat Bill Clinton in New Hampshire and went on to win caucuses and primaries in seven other states. He dropped out of the presidential campaign after losing to Clinton in Illinois and Michigan.
Tsongas once said that three things defined him: working as a young man in his father's dry cleaning business in the economically depressed city of Lowell, Massachusetts; serving in the Peace Corps; and contracting cancer. He said that working in the dry cleaning shop made him aware of economic hardship, the Peace Corps brought a joy in public service that led to a political career, and getting cancer tempered what he called an overriding ambition.
Tsongas said, "Before I had cancer, I was one of the pettiest people you've ever run into. I would get angry at my wife for leaving the top off the toothpaste. I'd get angry at my kids for the dumbest things. Looking back on it I feel mortified, I was a fool."
It was such petty anger and foolishness that landed Jonah in the belly of the fish. God wanted him to preach repentance to the people of Nineveh. Jonah didn't want these hated enemies of Israel to repent. He wanted God to punish them. It would be like God calling a patriotic, flag-waving American to go to Moscow to invite Vladimir Putin to repent for invading Ukraine. Most of us Americans don't want Putin to repent we want God to punish him.
Jonah whines and pouts when the Ninevites do exactly what God asks them to do. He is angry that Ninevites don't get what they deserve. Is there any one of us who does not have this kind of "Jonah moment" at one time or another?
The Rev. John Sumwalt (Courtesy Photo)
The Rev. John Sumwalt is a retired pastor and old farm kid. He is the author of “Shining Moments: Visions of the Holy in Ordinary Lives.” Write to him.