Empty Words
I love that Jesus is described in Revelation as both the Lamb and the Lion. Most of the time in His interactions, we see the calm, peaceful side of Jesus. But, every once in a while we get to see glimpses of the righteous Lion. In a particularly heated moment recorded in Matthew 15, Jesus looked at some of the most religious experts of His day and delivered a powerful statement: "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." In that moment, Jesus was not scolding criminals or pagans. He was talking to the people who memorized Scripture, who gave lavishly to God, and who taught others about His word. He was speaking to people who talked as if they loved God. Yet their hearts were miles away from God. Jonah is a painful example of someone who could claim the truth, but the truth had not yet claimed him.
If history has taught us anything, then we’ve seen how it is pretty easy to construct a life that looks deeply devoted to God on the outside while remaining entirely hollow on the inside. We can memorize the right vocabulary, attend the right services, and firmly claim to love Jesus, all while steering our hearts in the exact opposite direction of God’s clear instructions. In Jonah chapter 1, we find a stark, uncomfortable portrait of this exact spiritual contradiction.
When a storm strikes the ship sailing for Tarshish, the pagan sailors go frantic. They are crying out to their gods, tossing cargo overboard, and doing everything within their power to survive. While this is happening, Jonah, the prophet of the living God whom God has spoken to and worked through in the past, has fallen asleep in the deepest part of the vessel. In his sleep, he is hiding from God’s call. When the lot finally falls on Jonah, the sailors begin to question him about his origin, occupation, country, and people. Jonah answers, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” (Jonah 1:9 ESV) This declaration is exactly the kind of thing a prophet of the living God should say…but it is clearly not supported by his actions. Up to this point, his actions have not shown that he fears the Lord; he wants to have it his way and not the Lord’s. Jonah’s sin, like the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, was not one of ignorance; it was one of knowledge. He knew who God is, yet chose to live his own way. The reality of Jonah’s life undermines the truth of his words.
The sailors immediately recognize the hypocrisy, and they show what “fear” of God looks like. They ask him a piercing question: “What is this that you have done!” (Jonah 1:10, ESV) This is the moment when the friction between Jonah’s public confession and his private rebellion becomes completely evident. We often focus on what is happening on the outside, but God knows our hearts intimately and personally (1 Samuel 16:7). The great news, though, is that Jonah finally begins to make a turn. Stripped of his lame excuses, he begins to take responsibility for the tragedy of disobedience that he brought the sailors into. He agrees with them that his sin caused God to unleash His severe mercy upon the boat and all of its passengers.
This week, I invite you to join me in examining the gap between who we claim to be and how we actually live. At Hope, we long to go, “Deep in our faith and wide in our influence together, multiplying disciples.” In order for us to go wide in our influence, we must first go deep in our relationship with God. This is more than words or mottos; it is a matter of the heart. I appreciate the words of A.W. Tozer in his book The Pursuit of God, where he writes: “We have been trying to apply a cure to the outside of our lives when the disease is deep within. We have mistaken religious activity for spiritual reality."
If we are able to say something bold about faith, but live very differently, this is an important day for us – a day for us to stop saying we “fear God” and start living like it.
Expectantly,
Shawn
