Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The Lord Works Wonders

Jonah Runs from the Lord

1 ^(A) One day the Lord told Jonah, the son of Amittai, ² to go to the great city of Nineveh^[a] and say to the people, “The Lord has seen your terrible sins. You are doomed!”

³ Instead, Jonah ran from the Lord. He went to the seaport of Joppa and found a ship that was going to Spain. So he paid his fare, then got on the ship and sailed away to escape.

⁴ But the Lord made a strong wind blow, and such a bad storm came up that the ship was about to be broken to pieces. ⁵ The sailors were frightened, and they all started praying to their gods. They even threw the ship's cargo overboard to make the ship lighter.

All this time, Jonah was down below deck, sound asleep. ⁶ The ship's captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep at a time like this? Get up and pray to your God! Maybe he will have pity on us and keep us from drowning.”

⁷ Finally, the sailors got together and said, “Let's ask our gods to show us^[b] who caused all this trouble.” It turned out to be Jonah.

⁸ They started asking him, “Are you the one who brought all this trouble on us? What business are you in? Where do you come from? What is your country? Who are your people?”

⁹ Jonah answered, “I'm a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”

¹⁰ When the sailors heard this, they were frightened, because Jonah had already told them he was running from the Lord. Then they said, “Do you know what you have done?”

¹¹ The storm kept getting worse, until finally the sailors asked him, “What should we do with you to make the sea calm down?”

¹² Jonah told them, “Throw me into the sea, and it will calm down. I'm the cause of this terrible storm.”

¹³ The sailors tried their best to row to the shore. But they could not do it, and the storm kept getting worse every minute. ¹⁴ So they prayed to the Lord, “Please don't let us drown for taking this man's life. Don't hold us guilty for killing an innocent man. All of this happened because you wanted it to.” ¹⁵ Then they threw Jonah overboard, and the sea calmed down. ¹⁶ The sailors were so terrified that they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made all kinds of promises.

^17 (B) The Lord sent a big fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.

¹⁹ If our hope in Christ is good only for this life, we are worse off than anyone else.

²⁰ But Christ has been raised to life! And he makes us certain that others will also be raised to life. ²¹ Just as we will die because of Adam, we will be raised to life because of Christ. ²² Adam brought death to all of us, and Christ will bring life to all of us. ²³ But we must each wait our turn. Christ was the first to be raised to life, and his people will be raised to life when he returns. ²⁴ Then after Christ has destroyed all powers and forces, the end will come, and he will give the kingdom to God the Father.

^25 (A) Christ will rule until he puts all his enemies under his power, ²⁶ and the last enemy he destroys will be death. ^27 (B) When the Scriptures say he will put everything under his power, they don't include God. It was God who put everything under the power of Christ. ²⁸ After everything is under the power of God's Son, he will put himself under the power of God, who put everything under his Son's power. Then God will mean everything to everyone.