Ghosting God, Ghosting Self
Day 77
“And this displeased Jonah greatly and he was ANGRY!” (Jonah 4:1) Can you imagine, the granting of a pardon would “displease” the prophet who warned them of their fate and the people hearing him, waking up to the truth of their situation, the truth of the damage they have done, repenting and changing their ways? WTF?? Isn’t this the real mission of the prophet? Doesn’t every other prophet want the “word of God” to be heard, to awaken the souls of the people who need to hear “the word of God”, and to do T’Shuvah? Of course they do, so what is Jonah’s problem? I believe it is the problem most of We the People suffer from, engage in, revel in. The problem is our love of watching those we disagree with, those we don’t like, those we are afraid of, those who are better human beings than we are: GET WHAT WE THINK/WANT WHAT’S COMING TO THEM!
Jonah is so intent upon exacting the revenge he thinks is necessary and appropriate, he cannot fathom God not doing this. He is angry with God and he complains that he knew this would happen. “Is this not what I said in my own land? I fled to Tarshish because I know you are grant grace and compassion, slow to anger, loving kindness,…Now, take my life, God because it is better I die than live!”(Jonah 4:2-3) Jonah knows God is able to accept the repentance of people and this drives him CRAZY!! Weird, isn’t it? Yet, how true for so many of We the People! God, on the other hand, sees accepting repentance, allowing for T’Shuvah as part of the covenant God made with Human Beings, as far back as Adam and Eve, Cain, etc.
I do believe Jonah is being a touch melodramatic, here; to ask that he die because the people listened to his words and believed he was sent by God?! To ask that he die because the people repented and God accepted their T’Shuvah?!! To ask that he die because God “gives grace and compassion, is full of loving kindness, slow to anger, and cleans the evil from people when they repent”?!!? Isn’t this what we pray for each day, certainly each Yom Kippur? Isn’t this what we are told God is in Exodus after the Golden Calf debacle? Yet, Jonah, doesn’t want it to be true for the people of Nineveh. I am sure, he wants it to be true for himself and the people he likes, though! And, I think that Jonah represents a lot more of We the People than most of us think. I think Jonah represents the “white christian nationalists” who believe that people of color, that muslims, Jews, even Catholics, do not deserve to be redeemed, to not deserve to have their repentance accepted and, to them, Jesus is a merciless Judge, not a merciful one. Jesus is, to them, a lion who will destroy their enemies, not a lover of people, not full of loving kindness. To them, Jesus is a warrior god, not a God of caring for the stranger, protecting the blind and the deaf, loving neighbors, etc. This is how far from truth being vengeful like Jonah can take us!
This love of seeing someone “get theirs”, “receive what is coming to them” is a sick way to live, it is the way of those who think “life should be fair”, except when they screw up. It is the way of people who are unwilling, afraid, unknowing how to face themselves, to face their own foibles, to make T’Shuvah for their errors and, as has been true since before Jonah, want to blame someone else, complain their punishment is too great, even though Cain killed his brother! It is rampant in our world today and it causes the downfall of the nation and the individual, it causes the enslavement of another(s) who we the people deem different, ie not worthy, those we are in fear of; and the finding of a common enemy from outside of our circle so we can keep power, keep from being called to account, etc.
All of this ends, however, on Yom Kippur. This is the day of Accounting, this is the day where either we accept God’s forgiveness so we can then truly admit to our errors, to our evil ways, to our being seduced by our rational minds, self-deceptions, deceptions of another(s) and turn away from those ways and turn back to God’s ways OR we keep believing we never have to be accountable because no one has ever been able to make anything stick-the Teflon Donny Trump, J D Vance, etc. These people, who are running our country, along with their compatriots like Bibi and Ben G’Vir, Hegseth and Rubio, Lutnick, Miller, Bessent, Vought, truly are “afraid to meet their maker” because they KNOW they are full of shit, they KNOW they are going against God’s will, they KNOW they are like Jonah, vengeful, spiteful, angry, etc.
In 4 days, we will commemorate the destruction of the Temples and other horrific experiences of the Jewish people, the questions We the People have to answer are: Will we continue to demand compassion, forgiveness for ourselves, for our people while granting none to ‘our enemies’? Will we continue to hide from ourselves the truth about our actions and not repent?
GOD BLESS, STOP GHOSTING GOD, GHOSTING SELF, Rabbi mark