“Onward and upward! To Narnia and the North!” This phrase appears in the book The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis. It is a statement of progress, of moving forward and success. Onward and upward is still a prominent idea in today’s culture. We live in a time in which success means everything is up and to the right. The numbers are always growing and always high. In our world, to move forward means to produce, regardless of what it does to your body or soul. Success in business is determined by increasing annual revenue and soaring stock prices. In the world of art, success is determined by how many pieces or books you sell. The success of a concert or sporting venue is based on tickets sold. This measurement even trickles into our Christian worldview. Often we measure the success of a congregation by crowd size, growing budgets, and building expansions.  We measure success as a Christian by the amount of time we spend praying, serving, and reading the Bible and speaking our vast knowledge with others. I often wonder, “Is this really what Jesus considers success?”

When I was invited to become the pastor of Northbrook Church, I left a congregation of 400 people in Colorado to pastor this new one in Wisconsin of around 1,000. I was moving up in the world (or so I thought)! Northbrook began to grow, new buildings were built, more staff was hired, and I began to think “I have arrived!” Ten years later Northbrook hovers around 2,000 people on the weekend, and by many people’s definition is a successful church. Yet I have discovered it is so much more than that.

What we will discover in the scriptures is that sometimes the message of Jesus is hard and the expectations challenging. There is a story in John 6:25-70. Jesus is giving a teaching concerning his sacrifice and the commemoration of it through communion. He made statements like “eat my body” and “drink my blood” and it really freaked people out. So much so that many of Jesus’ followers stopped following. “ From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him” (John 6:66). Often Jesus’ ministry was one that shrank—not one that grew. Many of the crowds stopped following him, and in the end, all his disciples fled. One even denied him three times. Ultimately his mission was fulfilled and the church was born. It was a church committed to fellowship, understanding the message of the gospel, and ministering to people.

Yet our perspective in culture is very different. Ask the average Christian to describe a great church; you might hear things like, “a really good service; the music style/volume/length of singing is exactly what I like.” You might hear things like, “the preaching is dynamic,” or deep or transformative. You may hear something about age-specific programs for children, teenagers, millennials and senior adults. You may hear about conveniences like great parking, a cool building, and fresh coffee. All of those are great things, but that is not the definition of a church that is “winning” in the Bible.

When you turn to scripture, a successful community of faith is doing things like:

“Loving each other” (John 15:12)

“Meeting each other’s needs” (1 John 3:17-18)

“Encouraging each other and building each other up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11)

“Praying together” (James 5:16)

“Serving the poor” (Matthew 25:31-46)

“Making disciples” (Matthew 28:19)

Jesus has a very countercultural view of what progress meant. His definition of success is not found in numbers, programs, or acquisitions. To be successful in his kingdom, you don’t strive to be first; you strive to be last. You don’t strive to be the master; you strive to be the servant.

“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” (Matthew 20:16)

“The greatest among you will be your servant.  For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Matthew 23:11)

In the gospels, the verbiage of success is found in words like love, humility, servitude, and peacemakers. (Matthew 5:3-11)
In this countercultural way, Jesus envisions a world that could be through the church.  Through the church, authenticity is embraced and people are welcomed. Through the church, people can find love in the midst of brokenness. Through the church, people are valued. Through the church, questions can be asked without fear of judgment and doubt, and be met with graceful words of comfort.  Through the church, our gifts and talents are maximized and used to do good in the world. Through the church, the poor are served, the marginalized are cared for. Through the church relationships are restored, people find wholeness and are encouraged and built up. This is progress, this is winning. This is something worth dedicating your life to.

There are some people who are so famous you just have to sort of hint about them and everyone knows who you’re talking about.

A dunk from the free throw line? That’s Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player of all time.

Moonwalk on stage. Everyone thinks of the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson.

Just ask, “Who ya gonna call?” and everyone will yell out in unison – “Ghostbusters!”

Okay, some of those examples are better than others. But you get the idea. There are plenty of pop culture, sports, and entertainment references that most of us get without having a lot of backstory or explanation.

It’s the same way in the Bible. There were people who were so famous that all you needed to do was make a reference, an off-handed quote, or present a picture. A shepherd? That’s probably David. Talk about bread in the desert? You’re talking about Moses. And calling fire down from heaven onto the mountain, well that’s gotta be Elijah.

Elijah was perhaps the most important prophet in the entire Old Testament. Jonah was a prophet too. He’s actually part of what are known as the “Minor Prophets,” due to the length of their books not for some lack of importance. Of course, we’ve said the book of Jonah is full of irony, so maybe the label fits.

In the last chapter of Jonah, we find our reluctant prophet completing his work. And he’s mad. He’s mad because God will forgive the people of Nineveh, and he doesn’t want that. So he goes outside the city and sits under some shade.

⁵ Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city.

⁸ When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

Jonah 4:5, 8

If you were an Israelite reading that in the days of Jonah, you’d immediately see the reference. It was like Jonah was moonwalking to the free throw line for a slam dunk. He was taking on the persona of the most important prophetic figure around – Elijah. The words are practically lifted from 1 Kings 19 where Elijah does the same thing, says the same thing.

But in this instance, Jonah is anything but a great example. He feels down on his luck not because he’s being pursued by his enemies and feels abandoned and all alone. He feels bad because God is going to do what he does best, show some mercy and loving-kindness.

Jonah is, basically, a parody of a great prophet. He’s a laughing stock at this point. He’s anything but Elijah. He’s like the opposite of the greatest example. He’s what we should never do.

That’s one of the reasons I like this book so much. It takes some other tales and flips them on their side. And in the process, it not only entertains but enlightens.

When we take our lives and turn them, what do we see? Are we reflecting the same mercy and grace of God? Are we sprouting loving kindness wherever we go?

Or are we rolling over and asking God to just kill us now?

You get to choose. Do you want to be a parody or an example? We can be what the world thinks of when they think of hypocritical believers. Or we can smash the concept to pieces and put God’s love on display. It’s up to us.

When you read the second chapter of Jonah, it’s almost a relief. Finally, this reluctant prophet has turned a corner. He’s calling out to the Lord. He remembers God, and he prays to him. He’s thankful, he’s sacrificial, he seems repentant.

But looks can be deceiving.

Remember, the Bible wasn’t written in English. The Old Testament, with a few exceptions here and there, was first penned in Hebrew. And Hebrew has different words and rules than English does. Most of the time, you don’t really need to know those words or rules to enjoy the Bible and get out of it what God put into it. But there are a few times where knowing a rule or two can actually help you understand the bigger picture.

Jonah 2 is one of those times. From the opening line of the prayer something is going on that tells you a lot about this man Jonah. Take a look.

“In my distress I called to the Lord,
and he answered me.” (Jonah 2:2)

If you think you’ve heard those words somewhere before, you may be right. Take a look at this passage from the Psalms.

“In my distress I called to the Lord,
and he answered me.”(Psalm 120:1)

Same words. Same emotions. Same ideas.

But different attitudes. Why? Because of a little change in the word order. You can’t really see it in the English translation, but it’s there in the Hebrew.

Psalm 120 begins this way in the original text: “To the Lord I called…” But Jonah 2 starts this way: “I called to the Lord…”

You may be asking what the big deal is. It’s just moving words around. We do it all the time. All the time we do it.

But in Hebrew it is a big deal. One of the rules is, put the important stuff up front. If you want to stress an idea, say it first! What does the Psalmist want to stress? God, and his reliance on him. What does Jonah want to stress? His own act of prayer.

It’s a very small and subtle point. But if you were a Hebrew speaking ancient Israelite, it would have been like an alarm going off or a siren flashing. “Get a load of this guy! He thinks he’s so great. He wants everyone to know that he’s praying to God.”

The rest of his prayer sort of plays out that way too. Take a look.

“When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you,
to your holy temple.” (Jonah 2:7)

Who actually prayed? When he was on the boat, Jonah was asleep. It was the sailors who were praying.

“Those who cling to worthless idols
turn away from God’s love for them.” (Jonah 2:8)

Hey! Shout out to those pagans in Nineveh! And the ones on the boat. Remember, the sailors were the ones who turned to God’s love for them after seeing the sea calm down when Jonah went down into the depths.

And the people of Nineveh would be turning to God, too. As they repent, they lay their trust on God’s love for them.

“But I, with shouts of grateful praise,
will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’” (Jonah 2:9)

Shouts of grateful praise…like the sailors who were saved from the storm. Sacrifices…like the ones those pagan seamen offered right on their ship. A vow made and made good…like the vow that the King of Nineveh enforced on the city, even including the animals (Jonah 3:5-9)!

In every one of those lines of Jonah’s prayers, he’s putting himself first. He’s making himself out to be so great, such a big man! Those pagans? They have no idea. And if they did, they wouldn’t be anywhere close to as faithful as Jonah.

Except he’s completely wrong. Even in a humble prayer, Jonah can’t seem to get out of his own way. I wonder if I ever do that? I hope I never pray like this, putting myself first. Talking myself up to God. But I know I have. False humility and plenty of I’m-better-than-thems.

True repentance can only come from a heart that is humble. Without humility, our words are empty. Jesus told us not to waste our words just to be heard (Matthew 6:5). May our prayers be heartfelt and humble, heavy with the realization that God is God, I’m just me, and everyone is deserving of mercy.