Are We Jonah?

"To this day, the Jews gather in the synagogue each year on the Day of Atonement to read Jonah. After the reading, they reply, 'We are Jonah.' This truth is essential for rightly relating to Jonah. We are Jonah when, because we do not like them, we run from God's call on our lives to bring the gospel to lost people, whom he loves. We are Jonah because we too have been sent to proclaim repentance to great but wicked cities filled with people like the Ninevites—people whom God loves but we don't like.

And Jonah leaves us to ponder who we would be if God had stopped running after us and simply left us to ourselves. In what ways are we running from God's call to bring the gospel to others? What will repentance look like for us? What could happen if God captured the hearts of people in your town because you pointed them to him? What if the heart God's people had for their cities was like Jesus' heart for Jerusalem instead of like Jonah's heart for Nineveh?" (Mark Driscoll, The Radical Reformission, p. 106-7).

Urban Ministry Conference at Tenth Presbyterian Church.
March 6–8, 2009.