Connect With Others
美佳之窗 His Window 100（ Oct - Dec 2022 ）
Text by Rev Phan Wu Zhung
Translated by Stephen Cheng
Connect with Others
It is believed that most Christians can memorise the scripture “For God so loved the world.......” (John 3:16) which may make us think that “loving the world” is God’s work, and we are just the target of “being loved.” Jesus in another situation commands us to “love your neighbour as yourself” (Matt 22:39). In other words, “loving the world” is our mission! (Matt 28:18-20). The Great Commission mentioned in these scriptures is to command us to connect with others. To some people, connecting with others is a simple thing; but to others it could be quite difficult.
The disobedience and surrendering of Jonah
Jonah in the Bible is a distinctive example of initially disobeying and finally surrendering to God. When God called him to go to Nineveh to preach the Gospel of repentance, he disobediently took a different direction, refusing to carry out the Gospel mission. (Jonah 1:1-3) On his way travelling in a boat, Jonah encountered a storm. He asked the other passagers to throw him overboard to the sea because he believed he was the reason for the storm (Jonah 1:11- 12). Initially, it looked like Jonah wanted to be personally responsible for the storm. He was willing to sacrifice himself rather than drag the other innocent people into the trouble. But in actual fact, what he did was to directly oppose God to the end. The scriptures say since he realised that he was the cause for the storm, he should also realise that if he was to obey God’s calling, the situation would be resolved. But, he would rather die than to preach the Gospel to the people of Nineveh. (I believe that the believers who are familiar with these scriptures understand the biblical background about why Jonah was so disobedient). Until the moment Jonah was swallowed into the big fish’s stomach, then only was he willing to change his attitude and subsequently follow God’s instructions and surrender to Him.
After arriving at the city of Nineveh, the Bible records that, “Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, ‘Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.’” (Jonah 3:4) Under such circumstances, Jonah was forced to preach the Gospel just to simply complete the calling, unlike the other prophets who would seriously and anxiously try to convince the people to repent. What was unexpected was the people of Nineveh believed and obeyed God because of this simple message of repentance and they turned away from all the evils (Jonah 5:9). Finally, God saw them change and did not punish them with any disasters. Usually, we would be happy to see people repent of their sins; let alone in the case of Jonah who effortlessly achieved such a huge success in getting the sinful Nineveh to repent! But Jonah was not happy with the repentance of the people of Nineveh, he chose to stay out of the city to observe the outcome of the repented Nineveh. Since Jonah was a prophet of God, we might wonder why did he dare to complain to God, and he was angry with Him over the people’s confession of sins?
Actually, Jonah is just like you and me. Just think, in our life, do we have “some people” to whom we do not want to share the Gospel. Even though these people have repented and accepted Jesus, we tend to scoff at them; or since they might have hurt us before, they should end up in hell rather than rewarding them with the good Gospel? But, for the sake of the Gospel’s mission, we cannot avoid connecting with others. Connecting with people is not just maintaining a superficial relationship but we should realise that God puts these people in our lives and He wants us to lead them to Him.
The ending of the Book of Jonah is rather special; Jonah was angry because of a withering “castor-oil plant.” God said to Jonah, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left and also many animals?” (Jonah 4:10-11). God uses a question mark to end the Book of Jonah and the answer should come from Jonah himself. Today, God too expects us to answer this question. Since ”God loves the world”, shouldn’t we emulate Jesus to look upon the people around us (including those who don’t deserve our love or those who have wronged us) and connect them with Jesus’ love enabling them to experience the power of the Gospel and the transformation of their lives?
Actually, Jonah did not expect that his fleeing from God’s calling would cause the storm incident which greatly influenced the gentiles on the boat. The scripture tells us in Jonah 1:16, “At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to Him.” Jonah was not resigned to these two incidents which had happened not according to his wishes; the strangers on the boat were briefly encountered by him, yet God chose to use him to be an excellent witness for Him. I wish God will continue to change our attitude to help us connect with others and sow the Gospel seed.