13 August | Youth
«Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.» Jonah 1:3
Mexican actor Roberto Bolaños is considered one of the greatest comedians of all time. In addition to being an actor and screenwriter, he was a singer, composer, engineer, among other things. This artistic genius gained international fame when he created and starred in the series El Chavo del Ocho and El Chapulín Colorado. In this last series, Bolaños played the role of a hero in reverse (antihero): clumsy, fearful, and who created more problems than solutions.
The Bible also tells the story of an antihero named Jonah. Born in Gafe-Hafer, a city in the Northern kingdom, he prophesied between the years 793 BC and 753 BC. He became known as the “runaway prophet,” because he left God speaking alone and went towards Tarshish, the furthest opposite point. Instead of preaching in Nineveh, Jonah fled from God and the mission.
The book of Jonah is full of humor, absurdities, and satire. Just to give you an idea, the expression “great” or “big” occurs thirty-eight times in the narrative, which highlights the ironic nature of the story. Big storm, big fish, great city... All of this turned into a big nightmare for Jonah. Murphy’s Law says that “if something can go wrong, it will.” This turned out to be the luck of the unlucky prophet. From inside the ship, Jonah ended up in the belly of a great fish. There he spent three literally “unpalatable” days and nights.
In his book Blessed are the Unlikelies, Philip W. Dunham declared that “of all the people and things mentioned in the book—the storm, the lot, the sailors, the fish, the Ninevites, the plant, the caterpillar, and the east wind—the prophet was the only one to refuse to obey God.” Not even after the incredible deliverance of the city of Nineveh did Jonah come to his senses and change his stance.
But do you know what is most interesting about this story? Despite the prophet’s stubbornness, God did not abandon him. And just as the Lord showed mercy to the Ninevites, sparing them from judgment, so he loved Jonah. Unfortunately, we do not know if there was a “conversion” of the prophet, as the book has an “open-ended” conclusion. Perhaps this conclusion is intentional, transferring the responsibility to the reader for completing this story with their own choices.
What about you? What kind of “hero” or “antihero” are you? Have you been fulfilling your mission?