*Reader’s note: This is the last of four posts of short reflections from Lent readings.
What the heck is a sackcloth? According to 2 websites the Old Testament mentions the word about 47 - 50 times. A sackcloth was a thick and heavy, well, sack.
People ripped their fancy clothes off and wore sackcloths - the ancient version of our most vulnerable and unflattering attire - as an external symbol of an internal posture.
So in chapter three of the book of Jonah when we read:
And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
Then tidings reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
Our ears should perk up.
The King of Nineveh - then a vicious global superpower - put aside his robe (aka a fancy garment) and took up sackcloth and ashes. This was a visceral and public sign of repentance.
It would be like Putin or any world leader - going live on Facebook or Instagram and weeping before the world denouncing their evils.
Sadly, in our hyper-individualistic culture, there aren't many examples of this. Confession is often a text message to a friend or a whisper to a pastor on a Sunday.
But here in Jonah 3 we see the entire people of Nineveh partake in this act of repentance. The outsiders, the barbarians, the power-hungry, violent, the evil - humble themselves.
And something crazy happens, V10 in the Revised Standard Version says
“God saw what they did [and] God repented…”
WHAT!? God who is perfect, holy, just, righteous repented! Yup.
This is one of the most beautiful, gut-wrenching verses in this wild whimsical, satirical story of Jonah.
When it says “God repented” it means that in God’s perfect judgment, God chooses mercy and forgiveness (this was just too much for Jonah to handle) over capital punishment.
And I think this verse alludes to the incarnation. Jesus, the God-Man, steps into our story, our sin, our horror and offers repentance, offers mercy and forgiveness.
We can choose to rip off our pride or the fancy clothes we’ve made for ourselves - our lies, our masks, and posture our hearts before a God that relents, a God that longs to grant us mercy, goodness, and healing.
Today we can choose humility.