Lord of the Streets, Houston
September 20, 2026
Proper 20, A
Jonah 3:10-4:11
Psalm 145:1-8
Matthew 20:1-16
Jonah had nothing but the utmost contempt for the people of Nineveh. They weren’t Jewish. They didn’t follow God’s laws. They seemed to be really rotten people. So, when Jonah was told by God to go and prophesy to the people of Nineveh to get them to repent, to change their ways, Jonah flat out said, “no.”
That’s a pretty ballsy move. I mean, we all say “no” to God a lot, but we’re largely saying no to teachings from the words of scripture. We’re saying no to words that were spoken and written thousands of years ago. I’m not excusing that, but Jonah had God speaking directly to him, and he still said “no” because he had so much contempt for the people of Nineveh. He just wanted to God kill them, but he knew God was merciful, and he knew that if he prophesied to the people of Nineveh that they would repent and God wouldn’t kill them, so he just said no and went somewhere else to force God to kill the people of Nineveh.
Jonah’s contempt. God’s compassion.
Kill them all; I don’t like them.
Eh, they’re human beings; let’s try to help them out.
Contempt. Compassion.
Jonah’s not the only one to have contempt for others and say no to God. We all do. Bless those who curse you. Forgive your enemies. Love your enemies. I mean, Jesus said those things, sure, but he probably didn’t really mean it all the time. Maybe the writers just got it wrong. Maybe I’ll just wait to forgive them till God sends them to hell.
In all these and countless other ways, we are all like Jonah, with contempt for others, running away from what God told us because we’d really rather have God just punish those people.
The thing is, God still might, and he taught us to forgive. Bless, forgive, and pray for your enemies, and it will be like pouring burning coals upon their heads. Ok, this I can get behind. Follow God’s command for forgiveness and still they get bushwhacked.
Yeah, that’s not quite the heart God calls us to have either. Rather, God calls us to have a heart that cares for and even breaks for our enemies.
God taught Jonah this lesson with the tree God made to give Jonah some shade and then killed the next day. Jonah was so upset about the tree, and God understood, “Dude, I get it man. You’re so sad about the tree that you didn’t make and didn’t love that just gave you a little shade, so maybe you get that I’d be sad about the destruction of a whole city of people whom I did make and do love? You get that, Jonah, you little dufus?”
Who knew God was so snarky, right?
Hey Jonah, try to get your heart to break for the people of Nineveh just like it did for that tree. The healing nature of compassion, rather than the destructive nature of contempt.
We see this same lesson of contempt over compassion in the story Jesus told of the laborers in the vineyard. See, the laborers who worked all day had contempt on those who only worked a few hours and got paid the same. Never mind that what they got paid wasn’t getting any of them rich. They were getting paid what they needed to survive, not minimum wage, which is crap, but a living wage. They had what they needed.
So, they laborers who worked all day knew that if the ones who only worked a couple hours only got paid for a couple hours work, they wouldn’t have enough to live on. If they had only been paid for a couple hours work, they would eventually starve, and the laborers who worked all day seemed ok with that. Once they knew they were getting paid the same, they had contempt on the laborers who were only able to work a few hours.
“Who cares if they’re gonna die? They don’t deserve what I got.” That’s the destructive nature of contempt. They had contempt for the other laborers; they had contempt for the landowner, just like Jonah had contempt for the people of Nineveh and for God. The laborers didn’t make the vineyard, they didn’t own the land, and yet they were contemptuous of the landowner for his generosity. “I don’t want you to be generous or have compassion. I want those other workers to die rather than get the same as I have.”
The destruction of contempt, rather than the healing of compassion.
Imagine if these laborers knew they were all going to get paid a full day’s wage working for this guy. Contempt would have made them all say, “No one get there to the end of the day and he’ll still pay us all for a full day.” I bet the landowner would have caught wise on that one, but what if the workers had said, “Ok, we’re all going to get paid a full day’s wage, so how about we rotate? Some of us work a full day one week, then others work the full day the next week.”
See, if they had compassion on one another and cared about each other’s’ wellbeing, not just their own, they could have worked together so everyone could have done well.
Compassion, rather than contempt.
Now, looking at Jesus’ parable, the landowner having compassion, making sure all the workers had enough, rather than the bare minimum not to actually get by, I wish I was preaching this to billionaires and CEOs. However, the lesson of compassion, rather than contempt, is still a lesson for all of us, and like with Jonah and the laborers who worked all day, compassion rather than contempt is not easy lesson to learn.
I mean, it sounds great and all, and I figure most of us want to live with compassion, but I can think of 4 times in the last week alone that I’ve felt and acted contemptuously toward someone, and that’s just the real people that I interacted with. If we include billionaires and politicians and what not, my contempt is up to like 17 times a day, or an hour? In two of the real life cases, I was able check back with the person, make amends, and tell them I was wrong. Two of the cases, I may not ever be able to.
In each of these, I will say that I did move from contempt towards compassion. That’s a step in the right direction. We’re not gonna get it right all the time. That’s why God sometimes sends a whale, like he did with Jonah, to swallow us up and take us where he wants us to go when we’ve just told God no to his face.
“Remember compassion,” God says.
“Yeah, no. I want to hurt this guy.” Sometimes we need a pretty swift reminder. So, remember this: God is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love for all of humanity. We are made in God’s image, so being full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, that is the core of who we are.
Showing compassion is how God made us to be, and can be one of the hardest things we do. Showing compassion is also one of the strongest things we do. The anger and contempt we have for others feels like strength, but it’s really just our weakness and fear having a temper tantrum. Real strength comes from showing compassion, being slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.
That takes practice, too, and prayer, like much of anything worth doing, but we’re not practicing something outside ourselves or beyond ourselves. Practicing compassion and mercy is practicing at being our true selves. Practicing being slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love is practicing being our true selves.
Contempt is when we’re getting outside of ourselves and letting fear dominate. Compassion is a return home, and so, whenever we feel contempt, that’s when Jesus is calling us. “Come home.” Set aside the anger, set aside the fear and contempt, and come home to compassion, mercy, and steadfast love.
