Love Beneath The Waves

I used to treat it like it was a foul word. I worried as though people would shudder at the mention of it, like teenage wizards at the utterance of Voldemort. The word is sin, and I didn’t like to use it. It tastes like a bad cup of coffee. So I’d talk about brokenness or pain or even flesh. But never sin. I wanted to talk about love. God’s love.

Recently though I’ve come to realize you can’t talk about love; true, sacrificial, unconditional, costly love without talking about sin. That we were enemies of God when he reached out. That we were lost, broken, and self-loving when God brought us back to life. It’s just an incomplete gospel.

Whenever I read the story of Jonah, it’s always bewildering to me. Yeah there’s the part about the fish. And the part about that giant plant, and the even bigger worm. But what shocks me is how the story talks about sin, and who the broken lost sinner is. The one who runs from God is the prophet. The believer. The chosen one. The religious one. The moral one. Not the heathens. Not the unbelieving sailors. The believer.

The me.

That even though Jonah has his life in order, even though his is a chosen mouthpiece of God, the story is about his sin. Ironic how that goes in life huh? Often times the ones who are most broken, who’s hearts run from the face of God, are the ones with their hands raised in worship and bibles open in study.

Even more shocking is that God doesn’t let him just leave. He sends a storm. We all see storms don’t we. But it’s a storm of hope. It brings Jonah to the point of surrender. And this is the one moment in the story where we can have a little bit of respect for Jonah. He finally submits. He finally surrenders to the Lord. And not just in a small way. He is willing to submit, even unto death. He doesn’t make excuses. He doesn’t rationalize. He sees the damage his sin is causing in the lives of others, and he’s willing to finally submit to God.

As they throw him in the waves, I know what he was thinking. He was thinking about his behavior and what it cost him. That’s what religious people always think about. He finally had succumbed to the wrath of God, and he was thrown into the waves to die a betrayers death. But this is what’s shocking:

He finds love beneath those waves.

And this is the beauty of the gospel. We’re broken, lost, sinful, wretched people. And once we finally realize we deserve to be thrown overboard, we find love beneath the waves.