"I Always Knew You Were a Dirty Forgiver"

What if there were no more mercy? What if the Lord just turned off the tap that allows mercy to flow so that there were no mercy for *anyone*?

In our series on Jonah, we’ve come to the last chapter, one of the most explosive and unsettling chapters in the entire Bible.

In Jonah chapter 4, Jonah is so angry he would rather die than live.

Why?

Because he hates God for being a God of mercy. The Lord has chosen to forgive the wicked people of Nineveh, and that makes Jonah sick.

I can identify with Jonah—I have a hard time with the idea of God showing mercy to people who are wrong.

And yet, that’s not how it works. It’s either all, or nothing. That is, either the Lord gives mercy to everyone, or no one. He’s God, and I’m not, and he can show mercy to whomever he wills.

What if there were no more mercy for *anyone*?

What if we lived in a world in which there were never any forgiveness, never any chance to start over?

When we pray the Lord’s prayer, we confess that there is a mysterious connection between our willingness to extend mercy to our enemies, and our own reception of mercy from God.

“Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

This is a hard truth. Let’s talk about it.