Expedient That He Dieth

In a recent podcast, Dr. John Hilton III discussed the similarities between Jonah and Jesus. The Savior Himself made the comparison: “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). Jesus was in the tomb three days just like Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days, and both came out alive. But there are more similarities than this one. Dr. Hilton quoted a Christian author Timothy Keller who said this: “Both Jesus and Jonah are in a boat. Both are in storms described in similar terms. Both boats are filled with others who are terrified of death. Both groups wake the sleeping prophets angrily rebuking them. Both storms are miraculously calmed and the companion saved. And both stories conclude with the men in the boats more terrified after the storm is stilled than they were before. Every feature is the same  with one rather large apparent exception. Jonah is sacrificed into the storm, thrown into the deep, satisfying the wrath of God so the others will be safe from it, but Jesus is not. Or are the accounts so different at that point. Actually Jesus is the ultimate Jonah who is thrown into the ultimate deep of eternal justice for us. How ironic it is that in Mark 4 the disciples ask, 'Teacher, don't you care if we drown?' They believe he is going to sleep on them in their hour of greatest need. Actually it's the other way around. In the garden of Gethsemane, they will go to sleep on him. They will truly abandon him. Yet he loves them to the end. Jonah was thrown overboard for his own sin, but Jesus is thrown into the ultimate storm for our sin.” Indeed Jonah was thrown into the water in order to still the storm and save the people on the ship: “Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you” (Jonah 1:12). Jonah offered his life in order to save the rest of the crew, just as Jesus offered His life in Gethsemane and Calvary in order to save all mankind. Of course, Jesus was innocent and Jonah was not, but both were willing to be the sacrifice. Interestingly, Jonah was ultimately accepted by the people He was to preach to—the Assyrians—and they repented while those that Jesus taught in large measure rejected Him causing the Savior to condemn them: “The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here” (Matthew 12:41).

                There is one detail in the story of Jonah which I believe has an important parallel for us. After Jonah admitted to the men on the boat that he was the guilty party and the cause of the storm, asking to be thrown over, these men did not want to be guilty of his death and they tried to avoid this: “Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them.” They tried all they knew how to avoid having to take the life of Jonah, but in the end they were powerless against the storm despite their hard rowing. Realizing that their efforts against the storm were futile, they prayed, “We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee” (Jonah 1:13-14). They then cast Jonah into the sea, and the waters became calm. They had come to understand that they could not calm the storm on their own and that the only thing that would save their lives was to give up the life of Jonah. In the same manner, none of us can find salvation on our own. No matter how hard we “row” we cannot return to the Father on our own. Only through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ do we have any hope of salvation. He had to die so that we could live. Samuel the Lamanite put it this way: “For behold, he surely must die that salvation may come; yea, it behooveth him and becometh expedient that he dieth, to bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, that thereby men may be brought into the presence of the Lord” (Helaman 14:15). The story of Jonah and these men reminds us that “it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do’ (2 Nephi 25:23). We still need to row as we seek to follow the Savior, but in the end it is Jesus Christ and His grace that will save and preserve us.