I've lived most of my life with a guilty conscience. To be fair, I usually was guilty of something, somewhere!
I was also brought up on songs like, "Oh be careful little eyes". If you haven't had the pleasure of learning this frightening children's song, the premise is basically that God is watching everything you do and if you screw up, bad things will happen. The message is couched in God's love–"be careful what you see, because the Father up above is looking down in love"–but most children know what it means. God loves you...but don't screw up.
I guess I shouldn't be shocked at how many people who claim to follow Jesus continue to live in fear of God's punishment.
Stories like Jonah's just add to the confusion, or at least, the way that they are normally taught. Jonah is often presented as a disobedient prophet who was punished by God, and as a result, he repents and (reluctantly) obeys. The message to children is, if you disobey, your loving Father will have you eaten by a fish. It's along the same lines as the song: God loves you so much he's going to come down on you with the swift wrath of creation if you even think about rebelling.
That's not what Jonah sees, however, as he reflects upon what has just happened to him in the belly of the fish. To be sure, he sees God's hand in his situation. We've already noted Jonah's certainty in the type of God who can command the very fish to do his will. Now we see that despite the fact that Jonah knew it was his own desire to be thrown into the sea, and the sailors who actually carried out the task, Jonah has no problem expressing that it was God himself that cast him into the sea, and that it was the waves and billows of God that overtook him. (V. 3) Jonah is well aware that God is intervening, despite his rebellion–but he's not intervening with punishment, he's intervening with Grace.
Everything that Jonah has done he has brought on himself. Jonah has followed his own path, instead of God's. Jonah got on the ship. Jonah told the sailors to toss him overboard. Jonah was drowning. Jonah is nothing but a rebel.
God is nothing but a savior.
Jonah deserved death; what he received is life. That's not punishment, that's grace. And it's a grace that Jonah notices when he talks about his impending death, and yet, the intervention of God that instead of death, he would again worship in the temple of God (vs 4, 6, 7).
Jonah doesn't repent because God is punishing him. Jonah repents because he sees that, no matter how hard he ran, God continued to pursue him. God wouldn't let him go. No matter how far Jonah tried to flee from the presence of the Lord, he couldn't outrun the steadfast love of God.
That changes everything! And that's the message of the Gospel. Jesus chases down rebels like us because of his steadfast love for his people. It's the reason that most of his followers were rebels. It's the reason that tax collectors and "sinners" (a catch-all term that we probably wouldn't want to be associated with) and prostitutes ran to Jesus, and religious people who thought they had their stuff together ran from Him.
People who knew they needed grace saw the relentless pursuit of a loving God, and turned towards him in response. The religious leaders hated it. If it were up to them, sinners would be punished. Ironically, that's why they killed Jesus. And even more ironically, that's why sinners can go free.
The message of Jonah–and the message of the Gospel–is about a God who chases his people down no matter how hard they run. It's about a God who offers grace and acceptance. It's about the steadfast love of God. And for those who accept that message, they are assured that God will never be angry with them again.
That's really good news. And that's the Gospel.