May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you." Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very important city--a visit required three days. On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned." The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened. (Jonah 3:1-5,10)

In Christ's name and to his glory: In today's Word we see how powerful and effective the Word of God is. God's Word cannot be preached and taught without it having an effect on people. This truth encourages us - our church, schools, and parents - to keep on talking to our members, children, and friends about Jesus. Sometimes we think: Does it do any good? The Word today says keep on sharing the Word, because it is not wasted time to do so. This truth also comforts us because it promises that the Word will affect me. What Christian has not wrestled with the thought, "What will keep me believing? I see so many stray and fall. The evil Foe is so dangerous. How can it be that I remain faithful even to the point of death?" (Revelation 2:10) This Word today speaks to us who struggle with such thoughts. In it we see how the Lord is our wonderful, divine Physician who makes us whole, sinless and pure before him. And we see how our divine Physician uses his scalpel - his almighty Word - to heal us. May the Lord bless us as we listen and think about his call REPENT! THIS IS THE DIVINE PHYSICIANS SCALPEL.

Repentance, Jesus' call to repent, has two parts. Both parts are necessary for true repentance to exist. Think of it this way. Just as God gives us two healthy legs so we can walk placing our weight first on one leg and then the other, so our Creator and Divine Physician gives us the two healthy legs of repentance so we can follow after Jesus in faith. The two legs of repentance are sorrow over sin and faith (trust in Jesus as our Savior from sin.) We see both these God-given legs in the reading from Jonah today. With these legs the divine Physician healed these people so that they followed God in faith.

First we see the one leg - sorrow over sin. Sometimes we call it contrition. The divine physician gave contrition to both Jonah and the people of Nineveh. When it says, Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, it reminds us that the first time God asked Jonah to go to Nineveh he refused. Nineveh lay East of Palestine. When God asked Jonah to go East, he got on a boat going West. It is a vivid picture of sin. Sin is walking the opposite way that God directs us. He says, God first. We get on our boat called The Me First. We also see here how it is impossible to run and hide from God. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. (Psalm 139) This is one facet of the contrition that God works in sinful hearts - a sense of accountability to the Lord. We also see this - a sense of accountability to God - in the people of Nineveh. We know from Bible history that the Assyrians and its capital city, Nineveh, were a cruel people. They had invented the cruel chariots of iron, putting blades on their chariot wheels to cut up the enemy. For a good 150 years, about 850 BC and following, Assyria was the terror of the world. Yet, when Jonah said, 40 more days and Nineveh will be overturned, they believed that the Lord could do what he said. And notice well - contrition is a sense of accountability to the Lord. Sometimes people regret their actions because they get caught and suffer consequences. When Jonah was in the belly of the fish we see his regret was that God was angry. I have been banished from your sight...(2:4). And the people looked to the Lord when they put on sackcloth and sat in ashes. Who knows? God may relent. Contrition knows that God does not make idle threats!

The other leg of repentance is this - faith or trust in the forgiveness of the Lord. Remember: if God does not give us two healthy legs, we cannot follow after him. The one leg is contrition; the other is faith or trust in his forgiveness.

We see this in both Jonah and the Ninevites. From the belly of the great fish Jonah acknowledged his sin. I have been banished from your sight. But the Lord had not forgotten this man who was running away from him. And God put it in Jonah's heart to say, Yet I will look again toward your holy temple. And then later Jonah says, Salvation is from the Lord. (2:9) The People of Nineveh too relied on God's goodness. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger. (3:9) Jesus says the Ninevites were truly contrite and trusting. See his words in Matthew 12:46. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah.

This leg of repentance - faith - is also the work of the divine Physician. And again uses his scalpel, the Word. Just as God places life inside a seed so that it can sprout in the soil and grow into a plant, so the Word has life inside it to sprout faith and grow inside the heart of people. Jesus said, The Words that I speak to you are Spirit and life. (John 6:63) For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. (1 Peter 1:23). And faith is just this: That in and through the work of Jesus Christ God's righteous demands have been meet for us and God's righteous anger appeased. Just as no one thought they would ever see Jonah again once they tossed him in the sea and just as no one thought anyone would see Jesus again after Good Friday, so Satan thinks that no one will ever see the sinner in any place but hell after he has gotten mankind to sin. But gracious surprise! Jesus was alive and victorious over death on Easter morning. And so will the Christian who clings to Jesus be victorious over sin, Satan and death. This is the other leg of repentance - faith in Jesus' salvation.

Dear friends, what shall we tuck away in our hearts this morning from this little Word? God gives us here something to believe. Believe it - the Lord truly is Love. God our Savior wants all people to be saved and he will continue to call sinners to repentance. And what is true of all - God is seeking them - is true for me. The Divine Physician promises me here, I will be restoring health to your legs. Daily, listen and ponder. I know your sin. Do not be deceived. Listen, for I seek you to save you not to punish you. I look at you through Christ. You look at me back through Christ and you will be sure that I forgive.