Letter 39

From: Ambrose, Bishop of Milan To: Horontianus Date: ~380 AD Context: An exegetical letter on the prophet Jonah, interpreting his three days in the whale as a figure of Christ's burial and resurrection, and the repentance of Nineveh as a model for gentile conversion. Ambrose to Horontianus — greetings. The story of Jonah is one of the strangest in Scripture, and therefore one of the most important. Strange stories demand interpretation; comfortable ones allow us to sleep. God commanded Jonah to preach repentance to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria and the byword for pagan cruelty. Jonah refused and ran. Why? Not because he was afraid — Jonah was no coward. He ran because he knew God would forgive Nineveh if it repented, and Jonah did not want Nineveh forgiven. He wanted it destroyed. This is the hardest truth in the book: Jonah was angry not at God's justice but at God's mercy. He could accept a God who punishes sinners; he could not accept a God who forgives enemies. And he is not alone in this. The human heart finds forgiveness for others far more difficult than judgment. The three days in the belly of the great fish are, as our Lord himself taught, a figure of his own burial and resurrection (Matthew 12:40). Jonah descended into the deep and was brought up alive. Christ descended into the tomb — into death itself — and rose on the third day. The parallel is explicit, and the Lord himself drew it. But there is a difference: Jonah went into the deep unwillingly, as punishment for disobedience. Christ went into the tomb willingly, as the price of obedience. Jonah was saved from the deep; Christ conquered it. And Nineveh repented — the whole city, from the king to the cattle (Jonah 3:5-8). The gentile city heard one reluctant sermon and was converted. Consider what this means for us, who have heard the gospel preached for centuries and still resist it. Farewell, brother. May we be quicker to repent than Jonah and less grudging about God's mercy to others.

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