Variety: Jonah 1v1-2

The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai:  ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.’ (Jonah 1:1-2)

Shmuly Yanklowitz: What does it mean to protest? Protesting expresses the opinion that there is something wrong with the ways of the world. At the same time, an act of protest is also an optimistic step to take, signifying our conviction that human actions can be held accountable, human institutions fixed, and society changed. Protest attempts to fight inequity, hatred, greed, and maybe even fear.   The Book of Jonah opens with the idea that religious actions can be politically subversive. In the first two verses, God calls upon Jonah to become a religiously motivated political activist: God speaks to Jonah and implores him to remonstrate against an unjust society. While we often imagine public political protest to be a secular phenomenon, in the Book of Jonah God calls upon the prophet to initiate religious action. 

Richard Rohr: We must not be discouraged when people say, You are making the message political and not spiritual! The prophets speak about misuse of power, but always from an inspired basis, and at a higher level of morality (e.g. Martin Luther King Jr. calling for civil rights):  Their critiques and promises are stated in concrete historical terms, but with a clear spiritual meaning and motivation. Their messages are received gladly by the powerless and then exploited or rejected by prideful profiteers and narrow nationalists.    Jonah was a patriotic nationalist who wanted Nineveh to suffer; true prophets are always internationalists working to realize what Jesus will call the “reign of God.” In their “political” advocacy, prophets point out and confront the power equations that are always corrupting human relations and the divine relationship, too. 

Shmuly Yanklowitz: Many of us may feel that we do not do enough. We may feel exhausted and tired of carrying the heavy weight of that universal responsibility. That’s not just us. We see that even a prophet can feel similarly, and in response, he tries to run away from his responsibility.  Jonah is us. We are Jonah.  It is not easy to be a prophet. The prophet is neither cool nor popular; the prophet is not the life of the party. The prophet is an anxious personality juggling the demands of God with the needs of humans. Constantly risking alienation or even death, the prophet is isolated and lonely. But we are not allowed to turn away.