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“Jonah's Sons”
Categories: children, fathersMy children hold my heart in many ways. I feel their failures and successes as my own. I want them to thrive and grow and progress in this life well beyond my own wisdom and stature. I want them to hold firm their faith stronger than I have. I’m sure that is the desire of every Christian parent.
John wrote, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth” (3 John 4). Amen.
A man named Jonah had two sons who decided to follow a new Jewish Rabbi all over Galilee and Judea. I wonder what Jonah thought about that. As a good Jewish father (I’m assuming, since his sons seem spiritually-minded and kingdom-seeking), I imagine he had misgivings. Who is this teacher? He makes bold claims and performs great signs, they say. He continually challenges the Jewish religious leaders. Could such a man really be from God? Are my boys safe in His care and under his direction?
After three years of following Jesus, what did Jonah think when Jesus was crucified? His boys’ hopes and dreams were dashed. They had been fools to trust in the promises this man continually made them. He had heard there was to be a kingdom, and not just any kingdom but the one the prophets of old had foretold. He had heard his boys were in line to be major leaders in that kingdom. Jesus had said something about them sitting on thrones and judging the people! Why had he dared to hope in those promises, which all were snuffed out in a single day.
But THEN! What did Jonah think when his boys came home and told him, “Jesus is not dead, but risen!” Did he believe? Did he come to faith in Jesus Christ? Did hope spark new in his breast?
I wonder if he ever got to read the words Matthew wrote?
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16.15–19)
What a blessing to have your son praised in such a way. Of course, if he read that, he would also have read of Peter’s several foibles, too, and possibly cringed and cried as he saw how Peter had denied Jesus in a moment of weakness. But knowing how the story unfolded, he could breathe easy and rejoice in the new kingdom and the precious gospel which Peter and Andrew continued to preach until the end of their lives.
I hope nothing more for my children than they continue in their faith in Jesus Christ and have Him present them with a crown of victory! Like Peter, they will have moments of weakness and fail and fall at times, but I hope Jesus prays for them as He prayed for Peter, that their faith may not fail. That is my prayer. I hope that is your prayer for your own children.
Let our sons and daughters be like Jonah’s sons.
