Life in Joppa

It was recently presented to me that two major characters in the Bible spent some time in the city of Joppa and had similar calls.  Peter and Jonah had a moment of decision in the city of Joppa.

"The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: "Go to the great city of Ninevah and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.

But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish.  He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port.  After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD." Jonah 1:1-3

As you may recall, Jonah fled from the LORD because he didn't want to preach against Ninevah.  Why?  Because he knew the LORD (when in all caps means Yahweh) was a God slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  Jonah knew Yahweh's character and he knew that forgiveness of sins was Yahweh's modus operandi and Jonah hated the Ninevites.  Ninevah was the capital of Assyria in modern day Mosul, Iraq.  The Assyrians were brutal oppressors of the Israelites and insufferably wicked.

Jonah did not like "them" and didn't want to share God's mercy with "them".

In Acts chapter 10 Peter was in Joppa.  To summarize: while in Joppa, Peter saw a vision from God.  In the vision God showed Peter a *sheet with clean and unclean animals and told him "Rise, Peter; kill and eat."  Now, Peter was a good Jew and refused (despite the fact that he was staying at the home of a ceremonially unclean tanner, but that is a different story for a different day).  The vision was repeated two more times.  While that was happening a Gentile, Roman centurion had a vision of his own.  In his vision an angel told him to go get Peter from Joppa.

So, men from the centurion named Cornelius came and got Peter to take him to a Gentile, Roman centurion's home.  Peter obeyed and went and preached the Gospel to Cornelius and his whole house and they were powerfully converted because Yahweh is a God slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Peter, like Jonah, had every reason NOT to go the right way out of Joppa.  Jews never went into the home of Gentiles because that was extremely taboo.  The Roman army was the oppressor of Peter's people.  This centurion was part of the system that robbed Israel of its freedom in the Promised Land. 

Yet Peter obeyed despite all the reasons to hate the "them" that he was sent to and he shared God's mercy with "them".

Christian, are you in Joppa? 

Life in Joppa is where the intersection of cultural taboo and Yahweh's call happens.  Life in Joppa is where our hatred of "them" is confronted with "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness," (Exodus 34:6).  Will you run from the call of this unique God or will you follow His call to be a minister of the Good News?  Will you hold on to your dislike of them, even if it has some good reason, or will you go from Joppa and be a vessel of the message of God's abounding love and mercy?

Know yourself.  Who are the "thems" God is confronting you with here in Joppa?  Will you crucify your "right" to hate and submit to the very God who died to love them and save them?  Will you follow Jesus rather than cultural, nationalistic, tribalistic norms?

Rise to the call that life in Joppa presents you today.




*Some scholars guess the sheet in the vision was the sail of a ship in the sea Peter was staying near as he sat on the roof by the sea.  Interesting thought given what Peter did when he saw a ship's sail versus what Jonah did.