The Anti-Hero isn’t a modern invention, thousands of years ago Jonah was the Anti-Hero of his own story. Jonah’s story is in the Bible to hold up a mirror to ourselves and ask if our hearts reflect Jonah’s twisted heart for the world or God’s compassionate heart.
God, the Hero, speaks first in Jonah’s tale. “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me,”[i] God directs Jonah. “But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish”[ii] (in the exact opposite direction, over sea instead of over land).
“Arise!” we hear for the second time in the narrative from the godless captain of Jonah’s boat as the ship is pounded by the relentless sea. The captain shows the depths of God’s prophet rebellion when the pagan directs the Jewish prophet to “call out to your god!”[iii]
Into the dark sea Noah is tossed and swallowed by a great fish. Following his repentance he is spat out onto the ground. And the Hero returns, “Arise, go to Nineveh,” he repeats, as if to make sure that Noah has no doubt that his mission has not expired.
Are you stubbornly refusing the call of the Hero of your story? Where is he calling you to arise to? God is calling you to move. For many of us, we are docked on our couches. We need to move. We need to arise. For many of us, even though we walk into our workplace every day, we hunker down, put our head down, and disengage from our coworkers.
Arise!
It’s easy to hear the call to “Arise” and functionally opt-out.
