Usually, when a person refers to another person's behavior and says, "Typical," or "That was predictable," or "It figures," it's usually said with disgust and judgment. "I could have seen that coming," also goes along with it. No big surprise. When the team started falling behind, they really choked. We could have seen that coming. When that new girl started working here, he started hitting on her. How predictable. Not so nice, are they?

Tonight, we're going to put those phrases in a more positive light, because we are going to apply them mainly to our merciful God. In Christ, God's behavior becomes very predictable, and in Christ it is always toward mercy.

All through the Lenten season you have been seeing Jonah. His behavior was getting pretty predictable. And although it might shock us to see Jonah's reaction to Nineveh's repentance, it shouldn't.

We look at this repentance as a wonderful thing. All these people who were bound for hell have been spared. They have discovered eternal life in Christ. Shouldn't that make any missionary ecstatic? But Jonah didn't want to be a missionary. He wanted to be a preacher who told the people what they wanted to hear, and he was called into a mission he didn't want to take. That's why he did all he could to avoid it, to the point of even being willing to die rather than fulfill it.

So now, when Jonah has carried it out his mission, what he feared would happen, did happen-God had mercy on them.

Jonah knew implicitly the nature of God. It's not just words on a page, or a song. He knew it. He had heard these words, and he knew them to be true. His mercy endures forever. His anger lasts only a moment, but His favor a lifetime. As a prophet, he prayed these words, constantly. Despite the bloody history of God's people, Jonah knew God was merciful. And not just to His called people. Jonah knew God was merciful and would show mercy to the Ninevites, and that's why he didn't want to go.

I don't know about you, but I find this simply amazing! I know I shouldn't be because that is the point of my sermon, but I must confess I am amazed on two levels. First, that God was so merciful to the Ninevites and second that Jonah was so confident that was what was going to happen.

First, that God was so merciful to the Ninevites. I don't need to remind you about the history of the Israelites, it was a bloody one. They would slaughter whole cities of Canaan-and this would be at God's command. It gives the appearance that God doesn't care about anyone other than His own people the O.T. Israelites.

Why should He care about the capital city of this godless world power? And yet, in Christ, who has only been promised but counted as though He has already suffered and died, He does. He wants them to be given a warning. He wants to deliver a word to them. He wants, as He does with all people, to see them be saved. Therefore He sends them the Word and along with that Word, the Holy Spirit, and every citizen of the city repented. That God would show such mercy to them and His word would be so powerful that they would all repent and be spared, amazes me-but it shouldn't.

At the same time, I'm amazed at Jonah's reason for not wanting to preach to Nineveh. He ran down to Joppa, chartered a ship to Tarshish, hid deep in the belly of the boat, and was even willing to die, all to avoid carrying out the mission the Lord has selected Him to do.

Why? Because he thought it would be a wasted trip? An exercise in futility? Was it because he was afraid the people wouldn't listen? No. Exactly the opposite. He was afraid the people would listen.

But it wasn't even just a fear. He knew it. He says, "I didn't want to go because I knew you would be merciful." His confidence in God's mercy and the power of His Word to make it happen is nonchalant. He simply takes it for granted that God would be merciful. He complains about it.

Think about what that says. We seem to be surprised if God does what He says He will do. If His Kingdom were to come among us, as we pray in the Lord's Prayer, by sending the Holy Spirit so that by His grace hearers may believe His holy word and lead godly lives according to it, we are amazed. That's exactly what the Ninevites did. They heard His holy Word and they began to live godly lives according to it. When we see it happen, though, we act surprised. "Wow! Did you see how that person has grabbed onto His Word and cherishes it?" I've seen it happen numerous times, and yet I'm nothing like Jonah, I'm pleased, but also so surprised when I see it. Why? Why should I be surprised? Because I don't believe the power of His Word. I have trouble believing it actually does what the Lord says it does. And I have a hunch some of you do, too.

Jonah, on the other hand, knew all about the power of that Word to convert. He knew what God would do. In this way, Jonah, who is so much like us, who shows us how much we are like him, puts us to shame. At least he didn't question God's mercy or the power of His Word to make mercy happen. If we were to have faith like Jonah-at least when it comes to this-we would never question anything God ever said.

And why is this? Because God is so predictable. Jonah knew the power of God's Word and the extent of His mercy. He had seen it, and more importantly than that, had heard it.

So now, we come to the Thursday before His death. We know what comes tomorrow. We have heard it so many times. Jesus suffers and dies, taking on all the penalty of our sins.

The extent of His love is amazing, but it shouldn't surprise us. We saw it over and over again throughout Biblical history. We have heard His rescues again and again. So many times, it shouldn't surprise us. He's predictable.

And so what is happening in the Upper room that Thursday evening shouldn't surprise us either. The Passover Lamb, provided for the whole world, will be hung up on a cross. A tremendous gift will be gained by it. Eternal life will be won for the whole world. But how does He get he gift to the people?

Here again, our Lord is predictable. No details are overlooked. The Lord knows this tremendous gift would sit in a box gathering dust, if He didn't provide a way for delivering it. What good would it be, if gave up His own Son, putting Him through eternal torments, even hell, if He paid this horrible price but never got it to His intended?

The Lord knows we can't take it for ourselves. He knows what we are. We had a reminder of that when we confessed our sins. We are poor, miserable sinners. As bad as that sounds, it doesn't sound as bad as what the Lord says we are in other places-His enemies. As His enemies, we wouldn't take anything from Him, unless we could use it against Him. We would suspect strings would be attached. We would think it's a trap. It would be death to our independence, and so we could never take it on our own.

So He provides a way to get it to us. He takes us for His own. Kicking and screaming, our sinful nature feels like it has been kidnapped, and actually it was, then He drowns it providing in its place the new man. All this happens in our baptism.

But this only happens once. What else does He provide to make sure the goods are delivered? His predictability, taking care of all the details shows through again. Because we have this sinful nature in us that doesn't stay dead, but that needs to be taken care of daily, drowned daily so that the new man may daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever, what else are we given? Take eat, this is my body given for you for the forgiveness of sins. Take drink, this is the blood of the new covenant shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.

Our Lord God provides for our ongoing battle against that sinful nature. He knows what the battle is like, and so He provides what we need for it. He provides spiritual bread and spiritual drink. In this way, He is predictable because He did this back in the O.T. with the Israelites as they wandered in the wilderness. He provided bread from heaven, which they called Manna, but did not realize was Jesus. They drank from a spiritual rock, a rock that followed them, and as St. Paul tells us that rock was Christ.

And so for our journey and our battle, the Lord predictably provides for us. Under bread and wine, instituted by Christ Himself, we observe today the day He instituted it. He spoke the Word and they were what He said. He speaks the words, and they are what He says, His body and blood. His body and blood given for you, to give to you the gift He won on the cross, given to you and me because we would never get it otherwise.

I guess you could say, "It figures." Or "I could have seen that coming." Or "Predictable." Yes, all these statements are true. When it comes to this, our Lord is graciously and wonderfully predictable, and because of this we can trust His Word even more firmly, especially as we enter tomorrow, seeing it as the disciples did and it all looks lost.

AMEN