It's never too late

Maybe you know Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie, which included the song “Second Chances.” This week’s Christian Science Bible Lesson on Truth might be subtitled: “Counter-cultural risk takers and the God of second chances.” In this Lesson, the story of Jonah is one of the Bible stories that is particularly helpful in understanding the enduring nature of God’s healing truth and the benefits of obedience to that truth.

Jonah is a short story (see Section 4) written sometime after Israel’s exile, after 539 bc . There was a distinct tension at this time between viewing God as a national deity and a universal deity. Jonah’s response to God’s request to go to the Gentiles of Nineveh reflects that tension. Jonah had no interest in going to visit the “immoral” people of Nineveh. But after the storm and being swallowed by “a great fish,” perhaps he realized that there was risk in not obeying God! He also realized that God wasn’t going to give up on him, either. Jonah 3:1 (citation 16) says that “the word of the Lord” came to Jonah a “second time.” He listened this time. He went forward with his mission to persuade the Ninevites to turn to God and repent, and they did. The great news is that it is never too late to turn to God, or be persuaded by infinite Truth, and find our purpose, like Jonah.

The word obey comes from an Old English word meaning “to listen to” and relates to the word submit, or to put oneself under something. The Greek word peitho means to be persuaded or influenced and is the word Paul uses in his letter to the Galatians when they are being influenced by something other than God. “Who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?” (Galatians 5:7 , cit. 13). We are either submitting to the infinite view of Truth or to the mortal ego—a limited view. And only one way will help us, as Mary Baker Eddy explains in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “Obedience to Truth gives man power and strength. Submission to error superinduces loss of power” (p. 183 , cit. 29).

The Gospel of John, probably written about 30–40 years after Paul’s letters, tells of a crippled man sitting by the pool of Bethesda, waiting for healing (see Section 5, cit. 21). He hoped someone would put him in the water after it was stirred by an angel, before anyone else got this shot at being healed. The man was persuaded by this common belief that this was his only hope. Since he couldn’t reach the water when it was stirred, he was never healed. But when he encountered Christ Jesus, who submitted to spiritual law, he was healed. In the light of divine Truth, it was never too late for the man to be healed.

In sum, these stories teach that obedience to Truth is freedom from ego-based thinking—such as doubt, fear, and pride—and that freedom allows us to soar. “Truth makes man free” (Science and Health, p. 225 , cit. 23).