Schtucke in Schadenfreude

Jonah's having a whale of a time in Nineveh preaching hellfire and brimstone — until the city repents, and God grants the historic enemy of Israel a reprieve. Like us, he had grown accustomed to taking perverse delight in someone else's misfortune. Perhaps it's time for us to stop working for our own self-interest and focus on the glory of God and the growth of the kingdom.

Weltanschauung.

Heilsgeschichte.

Kulturwissenschaft.

Schadenfreude.

Four wonderful German words. Tantalizing, tongue-twisting terms. Words that are "so money," so cool, to a lover of language.

One of the glorious things about German is that a single succulent word can capture what it takes four or five words to express in English.

Weltanschauung. One's view of the world. The way one looks at life.

Heilsgeschichte. The history of salvation.

Kulturwissenschaft. The study of culture.

Schadenfreude. This one brings us to Jonah, an individual painfully stuck in schadenfreude. He reeks of it. His whole demeanor is dripping with it. Translation? Hold on to your zeitgeist. It means "malicious joy at another person's misfortune." Schadenfreude.

Here's the deal: Jonah was perfectly happy to preach hellfire and damnation to the people of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, because frankly, they deserved it. Horrible people. Nasty habits. They were Israel's longtime enemy, and...