Repent!

 March 22, 2022

Imagine my surprise when I opened my documents and realized I hadn’t posted anything last night. I suspected my mind might be slipping, but didn’t anticipate having also stripped its gears! 

My thoughts for the past week have been soaring like vultures over the sermon text for the week from Luke 13:

“There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answered and said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”” —Luke 13:1-5 

Current events were what triggered the story Jesus told in our text: More than 2000 years later,  we wrestle with the same issues: There is injustice, and there is little we can do about it. Or if you prefer, injustice and impotence.

Our responses, and those of Jesus’ disciples stem from our sense of justice, the age-old question of why bad things happen to good people. In their question, they were justifiably angry at Rome, the “evil empire.” Soldiers had raided the temple, murdering the worshippers. It was easy to point the finger. Jesus however, took it a bit further. “What about that tower collapse?” Now it wasn’t Rome on trial, but God himself. So what does Jesus say to this?

“Unless you repent, you will likewise perish.” Not very comforting, is it?

But Jesus does something very necessary here: He moves the discussion from “out there” to “in here.” We expend a lot of energy fighting battles we cannot win, beating our heads against matters@ we can’t control. 

Very few of the issues of life’s injustices lie within our capacity to influence. We may feel justified in our anger or complaint, but talk all we want, it’s not going to change a thing. We feel justified, vindicated, if we can pinpoint the blame, but remember, fixing blame doesn’t fix the problem.

Jesus moves us from what we cannot to what we can control: “Repent”—ie. fix what’s wrong in you, and the rest will work out. Instead of wasting time railing against what we cannot control, we can start with what is in our grasp: Repent.” Change your way of thinking. Change your behavior.

What to repent of? Here’s a short list: Complaining. Stinking Thinking. Prayerlessness, or simply selfish prayers. Ingratitude. Judgmentalism. A lack of faith: Repent/Repeat.

It can be a bitter pill. We would rather point our fingers at what’s wrong “out there.” It makes us feel better. After all, “I don’t do all those bad things.” So we measure life by its negatives instead of its positives, justifying ourselves while rejecting God’s justification of us in Christ…a justification that can only be received by repentance and faith: “Lord, I’m no better than _____; forgive me for smugly feeling superior and doing nothing about what I can change instead of humbly repenting and changing what I can.