Presence Weekly 3/25/2024

The DEVO: The Mission of Repentance

11  “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD;  I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. 
12  “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? 
13  Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. 
14  Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. 
15  When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you;  even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. 16  Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, 
17  learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. 
18  “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. 
19  If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; 
20  but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” Isaiah 6:11-20

This is Holy Week! 

It started yesterday with Palm Sunday, which celebrates Christ's entry into Jerusalem in the final week of his life. As he entered the city, Jesus and his disciples heard the sounds of jubilation from the crowds who believed he was coming to make Israel great again and begin the process of building back better. Scripture, however, records that as Jesus entered the city, he wept over its great sin. 

Later in the week, Jesus would share a meal with his disciples, known as the Last Supper, which we celebrate as Maundy Thursday. Following the dinner, Jesus departs to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane, where he is arrested, and then finds himself carried along by the definite plan and foreknowledge of God that culminated in his betrayal, denial, abandonment, torture, politically motivated conviction, and horrific execution which we commemorate as Good Friday. Then, just as he foretold, Jesus rose from the dead in the historic event we now celebrate as Easter. 

Herein lies the connection to the passage in Isaiah and the mission statement that informs how we live in a posture of faithful presence.

Throughout the Old Testament, we learn of mankind's mission to fill the earth with the glory of God, to bless the world, to love their neighbor as themselves, to obey the Law of God, and to disciple their children and community to live as the people of God. Yet, occupying even more narrative space is the detailed accounting of mankind's continued failure to live by the terms of God's Law.  

After coming to the edge of the Promised Land under Moses, Joshua conquers most, but not all, of the land. The Book of Judges then details the downward spiral of God's people who "did what was right in their own eyes," before giving way to the Book of Ruth, which provides us with a glimpse of a coming Redeemer (and how to appropriately apply Leviticus 19). Despite David's conquest and temporary unification of Israel, the books of First and Second Kings detail how sin ultimately brought the people into direct conflict with God. These conflicts are detailed in The Prophets. Which brings us to Isaiah.

Isaiah comes as the herald with a simple message - repent! As one songwriter famously penned, "Sorry seems to be the hardest word." Yet, saying "Sorry" is at the core of living as God's people. As Leviticus makes clear, we are not called just to apologize to our neighbor but chiefly and primarily to the God of steadfast love and faithfulness. The wrongs we commit in the marketplace, courts, marriage, family, and other relationships are ultimately sins against the LORD. Those sins have consequences - this is where repentance comes in. 

One ancient confession of faith defines repentance as "a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, does, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience."

As already stated, the issue is that despite its requirement for transgressions of all kinds, it is difficult to do—not procedurally but personally. As humans, we prefer not to acknowledge our wrongdoing to our neighbor, let alone God. 

Anyone serving and leading in Washington or the larger public square understands this reality. For the offended, most have realized that they are probably never getting the sincere apology they deserve for being slandered or manipulated to advance someone else's career or agenda. For the offender, history has shown that an apology often just makes you look weak—and that is a deal breaker. Then there are the narcissists. 

One criterion that often informs our desire to apologize for our wrongdoing is the internal dialogue that leads us to conclude that whatever we did wasn't that bad. Perhaps it was just a "white lie" or omitting some extra information that might have weakened our position. We may even conclude that whatever we did was "just getting even" for something done to us. Maybe, all we did was put our full faith in someone other than Jesus to deliver us to the Promised Land. But in the end, that minimization moves us further from understanding Holy Week. 

Jesus went to the cross because Judas sinned by betraying him, Peter sinned by denying him, James and John sinned by asking for power, and Solomon sinned by accumulating wealth and wives he was not supposed to have. David sinned by committing adultery and murder. He went to the cross because other people stole their neighbor's cattle, lied, envied, worshiped idols (like elected officials), over-harvested their fields, used weighted scales, and mocked the homeless. Life in the public square makes Peter's call for righteousness particularly challenging, "so put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander." (1 Peter 2:1)

Repentance is part of our mission as followers of Christ because it is a proclamation to God and our neighbor that we understand that sorry is a word that we need to say because it acknowledges that the word alone is not enough to fully make amends for our wrongdoing.  The penalty for sin, as laid out in the terms of the Covenant of Redemption, is death. That is why Jesus came to Jerusalem and endured the brutality of crucifixion. 

Sorry is appropriate. 

But sorry is only a public declaration of our sins that ultimately points to the necessity of Holy Week, where the Lamb of God became the atonement for our sins and the sins of everyone who professes faith in Christ. 

In living the only life ever lived where saying “I am sorry” was unnecessary, Jesus took all of our “I am sorry”s, and even the ones we should have said but didn’t, and declared, “You are forgiven!”

Last Things...

This is Holy Week! Many surveys show that most people are open to responding positively to an invitation to attend an Easter worship service with a friend. So, make sure to invite someone to church - and then to join you for lunch!