The Long Road Home

   What is repentance?  I think it’s a word that has gotten a bad reputation over the years because of the way it’s been used in a lot of church’s.  We’re used to hearing the word in a context like, ‘You’d better repent or you’re going to burn!!!’  Biblical repentance is something that’s altogether different.  It’s even beautiful.  And the reason I say it’s beautiful and something that we should all be quick to run to is because it opens the door to grace.  I like what C.S. Lewis had to say about repentance.  He said repentance is not something God arbitrarily demands of us; he described ‘It simply as a description of what going back is like.’

Perhaps the best illustration of what it means to repent is found in Jesus famous story of the prodigal son.  In that story, the son takes his father’s inheritance and squanders the entire thing on parties and prostitutes.  Before long, his money runs out and his friends desert him.  He eventually finds work feeding swine. (Not the ideal job for any Jewish boy)  And he actually gets to the point where he becomes so hungry, that he wants to fill his belly with the slop the pigs are eating.  It was at this point, that the gospels tell us that ‘he came to himself.’  He decided to return to his fathers house and beg for mercy.  As he headed for home, while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and began to run towards him and embraced him and put a ring on his finger, and shoes on his feet, and commanded that the fatted calf should be slaughtered. 

And the picture of the boy coming to himself and returning home is the best illustration of what it means to repent. Repentance is the flight home that leads to joyful celebration.  It opens the way to a future, to a relationship restored.  As one author put it, God awakes guilt for my own benefit.  God seeks not to crush me but to liberate me, and liberation requires a defenseless spirit like the one we see illustrated in the story of the prodigal son, or like the one we see pictured in Jonah.

But before that door to grace can be opened we’ve got to admit our need.  And that’s a hard thing for us to do.  It doesn’t take long to learn how to ‘look the part ’ in a church setting.  In fact, it’s been my experience that church is one of the easiest places to hide.  And what can end up happening if we’re not careful is we can all start to look really pretty on the outside, and yet have all this secret sin going on in our hearts.  And the problem with that is in doing that, we become the very people that Jesus had such a difficult time with in the gospels.  In the end, I know of only two alternatives to hypocrisy: perfection or honesty.  Perfection is not a viable option.  Being honest before God about who I really am is the only path that will ultimately lead to life and freedom. 

--Daniel