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The turning away, the turning toward: Repentance and Good Friday

Good Friday comes generally with messages of hope in times where perhaps there might seem no hope at all.
There will be messages of tolerance, of getting along, of drawing closer together as a community in harmony, accepting and embracing one another’s differences.
But is this what Jesus really taught? I look to Matthew 4:17, back to the very beginning of Jesus ministry. He spoke of repentance. “Repent,” He said, “for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
What did he mean? Repent?
Repentance is a turning away. But to turn away you have to actively move. You have to leave something behind you. You have to turn toward something.
If you repent, you actively turn away from sin. You turn to Christ. We have to be careful that our tolerance of tolerance does not force us to accept the very Sin that Jesus died to forgive.
Consider this passage from Ezekiel: “Say to them, As I live, declared the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn away from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways for why will you die, O house of Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:11)
Note the contrast between the life of God and the death of the wicked. Note that it is a choice that is made. A continuation of those behaviours and activities warned against by the prophet!
Death comes as a result of Sin. The wages of Sin is Death, we are told by the Apostle Paul in Romans 6:23.
Repent is the call to turn away from the sin that will leave us totally separated from God who loves us. “Repent therefore,” we read in Acts 3:19, “and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out.”
So to repent it to turn away, from sin, toward God. To repent is to recoginse that you are in a state in which relationship with God is impossible. To repent requires both a change of mind and a change of heart.
This is why Jesus died on the cross, so that we could choose: life or death. And in choosing life, that we should perform deeds in keeping with our repentance. (Acts 26:20)
Yes, the Easter message should allow us to reflect on each other’s differences, of the importance of living together as a community.
What it should not ask us to do by inviting us to be tolerant, is to live in harmony with that sin and wickedness God warned us would lead to death!
I fear in some ways this is what we are being asked to do more often every day. In my heart, I know this is not what Jesus taught, it’s not why He died.
If we take anything away from this Good Friday, it should be an infilling of hope, yet not just on Good Friday, but every day, hope in Christ’s love, hope in His death, hope in His resurrection and ascendance.
Hope for life everlasting in relationship with Him.
And we can only have that if we make the decision to turn away from sin, and turn to Him. We can only have that if we answer His call and repent.
Amen.




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