After observing some less than godly behavior in churches and seeing the same ‘politically correct’ gobbly-goop given as the reason, I‘ve discovered an unhealthy trend that Christ followers had better get up to speed on.
Fast.
It seems we’ve adopted the world’s version of apology management and false statement retractions. For some believers who genuinely sin and cause destruction, it seems the best they can come up with—once caught, exposed or threatened is, “I’m sorry.” Occasionally you get the only slightly more potent, “I was wrong,” but you almost never seem to get true repentance and a willingness (no, insistence) that they be allowed to make it right and prove that they mean business with God.
Instead we get, ‘too bad it worked out that way’ explanations and reluctant 27th page retractions.
Is this what God is after when He tells us how important it is to have a repentant heart?
I don’t think so. See if you agree after reading these:
Ezekiel 18:32, For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!
Hosea 11:5, “Will they not return to Egypt and will not Assyria rule over them because they refuse to repent?
Matthew 3:2, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
Matthew 11:20, Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent.
Matthew 21:32, Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.
Luke 13:3, I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.
Acts 3:19, Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,
Acts 17:30, In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
There are a whole lot more that show how important repentance is to the Lord, but this last one speaks specifically to what I’m talking about here,
Acts 26:20, First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.
Prove their repentance by their deeds? What do you suppose that’s all about?
I say it’s the very difference between real and fake, meaningful and meaningless, repentance and just, ‘being sorry.’ And, it’s…
The Zacchaeus factor.
Look at the story from Luke 19:
1Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. 4So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner.’ ”
8But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
9Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
The part that hit me between the eyes is in bold. Do you see it? Who ever said that being sorry required paying back people four levels up from the level of the crime? If you get arrested for grand theft auto does this mean you have to serve your time and buy four cars for the individual you stole the car from? Does this mean that if you lied and cheated your way into a brand new job that you need to get jobs for at least four of the candidates that missed out because of your dishonesty? Does this mean—
Oh, you get the point. No, it doesn’t mean that there is some sort of arbitrary number that equals proper remorse or adequate amounts of pain and suffering similar to having someone counting the rosary or saying umteen million, “Hail Marys.” God’s not looking for you to haul 300 pounds of armor up a waterfall like Robert Dinero in the movie, “The Mission.” He’s looking for true repentance that indicates a true change!
When the vertically challenged little IRS agent offered to pay back four times he was revealing something extremely important to God—a change. Real change! Zacchaeus was a new man! And a transformed, repentant person does more than “acknowledge” their mistakes and point to a fluttering in their belly expressed by the familiar words, “I feel bad.”
They repent.
They make things right.
No matter what it takes.
No matter how long it takes.
That’s the Zacchaeus Factor.
A missing factor for far too many.