By Jessica Brodie
How do you react when confronted with something you’ve done wrong, some way you’ve fallen short?
For Lent, my family is watching The Chosen, beginning with season one. Not everybody in the family has seen it, and instead of watching the other show we’ve been watching as part of our nightly wind-down/bonding routine, we thought this might be a way we can all collectively consider the sacrifices of Jesus as we walk through the weeks leading up to Easter.
In episode four, the apostle Peter hasn’t yet been called as a disciple of Christ, and he’s been struggling in life. But then comes Jesus, filling his nets with fish and reminding him of the importance of his faith, and suddenly Peter realizes how far he’s gone astray. Faced outright with his sin, Peter falls to his knees in humility before the son of God, and then Jesus invites him to follow him. Most of us know the rest of the story—how Peter went on to become one of the Twelve and the very man upon whom Christ chose to found his earthly church and spread the good news to all corners of the earth (Matthew 16:18).
I don’t know about you, but I know I haven’t always reacted like Peter did when suddenly confronted with the depths of my transgressions.
Whether confronted by a friend or a coworker, my reactions in the past weren’t always ideal. Maybe I’ve shrugged it off, thinking, “That’s a ‘you’ problem.” Maybe I’ve thought of all the ways I could justify my behavior or gotten defensive and prideful.
But as a Jesus-follower who has committed to making Christ the Lord of my life, I strive to live differently today. I don’t always succeed when confronted with mistakes I’ve made, whether now or in the past, but I try to react with immediate humility, owning up to my wrong. Instead of getting defensive, I’m trying to say, “You know what, you’re right. I did the wrong thing. I’m sorry, and I’m going to do better next time.”
The real question is, of course, not about human relationships at all but how we react toward God when confronted with our sin.
What do I do? Do I stick my proverbial head in the sand, feigning ignorance? Do I get defensive and try to justify? Or does the truth smack me across the face like a splash with freezing cold water and make me blink my eyes with an eternal wakeup call? Do I admit, “Yeah, I really have done wrong. I really don’t want to do that again. I want to do better. I will strive to do better.”
That’s what repentance is: owning up to ways we’ve gone astray and turning our lives around, setting our feet on a path intending never to walk that old way again.
When we do wrong, when we go astray and make mistakes in our relationships with those around us—with our neighbors or friends or coworkers or family members, or even that stranger angling for our parking spot in the Walmart lot—we’re also doing wrong against God.
Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to love God with all our hearts, minds, and souls and, second, to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:36-40). We know we’re supposed to treat others with love and kindness. And further, I believe what Jesus said to his disciples in Matthew 25—about how we treat the hungry, thirsty, poor, or imprisoned is how we treat him—can extend to how we treat anyone. How we treat our enemy, the immigrant, the school bully, the nasty clerk in the checkout line is how we treat Jesus.
As Jesus said in Matthew 25, 44-45, “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me’” (NIV).
This week, will you join me in throwing off that cloak of defensiveness and justifying and start owning up to our wrongdoings, our shortcomings, the little and big ways that we fall away as we go through this life?
Nobody’s perfect. And I’m going to make mistakes today and tomorrow and probably every day for the rest of my life. But repentance, picking up my cross to follow Christ, isn’t about perfection. It’s about trying to do the right thing. It’s about trying to keep my feet on God‘s path
A prayer: God, you know my weaknesses. Please open my eyes to reality when I do something wrong, even if it seems minuscule. Please help me out up to my mistakes and act like Peter did in that show, falling to my knees in repentance and surrender, and help me to treat everyone around me with genuine love and care. I’m so grateful that even when I mess up, regardless of the fact that I probably am going to mess up every day, you love me anyway. But help me strive not to mess up so I can model you and point others to you in the best way I possibly can. I love you, Lord. Amen.
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