The Proof of Repentance Is Partying!

“Every one of [Jesus’s] miracles of healing…undercut the rabbinic tradition of ‘You deserved it.’“

“The disciples were looking backward, to find out ‘Why?’  Jesus redirected their attention forward, answering a different question.  ‘To what end?‘  His answer:  ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.‘ [Jn. 9:3]”  (Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew.  Zondervan, 1995, p. 170.  All emphases added.)

The response of Jesus, the Messiah, was Resurrection-oriented!  He was gazing in the direction of that new-creation event that would reverse in one cosmic burst of recreative energy all the Satan-inspired injuries and injustices against his people.

Any question about evils that is obsessed with their origin, their etiology, is sub-redemptive!  It will, moreover, remain naggingly inconclusive.  It is a question framed by a humanity in its weakness and powerlessness, defrocked of its primal glory and potential (for all practical purposes of rectification), forgetful of its promised destiny.  Jesus opened a cosmic valve to release a gush of cleansing power from his impending Kingdom that would outweigh by sheer glory the tragic, nettling, befuddling, but ultimately trivial source of our griefs by comparison.  Do we “deserve” our hurts and sorrows?  Who cares?!  Their correction comes for free, by raw, untamed favor!!

That Jesus both performed miracles and downplayed them are complementary proofs of who he actually was.  This twin truth always seems to escape apologists of cessationism who are more anxious to obfuscate God’s heartfelt and unflagging desire to continue to heal and restore, even in a “scientific” age when such powers do not behave themselves according to tidy human protocols.  Jesus was not a showoff; he always healed those who came to him for it, and he never ‘performed’ signs for those who came for them.  He couldn’t help but be who he was, therefore he did what he did.  That’s why he both helped and hid.  But it’s a tough feat both to use your liberating powers stemming from your irrepressible compassion and also to remain in humble obscurity.  In a world full of disease and injury it’s hard to keep a low profile when your compassion compels you to cure.  It would, in fact, argue against Jesus’s Messiahship if he had employed his Spirit-endowed powers exhibitionistically.  [11/09/97]

The illustration in Luke 15 about the compassionate father (and the prodigal son) teaches just how little God cares for penance (in its medieval sense and practice) at all!  The profligate son no sooner expressed his admission of sin and denial of worthiness to retain the status of ‘son’ than his father cut him off mid-sentence (in one of the Gospels, according to the best manuscripts) and reinstated him instantly as his son with full rights and honors, not even so much as allowing a moment’s groveling or any further humiliation.  So far as the father was concerned, the son deserved no punishment whatever–wantonness, after all, has its own evil and chastening consequences, as the parable clearly emphasizes) but rather a whopping party instead!  All the “proof” of repentance (Luke 15:7, 10) that God wants to see is a willingness to enter the party of the Kingdom He has prepared for us!  Curiously, this is precisely what the elder son stubbornly refused to do.  He would not enter the merry and joyful (Rom. 14:17) festivities of God’s Kingdom…even though he had “no need of repentance” (Luke 15:7)!  Instead, his very lack of such need caused him to harden his heart and actually, ironically, tragically, despoiled him of his natural birthright!  In such a way, mere human righteousness can be frightfully damning.  When the Pharisees and scribes grumbled about the Messiah’s acceptance of tribute collectors and sinners who were, after all, still Jews in any case,  they were scandalized.  But this established the pattern of God’s behavior, the bald implication of which even the disciples were not prepared for:  the nations too could enter that Kingdom on the very same basis.  [11/1/97]  (Expanding on Ken Blue’s recorded sermon, “The Father Loves You”.)