The Lutheran Hour
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"Repent"
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Text: Mark 1:14-15
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! The crucified and risen Christ is God’s answer to the question raised by our sin-blackened heart. The risen Redeemer is the Good News which says, God has created a new and forgiven heart within us. May God grant this blood-bought forgiveness to each of us. Amen.
The date was early in the morning of April 29, 1945. The place was the private Berlin bunker of Adolf Hitler. Even though the Fuhrer’s hideout was far underground the Nazi elite could still hear and feel the whump-whump explosions of the Russian artillery as they battled past the boys and old men who comprised the majority of the city’s defenders. House by house, street by street they came. It was inevitable; the Reich was coming to an end.
It was then that Hitler called his secretary, Frau Traudl Junge into a private conference for the purpose of dictating his Last Will and Testament and his political farewell to the world. ‘At last’, the young secretary thought to herself, ‘we shall finally find out what all this has been about.’ Germany had been at war for six years, millions of her countrymen were dead, Hitler had personally ordered the death of millions more, and her nation, along with much of Europe, had been laid waste. If Frau Junge thought she would be given a new revelation, she was much mistaken. In his final dictation Hitler claimed he had been innocent of all wrongdoing. Further, he laid the blame for what had happened at the feet of the Jews, the English, the Communists, anyone and everyone other than himself. Read through that document as I have and you will find the Dictator spoke not a single sentence of apology, confession, or repentance for the tragedy he had caused.
He is hardly alone in refusing to repent of his sins. Tour the hieroglyph-covered temples and tombs of ancient Egypt, there, your guide will gladly show you how every pharaoh, in every dynasty, took great pleasure in ordering the stone cutters to carve the rocks deeply so they might everlastingly proclaim his every accomplishment, conquest, and success. But if you ask the guide to show you those places where the Pharaohs listed their failures, flaws, and sins; where they offered apologies for their mistakes and made confession of their shortcomings, your guide will explain there is no such location.
Of course, a refusal to repent is not confined to the rich, the famous, and the important. Years ago the TV program Happy Days had a character, “The Fonz.” The Fonz was incredibly cool; he had the ability to do anything… anything other than say he was wrong. The best he could do was say, “I was wrrrr. I was wrrr.” Now when Henry Winkler, the actor who played the Fonz, stuttered over an admission of guilt, it was funny. In real life, not so comical. Many of you have watched daytime TV. If you do, you know there is a whole gaggle of courtroom shows being aired. I don’t have time to name them all. What I can say is this: every one of those conflicts would end in 30 seconds if those angry people were willing to admit they were wrrrr; they were wrrrr, they were wrong. Indeed, think how streamlined America’s backlogged courts would be if those who were guilty were willing to repent.
Not even children like to repent. Not so long ago I talked to a department store Santa. He told me how a mother brought her five-year-old son to visit him. She plunked the boy down on his lap and introduced the boy this way: “Santa, you already know whether children are naughty or nice, but I have to tell you this past year my son has been quite the little misbehaver. He’s always sassing his father and me; he’s disobeyed his teacher, he fights constantly with his brother, and bullies any kid smaller than him.” Having listened to the litany of parental complaints, Santa decided to do what he could to help. He turned to the child and said, “Little boy, that’s not right. You’ve disappointed Santa. From now on you need to behave.” The boy’s reply was a simple one: “You’re not my boss. I don’t have to take orders from you.” Nobody, not you, not me, not nobody likes to be told they have been wrong and need to repent.
You see the problem is simple. A person who needs to repent is a person who has done something to repent of. Now the world likes to soften these repentable acts by renaming them, by calling them: errors, mistakes, lapses in judgment. The Bible refuses to play that game of euphemisms and labels these acts for what they are: sin. Sin which is upsetting to God; sin which drives a wedge between the Creator and His disobedient children; sin which, when left untreated, calls for condemnation and leads to damnation. Sounds pretty harsh, doesn’t it? Of course it does… especially if your ear has become used to the idea that Jesus loves us and accepts us just the way we are… especially if we have convinced ourselves that the Lord up above would never, could never send anyone to hell… especially if you believe that nobody, and by that I mean not even God, has the right to judge us and tell us to repent.
Indeed, so strong is the average person’s aversion to repenting, many Christian pulpits have now decided it’s in their best interest to avoid talking about sin, repentance, condemnation, and damnation. Pastors have found the people in their parish and pews like them better and give them a higher approval rating if they preach a message which refrains from any kind of allegation, accusation, or denunciation. Pastors have found it easier to placate their people by telling them there is no need to be changed and assuring them that God is pretty pleased with them just the way they are. Now I would not have you think, not for a moment, that these decisions are purely pastoral. They’re not. Church boards and committees, the people of the parish whose goal it is to keep attendance figures up and congregational budgets in the black, encourage their clergy to avoid any message which might ruffle the feathers of the faithful. And, having spent more than a quarter-century in the pulpit I can share it is a hard thing to keep preaching repentance when you see how congregations seem to blossom and grow when they share a “God loves you just the way you are” message.
So, which form of Christianity is right? Many years ago I heard a story of a church which had a new pastor… a straight-shooting pastor who believed in condemning sin and calling for repentance and the forgiveness which comes only through faith in the crucified and risen Christ. He did a good job, a great job, but even so there were some of his people, including some of his church officers, who were upset with his directness. One day a delegation made an appointment to see him. They entered his office, shut the door… which is always a bad sign… and they began: “Pastor, you are a great guy, but we would very much appreciate it if you could find a way to tone down your message just a bit. With all this talk about sin and hell, repentance and remorse, contrition and confession, you’re scaring people. We don’t think it is in anyone’s best interest to be scared this way.”
The pastor listened carefully to the people and then, when they had run down, he asked if they would excuse him for just a minute. When that minute was given, he made a bee-line for the custodian’s closet and came back with a gallon bottle of bleach, a gallon bottle identified not only with the typical skull-and-crossbones, but with the big green Mr. Yuuch symbol. As the children know, both symbols mean: POISON. Setting the jug down on his desk, the pastor replied, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I will be glad to do what you suggest if you will do me a favor. Almost all of you have a bottle like this one in your homes. What I would like you to do is go home and soak off the labels and the warnings. Soak them off and, in their stead slap on another label which says, Apple Juice. Oh, and make sure your label has a photograph of some flawless red and golden delicious apples. What do you think? Do we have a deal?”
The visitors were shocked. “Pastor, how can you ask us to do such a thing? Our children and grandchildren might not check out the bottle’s contents. They might just believe the pretty picture… read the words, and take a drink. It could kill them!” “I agree”, replied the pastor. “And what you are asking me to do… to put a different label on the sins which I preach about, the sins which God has condemned in the Bible. You want me to say, ‘God prefers you not to do these things, but when all is said and done, He’s not going to get all that upset if you do what you want.’ Folks”, the pastor continued, “in the same way, I can’t relabel sin so it goes down easier.” And he didn’t.
But inquiring minds still want to know, does God consider sin and the repentance of sin to be all that important. The answer to that question is an unqualified, “Yes.” When Adam and Eve first sinned in the Garden of Eden, the Lord didn’t look upon that as a lapse in judgment. He brought that sin to their attention, delivered the punishment that sin had incurred, and then, in grace through the promise of a Savior, extended a way they could still be saved. When the sins of the world had grown ponderous, God selected Noah to speak to any who would listen. For many years he called people to repentance… and, after many years, with that message unheard, the Lord destroyed the world.
Throughout the entire Old Testament God sent His prophets to call His wandering people to repentance of their sins and reliance upon the forgiveness which could be had in the family of faith. Read the books of the Old Testament; read the story of those messengers. Not one of them spoke about mistakes or missteps. They would not have dared to minimize the message God had given them to share. And what was that message? God’s direction to Ezekiel is representative. God told His prophet: (Ezekiel 33:7-8 (ESV) “I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way; that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.” No, the prophets couldn’t relabel the bottle of poison to make it less frightening.
After thousands of years of prophets pronouncing God’s often unheard word of warning, the Lord sent His Son into the world. So the people might be prepared to welcome their Savior, a forerunner, a front man by the name of John the Baptizer arrived first upon the scene. And what was the message John so clearly proclaimed? The Gospel of Matthew says, “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'” The Gospel of Luke tells us John also said, “Bear fruits (that is, live your lives to show you are) in keeping with (this spirit of) repentance.”
Preaching repentance has never been a popular thing to do. John found that out. When his call to repentance included King Herod, the prophet was thrown into prison. There, after a while, he would lose his life for refusing to compromise his commitment. When John was being held in Herod’s dungeon, the time came to pass for Jesus to begin His ministry. You know Jesus, don’t you? Of course you do. Everyone knows Him as the Jesus who loves everyone, who accepts people just the way they are. And what was the message of this gentle, loving, non-judgmental Jesus? The Gospel of Matthew says this, “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, ‘the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel.'”
Did you hear that? Jesus calls for people to repent. He calls upon them to leave their old ways, their old sins, their old disobedience behind and be turned to faith in the Gospel message that His perfect life, His innocent, sin-bearing death, and glorious resurrection from the dead would bring about. You know; today it is fashionable for people to say, “Jesus loves everybody and He would never send anyone to hell.” My friends, those words are true. They are true, IF they are properly understood. Jesus doesn’t have to send any one to hell. Every sinner in the world, which means every person in the world, is headed for hell already. Our violations of God’s will and Word have made that a done deal.
And, no, that’s not my opinion. It’s a fundamental fact of Scripture. The Bible says: “the wages of sin is death.” In another location it maintains, “the soul that sins will die”, and in yet another spot it reads: “death spread to all men because all sinned.” Jesus isn’t going to send anyone to hell, but their sins are. So that we might be freed from that inevitable and inescapable reward for our transgressions, Jesus was born into this world. If sin is no big deal, He could have saved Himself the trip. If sin is something God will ignore, there was no need for Jesus to endure the problems, pains, and penalties He endured while among us. But sin is a big deal. Sin and its consequences are so big, so overwhelming, so tragic, that the Triune God decided He would let His Son die so all who believe on Him as Savior might be rescued and redeemed.
And how about that idea that Jesus loves us just the way we are? That expression is also true. Jesus does love us the way we are, but He never leaves us the way we are. When He healed the crippled man, He forgave the man’s sins. When He rescued the woman who was to be stoned for adultery, He forgave her sins. When He healed the blind man, He forgave the man’s sins. When He met the Samaritan woman, He changed her entire life.
The reality of redemption is this: when the Holy Spirit brings a sinner to Jesus, those transgressors come before Him covered in the filth and the condemnation of sin. Jesus, in love, scrapes off that filth and makes us clean. But He does more. He takes those sins and carries them. He carries them to a place, to the cross of Calvary where they can never hurt us or condemn us again. St. Paul said it better than I ever could. He said this (2 Corinthians 5:17-19 ESV): “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”
Not so long ago a businessman had some time off and decided to walk through the twisted little streets of Kowloon in Hong Kong, He came upon a tattoo studio. In the large picture window at the front of the store were displayed samples of the tattoos available. Of course there were the traditional anchors, flags, cannons, and soaring birds that you might expect to find in a parlor which caters to various naval vessels which docked in the harbor. There was one tattoo which really fascinated the man. It was composed of three words, performed in an intricately done script. Three words: Born To Lose. The man was amazed that anyone would want those words to become a permanent part of him. He entered the shop and pointed to the tattoo mockup. It took a bit, but eventually he managed to ask, “Does anyone ever ask for that Born To Lose tattoo?” The Chinese man simply tapped his forehead and said in broken English, “Before tattoo on body, tattoo on mind.”
Born to lose. Because of sin those words were also tattooed on our souls. But now, because of the sacrifice Jesus made so we might be pulled from the clutches of sin, death, and devil, those words need not remain a permanent part of us. With the Holy Spirit’s guidance, we can recognize our sin, repent of our sin, and be released from those sins. That’s repentance; that’s confession; that’s forgiveness; that’s the Gospel. So the repentant spirit God gives might be joined with the grace the Savior has won, forgiveness for those times we’ve wandered, forgiveness for those sins we’ve committed, forgiveness for the times we’ve turned our back on Him and done things our way rather than His way, God’s forgiving answer to our repentant souls. That is the long-standing message of the Lutheran Hour. For over 80 years we’ve preached it, but today the Lord has let us preach it to you. If we can help you know God’s grace, we invite you; call us at the Lutheran Hour. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for February 26, 2012
Topic: A Bad Day Does Not Mean A Mad GodAnnouncer: And we are back once again with Pastor Ken Klaus. I’m Mark Eischer. Hello, Pastor.
Klaus: Hi, Mark. Good to see you again.
Announcer: And it’s good to have you here. We have a rather interesting question for us.
Klaus: As long as interesting is not the same thing as intimidating.
Announcer: I’m sure it’s not. Actually, I thought when you read this question, this person is speaking for many others, I’m sure.
Klaus: Excellent. What is the subject at hand?
Announcer: To put it simply, does a bad day mean a mad God?
Klaus: I don’t think I understand.
Announcer: Okay, well, let’s take a look at it here. By the time we discuss this, our listener says that, perhaps, these issues will have been taken care of, but she feels strongly enough about the topic to write and ask for a clarification because maybe what she feels and what we say could help others who are in the same position.
Klaus: Sounds very philosophical.
Announcer: I imagine it is. Anyway, here’s the situation. Our listener went to the doctor and learned that she has a condition which is treatable but it could mean a change in her lifestyle. Also notes that at work they are laying off another round of folks and her time might be coming up; seniority wise. Yesterday afternoon somebody backed into her car. They left some damage but left without leaving a name or phone number. So, the list of things that’s going wrong goes on and on. She doesn’t need to share the whole thing with us she says.
But simply she wants to ask: is the Lord there or if He is, is He making her pay for some of her sins of the past? By faith she knows God is still around but she also looks at her life and realizes, you know, there’s things that she’s done wrong. Is God trying to send her a message or trying to make her pay for things that went wrong in her life?Klaus: I imagine this lady is a Christian.
Announcer: Well, yeah. She says she is and there is nothing that would make us think any differently here.
Klaus: Okay. Mark, if you don’t mind, I’d like you to play the role of this lady. I promise there won’t be any trick questions.
Announcer: All right. I’ll do my best.
Klaus: Okay. Question #1 – What happened when Jesus died on the cross? I mean what happened to our sins?
Announcer: Well, when Jesus died on the cross, He took those sins to the cross and left them there. The Bible says the Lords remembers our sins no more. Our sins have been eliminated and washed away.
Klaus: Okay. Now, if you were that lady and answered that way, I would probably say to you, “What part of the word eliminated do you have problems with? What part of washed away is unclear? And if the Lord has truly forgotten your sins, how or why would He be punishing you for those sins?
Announcer: Now, when you put it that way, you make it seem very straight-forward.
Klaus: In that case, I’ve failed in my purpose. It shouldn’t SEEM straight-forward. It is the absolutely, 100%, most straight-forward thing this world has ever seen. There are no exceptions. If we are in Christ, we are new creatures. The old is gone.
Announcer: But, wouldn’t you agree that there are times in our lives when it seems like our mistakes, our sins, bring forth certain results?
Klaus: Ah, that’s something a little bit different and that can be the case. There are times we can do things which create certain consequences.
Announcer: For example?
Klaus: Surely. Well, an immoral life can result in a sexually transmitted disease. Drinking too much can end up destroying your liver or hurting someone else. It can also be said that the Lord can use certain difficulties to remind us that He is there and we really need to depend on Him more than we have been in the past.
Announcer: All right. Well, could you list any other difficulties that might arise in life?
Klaus: We have an entire book of the Bible, Mark, the book of Job. It shows difficulties can be God’s way of strengthening our faith. In Job’s case it also happened to be a way to allow him to make a witness to other people.
Announcer: But you’re sure that God isn’t trying to dredge up the past in order to punish us?
Klaus: Yeah, the Lord is better than we are. When we argue or are upset with people, we have a tendency to go back into the past and dredge up all kinds of stuff. The Lord doesn’t work that way. He wouldn’t. John the Baptizer was right. He said, “Jesus is the Lamb of God Who has taken away the sins of the world.”
Announcer: Very good. Taken away the sins of the world. Thank you, Pastor Klaus. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music Selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by Chris Bergmann. Used by permission.
“Agnus Dei” by Paul D. Weber (© 2001 Paul D. Weber)
“On My Heart Imprint Your Image” arr. Henry Gerike. Used by permission.
“O Lord, Throughout These Forty Days” From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House)
“Christ, the Life of All the Living” by J.S. Bach. From Orgelbüchlein & More Works by J.S. Bach by Robert Clark & John David Peterson (© 1997 Calcante Recordings, Ltd.)