The word repentance has been greatly
reduced from its more profound spiritual meaning. We envision a mean
judge with his long finger in our faces saying something like,
'repent , repent you didn't pay the rent.' Some years ago I found a
far more meaningful definition to be ' to perceive differently
afterward.' Vine's Expository Dictionary Of New Testament Words.
Repentance is that profound religious experience of actually coming
to a new, fresh and broader meaning of something in ones life
experience.
A frequent theme in the gospels for the
experience of repentance was 'Jesus healing the blind, the blind
coming to see.' There is very good reason to think that the gospel
writers themselves were not intending to tell stories of physical
blindness being instantly healed. But were using metaphor and
religious story to describe the incomparable impact that the love and
courage of Jesus had on their recent forbears. Apparently the very
association with Jesus resulted in some people having a 'repentance'
or receiving a very new and different perspective of life and love.
The traditional supernatural interpretation of the actions of Jesus
is not the only way in our day to come to believe in him as
strongly as any Biblical literalist, but in a transformed way.
Seeing 'miracle' in this new way is I think one of my personal
experiences of repentance. I truly see it differently than I did
even well after I became an adult. To take the gospel blind
healings as instant physical cures tends to make light of the fact
that all through history the vast majority of blind people have never
been cured. Instead many of them have spiritually and courageously
transcended their handicap to live tremendously filled and fulfilling
lives. I think of America's woman of courage Helen Keller as an
example. In such lives is where we can often see the miracle work of
God taking place in our own time and in our ordinary real lives, not
miraculous physical cures, but moments and times of human
transcendence above all kinds of restraints and difficulty.
These stories are surely primarily
about the great need that all of us humans have(not just the
physically blind), of being healed from our spiritual kinds of
blindness, of experiencing repentance. Thus the stories are
universally applicable and potentially transforming. Jesus' ministry
was about raising people's levels of perception or 'seeing', about
increasing their moral consciousness and awareness and thus extending
one's compassion in an ever growing outward circle. An increase of
moral consciousness can be a sudden flash of insight following
thoughtful wrestling with a moral problem or after a
meditative state of prayer or just a sudden change of attitude for
the better and richer meaning of live and love. Such was the case of
John Newton, the slave ship captain, which resulted in his words of
the hymn 'Amazing Grace.' He suddenly saw the slaves in his ship as
full human beings deserving of the same respect and freedom that he
enjoyed. He expressed his personal transformation, “ I once was
blind but now I see.”
Realizing life is
to be an on-going experience of repentance one becomes more
enlightened and comes to more clearly 'see' and 'know' several
typical areas of awareness: 1. That each and every human being is an
object of God's love, a love that does not value any person less than
another. 2. That each person has gifts from God to give to others and
that each of us has a need to experience ourselves as contributors to
the well being of others.
To become aware of
such things(and God only knows what others) is an example of how our
blindness is healed just as miraculously as if Jesus had healed a
physically blind person. Repentance is a present day miracle
experience. 3. That none of us ever reach such a level of
consciousness that we do not still have serious blind spots. So we
are wise to live humbly in our dealings with others...slow to judge
or devalue another person. One N.T. Writer says we often 'entertain
angels unaware'.
The good news is we can all receive
continual renewals and needed increases in our ever growing
consciousness. The people around Jesus ,including his disciples, are
pictured as seriously blind to much of life and love and the
significance of what is happening right in front of them. We also are
still such people. This can be a Christian description of the human
condition. By God's grace change, repentance, can happen with any of
us. We can rightfully expect that higher levels of ethical human
consciousness, so desperately needed in our day, are a possible
occurrence for us as individuals, churches, communities, the nation
and even the whole world.
Dear God. Let your Spirit breath your
healing power on us according to our need. May your Spirit be
continually healing us of our blind spots and increasing our moral
consciousness. We do come asking that personally, collectively and
for our nation, May we receive your gift of repentance.
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