What Happened When Jesus Taught Repentance May Surprise You

  

From that time Jesus began to preach and to say,

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

(Matthew 4:17)

 

My two previous emails focused on TESHUVAH (repentance) and forgiveness. When Jesus spoke the first word and launched his movement, his Jewish audience understood the word “TESHUVAH.” Doing it had something in common with making a sacrifice – drawing near God for forgiveness. In the world in which Jesus lived, drawing near God was something that wasn’t done lightly.

 

Before anyone presented a sacrifice at the Temple, they had to take steps to make sure their bodies and hearts were ritually purified. That idea is reflected in the teachings of Jesus (Matthew 5: 23-26):

 

“If you bring your sacrifice to the altar, and there – at the altar in the Temple – you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your sacrifice there, before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your sacrifice.”

 

When Jesus said, “TESHUVAH” those hearing him would have searched their hearts and minds to recall if they had sinned against someone and had not been forgiven by them. They clearly understood that God’s forgiveness was linked to doing that:

 

God does not forgive the sinner until that “debt” has been paid.

 

If they remembered someone, then they would have done the steps of TESHUVAH:

 

● Cease doing the sin.

 

● Acknowledge they had committed the sin to the one sinned against.

 

● Repair the harm done by the sin and/or make restitution.

 

● Then ask the person for forgiveness.

 

● Then ask God for forgiveness.

 

And there would probably have been people that remembered sins that had been committed against them as they prayed the words below of The Lord’s Prayer:

 

And forgive us of our sins,

as we have forgiven those who sinned against us.

 

Based on what Jesus taught, it is likely that some remembered people who had sinned against them, went to them, and forgave them. Of course, they had the right to demand that the sinner be punished to the full extent of the law, but they also had the option of forgiving them as an act of grace and mercy. Jesus also taught something relevant to that:

 

Do to others what you want them to do to you.

This is the meaning of the law of Moses and the teaching of the prophets.

(Matthew 7:12)

 

Which option would they want other people or God to choose

when it came to sins they had committed?

 

Visualize seeing large groups of people actively engaged in doing TESHUVAH around you. I think that would have caught a lot of people’s attention in the places Jesus taught. For me, that equates with a miracle too!

 

Is this a different vision of what Jesus’ followers Jesus did from the one you had before you understood the meaning of TESHUVAH? What would happen if people with Christian biblical heritages did TESHUVAH today? Interestingly, one place where you find people doing TESHUVAH is Alcoholics Anonymous. Below are steps 8, 9 and 10 of their 12 Step program:

 

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

 

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

 

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

 

I have witnessed miraculous changes in lives of people who did those steps. Consider the impact this teaching of Jesus could have on lives today.

 

Shalom,

Jim Myers

 

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