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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