The WaySample

Responding to The Way

Repent

In these passages, we find two stories of a rich person encountering Jesus. However, while the stories may have similarities, the response to meeting Jesus couldn’t be more different.

First, we meet Zacchaeus, a tax collector. This meant he was a traitor to his own Jewish people and was working for their enemies, the Romans, to tax the Jews heavily and keep the profits for himself. You may have noticed in the story that he was not very popular among the Jews. Yet Jesus looks up, sees him, knows him, and chooses to honor him by allowing him the opportunity to play host to Jesus! What was Zacchaeus’ unprompted response while spending time with Jesus? He was going to turn from his greed and instead essentially bankrupt himself giving back to the poor and those he wronged. Jesus responds that “today salvation has come to this house.”

Now look at the story of the rich young man. The man came up to Jesus and asked what it would take for him to inherit eternal life. Jesus reminds him of the commandments that the man says he has always kept. Then Jesus, in love, cuts him to the core. He says
you lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Jesus sees the man’s love of his possessions and points to this as the biggest obstacle to following Jesus and, sure enough, he walks away sad.

Two men encounter Jesus: one who was well aware of his sinfulness and one who believed himself to be a good man because he followed all the rules. However, we see Zacchaeus acknowledge his sin and experience a total heart change with the result that he gives back over and above what he took. The other man, falsely confident in his righteousness, walks away sad.

Repentance is both a turning from and a turning to. We turn from the ways in which we were living only to please ourselves and turning to God through faith in Christ. We need to not only repent of our “badness” and sin but also our “goodness,” a false confidence that we are good enough and don’t need Jesus’ forgiveness. We have all sinned and fallen away from God and His perfect will (Romans 3:23). We all need to turn to our loving Savior, confessing our sin to Him and accepting the forgiveness He joyfully offers. Does repentance feel difficult to you? Remember that no one is so bad that they are beyond the reach of God’s grace, and no one is so good that they are without need of God’s grace.

Prayer:

“God, show me the areas of my life that need repentance, both the parts that feel bad and shameful and the parts where I don’t feel like I need You. Thank You for the wonderful grace and forgiveness You give to all who ask.”