The Repentance Principle


He entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”

 

Today, I would like to share a very important principle about the correlation between God’s love and our own repentance. It is vital that we understand this because, if we don’t, it is likely that we will constantly find ourselves conflicted and fearful about the love of God for us. The principle is this: God does not love us because we repent; we repent because God loves us. Let me repeat this: God does not love us because we repent — he loves us regardless of whether we repent or not; we repent because God loves us.

 

Consider the Parable of the Prodigal Son (see Luke 15:11-32). It tells the story of a son who took off with his inheritance and indulged in wild living until he eventually found himself in a pig sty, broke and miserable. “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death like an idiot! I will get up and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you” (see Luke 15:17-18). We can see from this that the boy is acknowledging his sin, but is he repentant? 

 

He was undoubtedly sorry about a lot of things — that he had squandered his inheritance, that he had lost all his friends, that he had sunk to such a terrible state that he envied pigs the food they were eating — but I don’t think he was repentant in the real sense of the word. So, when did that happen? This happened when he got back home; and instead of being treated with the harshness he undoubtedly believed he deserved, he is treated like a returning war hero. That’s when he experienced the true love of his father, extended so graciously, and it resulted in a change of heart. This is what true repentance is: a change of heart.

 

In our story today, Zacchaeus experiences this graciousness from Jesus. (The root word of graciousness is grace, which translates freely as a free gift, or if you prefer, unmerited favor.)  People are shocked when Jesus invites himself to Zacchaeus’ house. As chief tax collector he would have extorted a lot of money from them and they would have wanted to see him punished for his sins. However, what Zaccheus received instead was unconditional love. And he changed. Just as every sinner who has experienced this love has changed.

 

I pray that every person who has not discovered the love of God experiences it. The change that follows is practically “automatic”. 

 

Watch the video of this reflection by Aneel Aranha here: https://youtu.be/yd0fN4x7MCE

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