Streams of Mercy

Version S. Broyles III writes “Justice for God’s World” each month in Presbyterians Today magazine. “Justice and only justice you shall pursue.” (Deut 16:20) This verse is always the focus of his writing. In the March-April edition of Presbyterians Today, his article is entitled: “It’s time to right the wrongs.”

Lent, the season leading to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, is the door of penitence and confession that opens to the hope God has promised to those who are faithful. “Repentance, in biblical terms has four steps, without which, taken as a whole, cannot produce forgiveness. First, accept responsibility for the wrong we have done. Second, express remorse for what we have done. Third, resolve not to repeat the wrong. And fourth – this is perhaps the most essential and difficult step – repair the damage done.”

Broyles tells the story of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-9). It’s interesting that Luke begins the Zacchaeus story focusing on that fourth step – restoration of the wrongs done. Zacchaeus, serving the Roman occupiers, enriched himself by inflating the amount of actual taxes due from his own people. His sense of guilt, triggered by what he heard of Jesus, led him to that step of righting the wrongs he had done “with interest.” He is a great model for us as we move through Lent. We all know of ways we have harmed others by our attitudes and our actions. The hardest part, though, in seeking forgiveness, is the “Zacchaeus” part: the requirement that we work toward restoration.

While we’re thinking about our own personal need to work toward restoration, Broyles challenges us to consider the need for restoration in a larger perspective:

• Returning “hat in hand” to those we have wounded emotionally

• Providing reparation for those we have cheated

• Ceding power to those we have rendered powerless

• Returning land and resources we have stolen

• And, healing brokenness and bitterness within communities of faith, so that they represent the values of understanding, love and compassion of the One we call “Lord and Savior.”

“Are these demands outrageous? They are if all we have is our own strength, imagination and resources,” writes Broyles. “The Good News, though, is that Jesus, who places these challenges on us, is also the Lord of Life, the Risen One, whose death and Resurrection we celebrate at Easter! Forgiveness is possible. So is restoration. To God be the glory! Amen!”

Where are we in relation to the four steps of repentance? May God show us what we need to see and help us to make a difference wherever we are.

Elizabeth