Evening
Read Luke 7vv18-30
Silence is kept for two minutes.
But by refusing to be baptized by him, the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves.
Reflection
There is a seemingly insignificant sentence at the end of Luke 7 but it bears a warning for us all. The Pharisees and lawyers rejected the baptism offered by John because he confronted them with their sin. His message was simple, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” The call to repent is not one that we eagerly heed. Repentance tells us we were going the wrong way, that doing it our own way has resulted in disaster. Repentance, literally meaning to “turn around,” is God’s yelling to us to stop running before we go over a cliff. The pain of our own sin is enough in and of itself, but we double-down on the disaster when we are deaf to God’s calls to turn around. The final tragedy being that we reject God’s purposes for ourselves: purposes to know him, to be fully ourselves, and to participate in the redemption of all things.
Prayer: God, may I heed your call to repent, knowing that you do not rejoice in pointing out our flaws but rejoice when we accept your grace to turn from them. May we embrace your purposes for our lives which begins with repentance.