Insights
Rev Gav
What is repentance?
Luke 15:1-7
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
Reflect
Sheep
Sheep are not the brightest of creatures are they? They might not be completely stupid but they are certainly wilful. Sheep are supposed to be herd animals and yet for some reason they have a tendency to wander off and get into trouble, however, there is safety in numbers and there is safety in staying near the shepherd.
If the Lord is the shepherd and we are the sheep, we are not supposed to wander off. In Psalm 23 the writer says (paraphrased), “The Lord is my shepherd, he leads me to green pastures, still waters, safe paths and my trough overflows.”
In the Parable of the Lost Sheep, Jesus equates a ‘sinner’ with a sheep that has wandered off. But how do we define who a sinner is?
Sin
Jürgen Moltmann (a clever and brainy theologian) defined sin as ‘that which separates us from God’. In the same way that the sheep in Jesus’ parable is separated from the shepherd, sinners are people that are separated from God.
A sinner is someone separated from God.
Therefore it is not the individual sin that defines a sinner but the separation from God. To be a sinner is to be in a state of separation, and in the same way it is not sorrowfulness that rejoins us to God but repentance.
Repentance
The word repentance comes from two Hebrew words — ‘shuv’ and ‘nicham’. Shuv means to return and nicham means to be sorry. In Greek the word is metanoia. Metanoia literally means ‘to think differently after’ or to have a change of mind and heart.
Therefore, biblical repentance literally means to be sorry AND to change direction — to turn back to God. It is recognising that we, through our thoughts, words, and actions separate ourselves from God and need to choose to turn our direction back to him.
Everyone’s a sinner, baby
Everyone is a sinner. If you are in any doubt about this then we know this in four ways:
1. Experience
We know it when we examine our own lives. There are few people that would claim to be without sin! There is a story in the Bible where a woman falls at Jesus’ feet. She was caught in the act of adultery and was to be stoned to death, however. Jesus looked up and said, “Whoever is without sin go ahead and cast the first stone.” No-one could do so. The people that wanted to stone her were not considered sinners yet even they had to admit that they, themselves, sinned.
2. Scripture
We know we are sinners from a biblical understanding. John writes to the Christians in the 1 John 1:8 — “If we say we are without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” The Lord’s Prayer also includes an act of repentance — “Forgive us our sins…”
3. Reason
We also know it rationally or by using reason. To use a provocatively extreme example, right now we know that children are dying because they have no food, water, hygiene, or shelter, and what are we doing about it? Our apathy and indifference means that we are in a constant state of sin
4. Tradition
The church has a tradition of recognising that we are sinners and has always has always included acts of confession and repentance in its liturgy (words used in worship).
The difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is that a Christian has moved from being an unrepentant sinner to a repentant sinner.
When we become Christians we do not stop being ‘sinners’. Paul in 1 Timothy 1:15 says, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners — of whom I am the worst.” Paul didn’t say, “I was” the greatest of sinners but “I am” the greatest of sinners. The point is that when we move from being an unrepentant sinner to a repentant sinner, we move from being separated from God to being joined with God.
God actively pursues the sinner
If we were listening to Jesus telling this parable and we were familiar with the Hebrew holy writings or scriptures then we would know that God welcomes a repentant sinner, and that this was not a new teaching. The Jewish people had all sorts of ceremonies and reminders to live in a constant state of repentance — of saying sorry and turning back to God, however, there was new teaching in Jesus’ parable — something unexpected — and that was that God actively pursues and seeks out the sinner. Luke puts this parable along side the parables of the lost coin and the wayward son, two other parables that make the same point but in different ways.
Jesus was saying that God does not sit there and wait for a sinner to repent. No, God actively gets up and goes into the wilderness to pursue the lost sheep. Jesus wanted his listeners to make the connection that he himself is the shepherd and that he had come into the wilderness of the world to actively pursue sinners.
The accusation of the pharisees and teachers of the law was that Jesus was “welcoming and eating with sinners”. Yes! Absolutely. Why? Because Jesus was pursuing them.
Can you imagine what it would have been like for Jesus’ listeners — those who were deemed sinners by the pharisees and the teachers of the law? How would you have felt if Jesus was sat in front of you telling this parable — with the implication that he himself was pursuing you? No wonder they were amazed and thrilled at his teaching.
Relationship is more important than atonement
Here is a truth that can be hard for us to get our head around — that God is more interested in relationship than atonement. Let me unpack this statement. God is immensely interested in dealing with sin. This dealing with sin is called atonement. The human condition. as we have already explored. is that we are steeped in sin and it seems to be part and parcel with the human condition.
The God we discover through the Bible — through the witness of the church down through the centuries, and through our present day experience as Christians — longs for relationship. God wants to walk with us as God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden. God wants to work with us in being co-creators with her in her world. God wants to talk with us and comfort us, challenge us, stretch us, lead us, point out things on the horizon, and open our eyes to see things around us. God wants a fully living consistent and dynamic relationship with us, however, the problem of sin remains.
Sin needs to be dealt with and without some sort of atonement then that sin sticks to us like dog dirt on a shoe. The gospel message – the good news of Jesus – is that God pursues us and says, “That whole sin thing? I’ve dealt with it. Turn to me and let me carry you on my shoulders and take you home.” Atonement is a process Jesus went through to deal with our sin that we might have a relationship with God — or as the Bible writers put it — so we might have life in all its fulness.
Some Christians were so shocked at this teaching about Christianity that they asked, “Does this mean we can carry on sinning then?” Paul was asked exactly the same thing and his reply was, “No way! You have been set free from sin!” In other words, as sin has been dealt with, we are free from it so let’s keep living without it! 
Finally
If Jesus is our model then we too should be pursuing sinners — not to point out their sin to them — but to call them to repentance. We are called to pursue sinners and this means welcoming and eating with them. We can stand at the sidelines and mutter like the pharisees and teachers of the law; we can point the finger and tell people how bad they are; OR we can remember a sinner in this context is not someone who sins — and we ALL do that! An unrepentant sinner is someone who is separated from God. They are people that have not repented and have not changed direction towards a God that pursues them. Have you been accused recently of spending time with tax collectors, drunks, and prostitutes? 
and then