Therefore I will judge
you O house of Israel, everyone according to his ways, saith the Lord God.
Repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not
be your ruin. Ezekiel 18.30
In spite of the title, we are not going to talk about Greek today. We are
going to look at a Hebrew word. I was channel surfing on TV the other night
and came across a program which featured an orthodox Jewish rabbi. He was
talking about the High Holy Days and particularly Rosh Hashanah which
marks the Jewish New Year.
He pointed out that the feast has a commandment which is to "Hear the call of
the Shofar or ram's horn." The call of the shofar on this holiday is the call
to repentance or T'shuva. It is a variation of this word found in the
passage quoted above. According to the Rabbi, it means "to return, to come
back where one belongs."
I like that definition of repentance. As Christians, we often think about
repentance as feeling sorry for our sins or, in our most cynical moments,
saying we are sorry for our sins whether we are or not. But T'shuva
implies something more. It implies making changes. It implies turning around
and going in the other direction. It has all the sense of one who has left the
main road to take a detour backtracking to the place where he or she left the
road and continuing in the right direction from there.
In the Jewish ceremony, the people gather in the synagogue and hear the cantor
play a special call on the shofar. Being in this place and hearing the call is
considered by many to suffice for answering the call to repentance. According
to the rabbi, some even feel if they accidentally hear the call that they have
answered it. But, according to him, the rabbinical writings say that hearing
the call must be done with kavanna which translates as "intention and
enthusiasm."
I sometimes look around the Christian church and see people "repenting" but
showing little intention of getting back on the road, and often there is
little enthusiasm found in repentance.
Somehow, to the western mind, enthusiasm and repentance don't seem to go
together. Repentance is often seen as this great painful exercise that one is
dragged into by obligation, duty or fear. This is not so for the ancient
Jewish people. The New Bible Dictionary points out that repentance and
celebration were merged in the Jewish feasts. "The Biblical festival itself
contained the element of mourning for this is involved in the sacrifice for
sin. [but] there is no sharp line of demarcation between the sorrow for sin
and the joy of the Lord."
Isn't that remarkable and incredibly true. Since the sorrow for our sins opens
the door for God to remove them (The Day of Atonement is just 9 days following
Rosh Hashanah), we find that our tears turn to laughter and our weeping
to joy.
Have you heard the call of the shofar? It is being winded now, held in nail
scarred hands.