Repentance

Matthew 21:28-9 - "What do you think? A man had two sons. He came to the older son and said, "Son, go and work in the vineyard today." The son said, "No, I don't want to." But later he repented and went.

Jesus is still speaking to the chief priests and the elders. Remembering this will help us make sense of this parable later. It is a parable, which we can tell by the beginning question. We know the man is well-off enough to own a vineyard, although probably not rich. If he were rich, he would have had slaves to work in the vineyard. Rich sons don't do that kind of work. That's what slaves are for.

At any rate, the son says no. I giggle a bit here because my parents would not take this from any of us kids. Not only would we have been punished, but we still would have had to do the thing requested. There is no indication here that the man was angry. The son, however, has a change of heart. He thinks things over and decides he really ought to go. He feels guilty, maybe a little bad that he let his father down, so he acknowledges his duty and goes and works in the vineyard.

I want to talk about repentance here. Although it is described in two actions - repent and work - they are really two sides of the same  repentance coin. It does no one any good to feel bad or guilty and do nothing to correct the situation. Saying, "I'm sorry" without changing your behavior or making an attempt to fix the relationship, is usually not sufficient. That is a recipe for wallowing in guilty self-pity.

Sometimes, however, it's not possible to fix the relationship for one reason or another. What then? Do we still have to take action? Yes. This is the time to get creative. Say the person who you wronged loved/s dogs. A way to make amends might be volunteer at a dog shelter or even write a check. Both are creative actions that demonstrate true repentance. This is an area where the Roman Catholic church does well: confession. After the petitioner has confessed, there is usually some penance involved. Hopefully, the penance relates directly to the wrongdoing in question. Protestants do not have this. We have communal confession and time for silent confession during worship. But any remedial action we take is entirely on our own. I think we often forget that such remedial action is necessary. The other day I wrote about cancelling the votes of legislators who cheated to win. That would be a great remedial action. When you or I or anyone hurts another person, we not only need to know better, we need to begin doing better.

Do I stop at saying, "I'm sorry?" or do I work to correct my mistakes? Is there anyone I need to make amends to today? If so, how can I do so lovingly and creatively?