As the
Lenten Season draws to a close approaching Holy Week, can you look back and
honestly admit that you are the chief sinner?
I hope so. There is no spiritual
lesson as helpful as seeing your own sin as so hideous that it sent Jesus
Christ to the cross. When you bundle up
all the sins that others have sinned against you in this year—none compares to
your lifetime of personal sin against a Holy God.
I attended
the Forgiveness Sunday service at the Orthodox Church that precedes their
Lenten journey. There is a special
liturgy that is used for this service focusing on the reality that each of us
are grave sinners. The closing of this
time of prayer is when the clergy come out in their black robes (the beautiful
purple is laid aside.) Then beginning
with the head priests, and assistant priests each person in the church comes
before one another, one at a time, and confesses Forgive me a sinner, to which they hear the response God forgives. After the assistant priest confesses, he
stands to the right of the priest and the rest of the clergy follow suit. Then the congregation, row by row, begins
with the priest, then moves to the right to greet fellow sinners who will make
their way past until the whole congregation has confessed. I hardly knew anyone at this service so I had
not directly sinned against any of them that I am aware. However, the repeated gesture had a huge
impact on me.
I said: Forgive me a sinner, with
conviction. And I received the response
back that God forgives and that I should have a blessed Lent. The response to my repentance is quick and
powerful as the reality of my sin hits home in my soul. I hope to attend this service again next
year. It was both amazingly joyful and
brutally honest.
Without the
reality of your sin, Easter would have no meaning. It would be a horror story with a sci-fi
ending. But you are a sinner, the chief
sinner. Yet I can’t convince you of
that; your own soul bears this news.
When your soul faces the fact of the darkness of sin, it is drawn to the
light of Christ that casts out all darkness and replaces it with a beam of joy
and gladness!
Forgiveness
of sin was not easy for Jesus. He told
us that when some friends brought a paralyzed man to Him. Jesus saw their faith and told the man that
his sins were forgiven. The church
leaders took offense at His statement but did not speak it out loud in front of
the crowds. Jesus responded anyway: Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, ‘Get up
and walk? (Matthew 9:4-5).
To
be prepared for Easter Sunday you need to answer Jesus’ question in your
heart. If your heart says it is easier to say get up and walk rather
than your sins are forgiven, then you have missed the whole point of
Lent. Indeed it was much harder, close
to impossible to forgive your sins.
Enter Holy week with a holy awareness of how hard it was. What rejection, torture, suffering,and
humiliation did it take for God to forgive the sins of man?
Rejoice this Easter as you hear
Jesus say to you as He said to the paralyzed man: Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven
(Matthew 9:2).
Copyright © 2013.
Deborah R. Newman www.teatimeforyoursoul.com All Rights Reserved
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