Lent: All Right, All Right, All Right.
This weeks Lent readings are all about forgiveness. In Joshua we read about God forgiving Israel as they set up life in their new land. In the Psalms, David recalls how his heart groaned under the weight of his sin but then felt the relief of being released from it’s guilt. Then in the gospels we read the greatest of all Jesus’ stories. The one about the son who offended his father terribly but then in returning home wasn’t met with scorn but an unexpected burst of joy:
“Put the calf on the BBQ! Polish my favorite ring! The son who went away has come home.”
Forgiveness.
It's Good News
In this one word we arrive at the heart of the Good News. In Jesus God was announcing to a world - groaning under the weight of it’s sin - that it was time to come home.
In the story of the wayward son, when the boy finally begins his journey back to the father’s house he does so rehearsing his excuses along the way. But as the story goes - and this is my favorite part - the boy doesn’t get a chance to use them. As it turns out, excuses and explanations were not what the father was interested in. What excuses could really work anyway? All the father really wanted was for his son to come home, to eat with him again. The forgiveness, it seems, had been provided and it had nothing to do with the wayward son. It was just the unmerited mercy of the Father.
I think that’s why the scripture calls it Good News. I mean, there’s lot’s of facets to the Good News (did you hear? God’s making everything new!) but certainly right at the centre is this idea that though we have wandered, turned to our own way, God has responded to us benevolently. He has not given us what we deserve, as it were, but rather he’s given us what we didn’t deserve. Namely, the seat of honour at a homecoming banquet.
Did He Just Look the Other Way?
But how could he do this? Did he simply overlook our foolish deeds, our evil ways? Lent is about the answer to this question. Lent is forty days where the Church remembers that God did not forget our sin and evil. No, God entered it. In Jesus life, God saw and experienced evil and death. He saw the evil hearts of men. He saw oppression and hunger and sorrow. He felt loneliness, rejection and hate. As much as anyone who ever lived Jesus knew evil. And in the end, this evil ran it’s full course on him. It nailed him to a wooden cross.
God did not forget our sin and evil, he entered it. But not only did he enter it, in another of this weeks readings, the scripture also tells us this:
“That he who knew no sin, became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5
Before we go on, let’s underscore one thing here. From God’s perspective, sin is a problem - a big problem. It separates us from him (who’s light and life and holy) and it sows into us (and the created order) discord and death. Sin is a problem. In the words of Donald Trump, “It’s very bad.”
So how could this problem be remedied? This is what the scripture is telling us here - and what Lent wants to recall. God took the problem and the solution upon himself. On the cross, he didn’t just face the worlds sin - He became sin. As a fully human one, he became our representative (Do you see this? He represented God - the Son of God - but he also represented us - the Son of Man). On the cross, Jesus became like us in every way - including our sinfulness. Jesus became sin. And in becoming sin, he also suffered it’s consequences. God also took upon death.
God didn’t forget sin. He became sin suffering it’s consequences in his body. The prophet Isaiah puts this another way - while also rounding the thought out. He writes:
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53
Sin was a problem. But in Jesus, the solution was provided. He became sin. The iniquity of us all was upon him. But then, and I don’t know any other way to say this, Isaiah tells us that in this act the problem and it’s consequences were finished. In his suffering, we were healed, pardoned, forgiven. Jesus, the Son of Man, fulfilled the matter on our behalf and in doing so, our transgressions were exchanged for “peace”.
Full Circle
Which brings us full circle. At the center of Jesus Good News is the honest appraisal that we have wandered, turned to our own way. But God - wonder of wonders - has intervened, responded to us benevolently, and made a way for our healing. He has not given us what we deserve - he took that himself - and in exchange he’s given us what we didn’t deserve. The seat of honour at a homecoming banquet.
God didn’t forget sin. In love and benevolence he took it in himself. And all that’s left now is the sounds of a Fathers footsteps running down the lane.
If you hear anything else, I can honestly tell you, you’re hearing it wrong.
Forgiveness. All right, all right, all right.