Cracking the Code

Repentance gets SUCH a bad rap. And frankly, so does being damned. I blame Hollywood, which is a little fun, and kind of a bonus.

Hollywood's depiction of an evangelical preacher is over-the-top caricature, and I think I've decided that's by design, to portray all religion as performative histrionics.

Perhaps you can hear a Southern drawl as you picture such a preacher as you read: "RePENT...or be Daa-aamned!" Possibly add a fist pounding a pulpit on the two-syllabled 'daa-aamned' for full effect.

Thanks to legions of such stereotyped portrayals, that's what a secular world - only mildly interested in spirituality and almost completely bored or antagonistic towards religion - thinks of the Christian message. And seriously - with such portrayals, can you blame them for rejecting such a message, delivered in such a way?

The real message of Jesus needs to be seen and heard - and especially felt - in context with every other thing He says and does, or you might really fall for the stereotype.

• This is a Man who walked on water to save His friends in the middle of the night.

• This is a Man who healed a lame man who could never get to the healing waters fast enough.

• This is a Man who knew strength had left Him when an unclean woman touched his robe in a crowd.

• This is a Man who restored an ear when an impetuous friend tried to defend Him from being unjustly arrested.

This Man. Loves us. The voice of the stereotyped preacher - sadly - is too much like the voice of the accuser.

The accuser is the one who says, "You can't fix this... There's no going back... You might as well..."

Any thought you have that you are worthless comes from the destroyer. A Creator doesn't talk like that - especially about His precious children.

The real message of Jesus Christ which has been truncated into "Repent... or be damned," needs more accurate translation - after decoding the scriptures and watching the Man:

"Come back this way. Turn around; you'll get stuck over there."

And when I say "over there" I mean ALL the "other theres" - other than the one Way that leads toward Jesus. Jesus - who is the Light and Life of the world - who is the Love and LAW of the world. Jesus IS the Way - because ALL the other ways lead to dead ends.

Dead ends as in dead. As in not alive.

Jesus came to mark the way and paid to do it with His life's blood so He can tell us - with the moral authority needed to make such a statement: "Come back to me or the path you're pursuing will end. My path has no end.

C.S. Lewis understood this as he wrote fantastical images of never-ending journeys into hilltops and mountains far off - where Jesus lives in a higher (holier) place.

In The Great Divorce, citizens from hell are invited to freely come into heaven and stay. But they're admonished to set down pet sins before they head for the far off high hills. As new residents of heaven, they're so insubstantial it hurts them to walk on the grass, yet they're assured by heavenly guides that they'll become more real as they choose the journey, unburdened by the sins they carried in this life.

In The Chronicles of Narnia, the eternal nature of journeys beyond this life with Jesus promise to make more of us - if we'll just stay with Him. Of course, in Narnia, Jesus goes by another name - Aslan. Lewis' way of teaching children that Jesus has laws that must be obeyed, the citizens of Narnia describe Him to earth children as "not a tame lion."

But Jesus' invitation is always to "Come." Always. He came to be the Way and show the Way so we wouldn't get stuck going the wrong way. If you like growing, I would suggest Jesus.

Repentance is a gift, forgiveness is possible, redemption is real. And it's possible, because God's Son became a Man and walked among us, and suffered, and died for us, so we need never be permanently stuck in the wrong place.

Repenting is about turning around and away from all the stuck places, and in the process, becoming someone who loves and yearns for the new direction and path - and the One who walked it first.