Today, Ash Wednesday, is the first day of Lent, and as we journey through Lent, we are reading from Sally Welch’s book ‘Sharing The Easter story,’ which looks at a different Bible passage each day. This week’s theme is ‘Repenting,’ and today’s reading comes from 2 Samuel 12:1-5, the passage where the prophet Nathan skilfully confronts King David over his sinful behaviour (which includes adultery and murder) through an apparently innocuous story. David, drawn into this story of injustice, realises his sin and repents.
Looking on, we may feel bewildered at this godly king’s behaviour. How could he not realise his actions were wrong? How could he be so blind to the error of his ways? How could he sleep so peacefully at night, knowing he had engineered the murder of an innocent man? Yet this story shows us the deceitfulness of sin, how we can rationalise and justify the most sinful of actions while nit-picking over the faults of others. No wonder Jesus spoke about removing the plank in our own eye before worrying about the speck of sawdust in someone else’s! (Matthew 7:3-5)
Repenting means to turn away from wrong ways. We don’t define what is wrong: God does. There is objective truth and objective moral standards governing our world, whether we believe this or not. Nathan courageously confronts David through the disarming power of story. When the conviction of God comes upon David, there is wholehearted repentance (see Psalm 51).
We tend to see repentance as a turning from wrongdoing, but it is also a turning towards God. On Ash Wednesday, we admit our sinfulness and wrongdoing and call on God for mercy. His mercy is the hope we have that we can be forgiven and can indeed have that fresh start.
