Thoughts for the Day

I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance    Luke 5:32

Was yesterday’s conclusion a bit sweeping?  John’s mission and Jesus’s parting words according to Luke may be good evidence for preaching a gospel of ‘repentance for the forgiveness of sins’, but a big conclusion warrants further investigation.  It isn’t possible in 300 words to set any conclusion in the context of the whole of scripture, but I’d suggest looking at what Jesus did, what he sent people out to do and what the early church did.  For example, what did Peter tell the crowd after his big Pentecost sermon when they asked, “What shall we do?”  He began, “Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” You will find this wasn’t the only message Jesus sent people out to proclaim, but I hope nevertheless you will find yesterday’s conclusion broadly endorsed.

One such piece of evidence is today’s scripture from Jesus himself, which leads me to consider “something curious”.  The word ‘call’ has lots of different meanings in English, from naming to shouting out, to summoning, to giving a divine vocation (a calling) and more.  I wonder what precise meaning was intended here?  It can often help to look at the original Greek words in a Concordance (I’m no Greek scholar!), but not on this occasion.  Apparently Greek words can have shades of meaning too, and this word kaleo is evidently used for both naming and summoning. The Message version of the Bible refers to an ‘invitation to a changed life’, but ‘call’ in this verse strikes me as much stronger than that … implying at least some degree of insistence.  Maybe this ‘call’ can vary by individual, from a whispered invitation to a compelling exhortation.      Which all leads me to the more interesting question.  What has been your experience of that call to repentance?