Skip to main content

What Happened When Jesus Taught Repentance May Surprise You

 


 From that time Jesus began to preach and to say,

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

(Matthew 4:17)

 

My two previous emails focused on TESHUVAH (repentance) and forgiveness. When Jesus spoke the first word and launched his movement, his Jewish audience understood the word “TESHUVAH.” Doing it had something in common with making a sacrifice – drawing near God for forgiveness. In the world in which Jesus lived, drawing near God was something that wasn’t done lightly.

 

Before anyone presented a sacrifice at the Temple, they had to take steps to make sure their bodies and hearts were ritually purified. That idea is reflected in the teachings of Jesus (Matthew 5: 23-26):

 

“If you bring your sacrifice to the altar, and there – at the altar in the Temple – you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your sacrifice there, before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your sacrifice.”

 

When Jesus said, “TESHUVAH” those hearing him would have searched their hearts and minds to recall if they had sinned against someone and had not been forgiven by them. They clearly understood that God’s forgiveness was linked to doing that:

 

God does not forgive the sinner until that “debt” has been paid.

 

If they remembered someone, then they would have done the steps of TESHUVAH:

 

● Cease doing the sin.

 

● Acknowledge they had committed the sin to the one sinned against.

 

● Repair the harm done by the sin and/or make restitution.

 

● Then ask the person for forgiveness.

 

● Then ask God for forgiveness.

 

And there would probably have been people that remembered sins that had been committed against them as they prayed the words below of The Lord’s Prayer:

 

And forgive us of our sins,

as we have forgiven those who sinned against us.

 

Based on what Jesus taught, it is likely that some remembered people who had sinned against them, went to them, and forgave them. Of course, they had the right to demand that the sinner be punished to the full extent of the law, but they also had the option of forgiving them as an act of grace and mercy. Jesus also taught something relevant to that:

 

Do to others what you want them to do to you.

This is the meaning of the law of Moses and the teaching of the prophets.

(Matthew 7:12)

 

Which option would they want other people or God to choose

when it came to sins they had committed?

 

Visualize seeing large groups of people actively engaged in doing TESHUVAH around you. I think that would have caught a lot of people’s attention in the places Jesus taught. For me, that equates with a miracle too!

 

Is this a different vision of what Jesus’ followers Jesus did from the one you had before you understood the meaning of TESHUVAH? What would happen if people with Christian biblical heritages did TESHUVAH today? Interestingly, one place where you find people doing TESHUVAH is Alcoholics Anonymous. Below are steps 8, 9 and 10 of their 12 Step program:

 

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

 

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

 

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

 

I have witnessed miraculous changes in lives of people who did those steps. Consider the impact this teaching of Jesus could have on lives today.

 

Shalom,

Jim Myers

 

● “Like” our Facebook Page if you like this information.

 

● Please Donate & Help Us Do This Work.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It’s a Yod -- NOT a Jot and Tittle!

Not only did Yeshua read and speak Hebrew, so did his followers and disciples! Two very well known, but not accurately understood words in the Gospel of Matthew prove it – jot and tittle . For some reason jot and tittle stick in the minds of Christian Bible readers. But when you ask them what jot or tittle mean, you get a lot of conflicting and some really weird answers. Today, you are going to get the facts about what Yeshua originally said and how they ended up in English translations of the Bible as jot and tittle . Let’s begin by reading Matthew 5:18 from the King James translation: For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. If you have not read the article “ From Yeshua to Jesus ” in Yeshua’s Kingdom Handbook please take a moment to read it online by clicking here before you continue. In it you will see how we began with the name “ Jesus ” and traced it through Lati...
Post a Comment
Read more

Do Not Say RAQA! - Yeshua on Anger (Part 2)

In the last blog, we covered the first part of Yeshua’s lesson on Anger -- An Angry Person Should be Tried in Court like a Murderer – keep in mind that “anger” is the focus of Yeshua’s lesson. “Whoever says to a brother, ‘ RAKA ,’ shall be answerable to the Sanhedrin.” [i] Yeshua reveals that the seriousness of the offense has become greater by elevating the crime to the next highest court – the Sanhedrin . It is the highest court in the nation and would be the equivalent of our Supreme Court. What makes this offense more serious than murder, to keep things in the context established by Yeshua? It is because of what the angry person said out of anger – “ RAKA !” RAKA is the English transliteration of the Greek word found in the ancient manuscripts of Matthew. Interestingly, the Greek word is also a transliteration of a Hebrew word into Greek. Keep in mind that when a translator working on a translation of a Greek manuscript transliterates a Greek word, he only finds ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Prayer Yeshua Prayed Twice Every Day

One of Jesus’s earliest memories was no doubt watching and listening to his family when they gathered to pray the Shema at sunrise before the day’s work began and after the working work day was over at sunset . He also heard and participated in praying the Shema at their synagogue. He was surrounded by neighbors who also prayed the same prayer in their homes every day. The Hebrew word for prayer is tefilah . It is derived from the root Pe-Lamed-Lamed and the word l'hitpalel, meaning “ to judge oneself .” This surprising word origin provides insight into the purpose of Jewish prayer. The most important part of any Jewish prayer, whether it be a prayer of petition, of thanksgiving, of praise of God, or of confession, is the introspection it provides, the moment that we spend looking inside ourselves, seeing our role in the universe and our relationship to God. [1] Most of Jewish prayers are expressed in the first person plural, "us" instead of "me," an...
Post a Comment
Read more