Lent Day Thirty
“God’s Gift”
Luke 13:1–9 The Passion Translation
1 Some of those present informed Jesus that Pilate had slaughtered some Galilean Jews while they were offering sacrifices at the temple, mixing their blood with the sacrifices they were offering.
2 Jesus turned and asked the crowd, “Do you believe that the slaughtered Galileans were the worst sinners of all the Galileans?
3 No, they weren’t! So listen to me. Unless you all repent, you will perish as they did.
4 Or what about the eighteen who perished when the tower of Siloam fell upon them? Do you really think that they were more guilty than all of the others in Jerusalem?
5 No, they weren’t. But unless you repent, you will all eternally perish, just as they did.”
6 Then Jesus told them this parable: “There was a man who planted a fig tree in his orchard. But when he came to gather fruit from his tree he found none, for it was barren and had no fruit.
7 So he said to his gardener, ‘For the last three years I’ve come to gather figs from my tree but it remains fruitless. What a waste! Go ahead and cut it down!’
8 “But the gardener said, ‘Sir, we should leave it one more year. Let me fertilise and cultivate it, then let’s see if it will produce fruit.
9 If it doesn’t bear fruit by next year, we’ll cut it down.’”
All of us have sinned. It doesn’t matter who we are, or what we’ve done, where we live, where we grew up, what school we went to or what job we do. Sin is sin. And we’re not alone. The Bible is teeming with stories of the greats who’ve messed up and have needed to get down on their knees and cry out to God for his forgiveness. Just take a look at David.
I too have been there and have got the T-shirt. But one thing I’ve discovered is how harmful it is to cover up my mistakes. To push them down and allow them to fester.
I’ve done it probably because I was fearful others will think less of me if they find out what’s beneath the surface of my life. Shame played a bit part, rearing its ugly head and demanding I kept my mess hidden.
Hallelujah-- shame is not from God, it’s not his gift to us. It’s a tactic of the enemy to keep us tied up in the knots of guilt and fear. It holds us back from bearing fruit. From being productive for the Kingdom. It dulls our light.
Thankfully we have an escape route, and it’s called repentance. Despite the loudness of Satan’s lies telling us it will make matters worse. Repentance is a pure and utterly beautiful gift from God.
When we bring our past and our pain and our mess and our shame out into the light, something glorious happens. We experience the full power of the Cross of Jesus. The weight of what we’ve done is gone in a nanosecond. And we can walk differently. We can live out the awe-dropping meaning of Easter. “It is finished.”
So, let’s run to Jesus and ask him to shine his bright light on what might be beneath the surface that we don’t need and doesn’t help us, and experience for ourselves true life in all its fullness.
Lord Jesus, it’s you who frees us. Let your light shine in every area of our lives. Thank you for the power of the cross. That you took on the weight of all of our mess in your death-defying victory, so that we could be totally and utterly free. Amen
Jane Kirby
Jane Kirby is editor and founder of truth magazine for women and is behind @rebelheartsrebelgirls on instagram. She speaks at various Christian events and in her local church. Living in Hastings she is married to James and has two grown up sons, Ethan and Noah. She is passionate about people walking in freedom.