In the winter of 2014, I visited my family in Vancouver, Washington for the first time since moving to North Carolina. Since it was easy and accessible I decided to go to the dentist that I had always gone to growing up. Come to find out, there was a cavity that needed filling. The cavity was filled and I checked off one of my annual dentist visits. I went back to North Carolina and noticed something off. Any cold drink of water or consumption of any cold food caused an aching pain in the area where my cavity was. After about a week, the sensitivity became unbearable. After another dentist visit and an x-ray of my tooth, I was told the dentist who drilled my tooth went too deep. The nerve was irritated and inflamed and I was going to need a root canal to remove it.
Needless to say, I was very frustrated. It was a baby cavity. A simple procedure that most of the time is done without any complications. Let alone ending in a root canal. A week later, I was sitting in a surgical chair waiting for the anesthesia to kick in. I sat there with my mouth as wide as it could go waiting for the dentists to begin. I felt like Han Solo in the Empire Strikes Back when the Millennium Falcons light speed capabilities fail thinking, “It’s not my fault! It’s not my fault!”
Though it was uncomfortable and I am now left with a crown in my mouth, I have not felt any pain since. Yes, it was not my fault I needed a root canal, but I was feeling the pain non the less. Regardless of who’s fault it was.
Dr. Henry Clouds second principle is, “Pull the tooth”. He pivots this idea off of 1 Corinthians 6:2, “Everything is permissible for me-but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me-but I will not be mastered by anything.” He uses examples like relationships that do not bring you life or are holding you back. Activities that are not getting you where you want to go. Or time spent that is not going towards your well-being or mission in life. These things that obstruct us from flourishing as humans must be removed.
This principle made me think of repentance. Why repentance is still a necessary practice, even if we are “justified by faith” (Rom. 5:1). If Jesus died for my sins once and for all, why do I need to repent? Let alone out loud or to another person? I believe repentance is not only a practice of following Jesus, but it is a powerful gift we have been given. A way to restore balance to human flourishing and to our relationship with God and others. To use myself as the example, no it wasn’t technically my fault I needed a root canal, but it was my tooth. It was my pain. It was my responsibility. Rather than blaming others, I needed to figure out what I could do about the situation. I want to continue this conversation of “pulling the tooth” through the filter of repentance and how much of a gift it actually is.
The Plank
In Matthew 7:1-6 Jesus gives a rather humorous illustration of why we should not judge others. Ironically, this passage of scripture has been used quite often to do just that. Judge others. Jesus implores us to not judge others because, “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (2). In Jesus’ time, Rabbis taught that God had two measures that he used to judge people and the nations. One measure was justice and the other was mercy. God judges because He is just and He is merciful. With this in mind, as followers of Jesus, we will be judged (as well as everyone else) by the same standard.
Jesus purposely uses exaggerated imagery to explain how we keep ourselves from falling into a trap of hypocrisy and taking on judgment ourselves. He says, “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (5).
This passage can seem individualistic, and at first glance it is easy to interpret it that way. However, it is directly related to our neighbors. A very real example of Jesus’ teaching and how it affects not only the individual but the community is in 2 Samuel 12:1-7. King David has committed adultery and had the women’s husband killed. The prophet Nathan had a word for David.
“The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.
“Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”
David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”
Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man!”
In this rebuke, Nathan explains David’s actions were both unjust and unmerciful. David burned with anger against the fictional injustice, but could not see his own. Jesus points out it is easy to see the speck in others but completely miss the blaring hypocrisy in ourselves. It is easy to think there are only individual consequences but that is almost never the case.
This is where repentance comes in.
Turn Around
I have noticed in my short life a stigma that comes with the idea (or practice) of repentance. I have heard comments like, God knows my heart, I don’t need to share my sin or I know I’m forgiven and God will always love me.
Though those things may be true (except the not needing to share your sin) we have simplified repentance to a salvation issue. That repenting is for those who must be saved. That is in fact, just part of the equation. Yes, to be saved one must acknowledge sin and God’s grace and mercy. It does not however stop there. Why? Repentance is the great equalizer.
The word repentance in Greek is metánoia. It simply means, “to change ones mind”. I do want to point out however that it is a verb. The Greek word implies not just ones way of thinking but their purpose. If someone is going one way, they turn in a different direction.
According to Josephus, a 1st Century Jewish historian, the word repent was not used in terms of people turning from sin and back to God, but it was used in war or political strategy. Josephus writes about the Hebrews and Egypt as well as King Herod and John the Baptist saying,
“And indeed that land was difficult to be traveled over, not only by armies, but by single persons. Now Moses led the Hebrews this way, that in case the Egyptians should repent and be desirous to pursue after them, they might undergo the punishment of their wickedness, and of the breach of those promises they had made to them.”
“Herod, who feared lest the great influence John had over the people might put it into his power and inclination to raise a rebellion, (for they seemed ready to do any thing he should advise,) thought it best, by putting him to death, to prevent any mischief he might cause, and not bring himself into difficulties, by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it would be too late. (Jospehus, Antiquities Of The Jews)
In both examples, repentance correlates with peoples actions and not just to the individual but the greater community. This idea of a private, personal repentance would be completely foreign to a 1st Century Hebrew. In these examples there is also no mention of repentance being between an individual and God, just actions that affect the community.
The Gospels however do talk about repentance in terms to our relationship to God. Given what we know about Jesus we are to “turn around” and go in a different direction. Again, this is a verb. An action. We are forgiven and it is good to remember how good God is and has been to us, but true repentance is to physically remove the plank.
Christ removed the curse sin had on us on the cross. Yet, Christ says to deny ourselves and pick up our cross daily and follow Him. Whatever direction we are heading, we can alway metánoia, and turn toward Him.
For the first time, I read Matthew 7 not just as a reminder not to judge, but a call to repentance. When Jesus says, “first take the plank out of your own eye” the original wording means to cast out. The same word used when Jesus would cast out evil spirits.
A Great Gift
Repentance is not meant to create shame or make people seem less than. It is a gift. It is a practice we can do daily to realign ourselves with our Creator and Savior. To restore our relationship with God and with our neighbors to the way God intended it.
My prayer is that the church sees repentance not as punishment or a guilt trip, but as a release. A spiritual exhale that whispers thanksgiving. Knowing God is restoring his creation to its natural order, where he is reigning supreme in our hearts and minds. Where His Justice and Mercy are seen and heard in our communities.
Repentance takes humility. A lot of it. Which is why Jesus says we are quick to take the speck out of our neighbors eye but miss the plank in our own.
The church needs to repent. Every. Single. Day. Because we want to be aligned with the Head of the Church. The Lion of Judah who will judge the quick and the dead. Whose measuring rod is Justice and Mercy.
Let us cast out anything obstructing our vision of Him.
Could I have complained about having a root canal? Sure. Did I? You bet. At the end of the day, I needed to do something about it. The root had to go. If I would have done nothing but get angry, things would have been much worse. Sin is similar. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like our fault, or that we don’t have a responsibility, but we do.
Dr. Henry Cloud says, “New things that actually have hope for the future cannot appear until you get rid of what was taking up the space that the new thing needs” (64). God gives us this hope and God sets things right.
Repentance is a gift because it reminds us of God’s Justice and God’s Mercy. Both of which were expressed on the cross.
To conclude, here is a prayer from St. Augustine for meditation:
O Lord,
The house of my soul is narrow;
enlarge it that you may enter in.
It is ruinous, O repair it!
It displeases Your sight.
I confess it, I know.
But who shall cleanse it,
to whom shall I cry but to you?
Cleanse me from my secret faults, O Lord,
and spare Your servant from strange sins.
St. Augustine of Hippo (AD 354-430)
References:
1 Cor. 6:2; 2 Sam. 12:1-7; Matt. 7:1-6; Rom. 5:1.
Cloud, Henry. (2004). ‘9 Things You Simply Must Do: To Succeed In Love And Life’. MJF Books. (64).
Josephus. Antiquities 18.5.2.116-119; 2.15.1-5
metánoia: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G1544&t=NIV
St. Augustine. Penitential Prayer of St. Augustine. https://www.catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?p=3080