During Lent, we heard a lot about repentance. Now that Lent is over, it is easy to think that we can lay off that whole repentance thing for a little while. But here we are right in the middle of Easter, and our readings are all about repentance. In the first reading, St. Peter tells the crowds “Repent and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away.” Jesus, in the Gospel today, tells the disciples, “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations.” And while the second reading doesn’t use the word “repentance” directly, it is all about avoiding sin and the forgiveness we have in Christ if we do sin.
Looking at these readings, it can feel like someone at the church made a mistake and accidentally put Lent readings during Easter. Why are we hearing about repentance during the Easter season? To understand the connection between repentance and Easter, we first have to understand what Biblical repentance truly is. Often, we think repentance means “feeling bad about” our sins. Sometimes we express negative feelings about our sins and assume it is repentance when in reality it is often simply regret. What is the difference?
Regret is simply feeling bad about our sins. Often, what we feel bad about is not the sin itself but the consequence. I’m not sorry that I lied; I’m sorry that I got caught and got in trouble. I’m not sorry that I did something sinful, but I know that I’m not supposed to do it, so I tell God I’m sorry for breaking the rules. That is regret – simply feeling bad about our sins.
Sometimes, we can even use our regret as an excuse to sin. It often plays out like this: we sin, but we know we aren’t supposed to, so we feel bad about it. Convinced that feeling bad is the same as repentance, we think that feeling bad is all that are required from us and that, having felt bad, we are forgiven. Now that the slate is clean, we can go sin again, content that we have been forgiven before and we will be forgiven again.
Repentance is much more. The Greek word for repentance in the New Testament literally means “change of mind.” Repentance is not just about feeling bad, it is about changing. Repentance is actually changing, going from sin to holiness, from disobedience to obedience, from death to life. Unlike regret, true repentance never becomes an excuse to sin again; true repentance is what leads us to avoid sin in the future.
And that is the connection between repentance and Easter. Repentance is precisely experiencing the new life of the resurrection right here and now in our lives. Repentance requires the Cross, because change requires dying to ourselves and our old way of doing things. But that’s only part of the story. Repentance is not just dying to sin but rising to holiness and new life. Easter is at the heart of repentance, because repentance is all about entering into a new life with Christ. St. Peter is the perfect example of true repentance. On Holy Thursday, he denied that he even knew Jesus. And, realizing what he did, Scripture tells us that he wept bitterly. But he didn’t just feel bad. He changed. In our first reading today, the same Peter who swore that he didn’t know Jesus is publicly preaching about him. Peter didn’t just regret denying Jesus; he truly repented of it, such that his life changed.
Repentance is at the heart of the Easter message. These readings call all of us to examine our own hearts. Have I truly repented of my sins, or do I just feel bad about them without making any effort to change? Change can be hard. Especially if our sins are habitual, it can take a long time to truly break the habit. Our efforts at changing and amending our lives will not always be perfectly successful. But there is a difference between trying to change and not yet perfectly succeeding, and just feeling bad about sin without trying to change at all. Have I actually entered into the new life of the Resurrection, or am I continuing to live in the death of sin? May we follow the instructions of St. Peter to repent and be converted, so that our sins may be wiped away.
Fr Dotson 