Shabbat Shuvah 2024 – Repentance In Real Time

Does the name Genelle Guzman ring a bell? She was the very last survivor rescued from the collapse of the World Trade Center after the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. Genelle spent 27 hours trapped under the rubble of concrete and steel beams, and initially was sure she was going to die, but knowing she wasn’t right with God. By her own admission she had been something of a party girl; a 30-year old single mother, nominal Catholic, living with her boyfriend in Brooklyn.

Now her life hung in the balance, trapped under the rubble. And she began to pray. Initially, she just asked God that her body could be found and she be given a proper burial, or that she survive long enough that she could see her 12-year old daughter at the hospital before dying. But something welled up in her, and she began to boldly ask that God allow her to be rescued, and live, and she promised the Lord that if He allowed her to live, she would turn from her frivolous ways and her sin, and serve Him wholeheartedly.

God answered her prayer, and she was rescued alive, but her legs had suffered severe damage. Initially told she would never walk again, today she is walking, and even running, and she has kept her promise. Today, Genelle Guzman-McMillan (she and her boyfriend married) tells people about Jesus every chance she gets. They have three beautiful girls and live in Long Island. Her story has inspired many.

So often, when people face a crisis in their lives, they make promises to God, but once the crisis is behind them, don’t keep it. In that moment they may have felt genuine remorse, but regretful feelings and good intentions are not repentance.

This Shabbat Shuvah, the Sabbath of Repentance, let’s consider what repentance looks like in real time. Let’s read Yeshua’s parable of the two sons, found in Matthew 21, verses 28-32.

First, some background.

This is the first of three consecutive and increasingly harsh parables by which Yeshua denounces the pride and hard-heartedness of the religious leaders. Passover is approaching, Yeshua is at the Temple, having for the second time driven out the merchants and turned over the tables of the money changers. He’s been teaching and healing people.

The chief priests and elders demand He tell them by what authority He did these things. They weren’t looking for truth; they were trying to catch Him in something He would say, as a pretext to bring Him up on charges and have Him executed. Messiah didn’t play their game; His answers stumped them – they didn’t know what to say. Now going on the offense, He tells them this parable.

“But what do you think about this? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in the vineyard.’ His son answered, ‘No, I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, ‘I will, sir’ but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Yeshua said to them, “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.”

So who’s who in this parable? In this case, there’s little question that the father represents Adonai. The Talmud (Exodus Rabbah 27:9) claims that Adonai offered the Torah to all the nations, but only Israel said “Yes,” and yet failed to keep it, and there in the Talmud it is compared to the owner of a field wishing to entrust the cultivation of it to others. If the scribes and chief elders held that view, which is likely, then there would be no confusion as to Yeshua’s meaning in the parable, and His rebuke of them.

And what a rebuke!

The Scribes, Pharisees, and Chief Priests disdained the common Israelis (calling them Am HaAretz – literally, ‘people of the land’, but meant to imply ‘ignorant rednecks’). But their deepest contempt was for tax-collectors (whom they considered traitors) and prostitutes. So imagine their reaction when Yeshua told them that tax collectors and prostitutes would more likely enter heaven than them!

And rightly so. It was, after all, those ‘rednecks’ and ‘sinners’ who responded to the preaching of John the Baptist, and whose lives now bore the fruit of genuine repentance, whereas these religious leaders were contemptuous and opposed Yeshua.

Now, lest you and I look with contempt on those religious leaders, consider how this parable applies to us today. You see, there’s a very clear message here: talk is cheap. Emotion and agreeability do not equal obedience; and obedience to God is what matters at the end of the day.

Remorse isn’t repentance. Remorse is feelings; feelings of regret for something done, or for something important that was left undone. Feeling bad about something isn’t repentance; it’s just feeling. Repentance is based on a verb, the Hebrew word shuv, which means ‘turn’. Feeling bad isn’t turning. Turning is turning. All the best intentions you have are irrelevant until you act on them.

We are living, I believe, in the last days. Most people, including many Christians and Messianic Jews, give less weight to the Bible than to their feelings. Granted, our emotions are a gift from God, but He also gifted us with the capacity to reason, and feelings must take a back seat to reason and to revealed truth.

Rabbi Jerry is right, there is a good kind of grief. It is a sign of your conscience still functioning. But make no mistake about it: soft sentimentality is no substitute for doing the harder work of turning away from whatever sin it is (fill in the blank) that is polluting your life, and hindering your walk with the Lord.

Your life is being examined, daily – and even this very moment. God is watching you. The angelic host, and the saints who have gone before us are watching you. Your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers all are watching you; and your conduct reflects either well or badly on Messiah Yeshua.

Do you want people to come to know Him?

Live accordingly.

Do you want to hear “Well done, good and faithful servant… enter into the joy of your Master.”?

Live accordingly.

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us throw off everything that hinders (distractions), and the sin that so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is marked out before us, looking to Yeshua…”(Hebrews 12:1-2a)

We’ve been praying a lot of prayers.

Make good on them.