Sackcloth and ashes. Fasting and weeping. Tearing clothes and pulling out hair. Lying face down in the dirt. Those are some powerful pictures of repentance, wouldn’t you agree? And what were Old Testament believers saying with these traditions? Wearing clothes made from rough material and showering oneself in dust and ashes was a way of showing God how sorry you were for your sins. It also served as a physical reminder for the sinner of how rough and dirty sin makes a person in God’s eyes. In a similar way going without food and shedding tears heightened a person’s awareness of their disobedience to God and revealed how upset their sins against God made them. Although I would agree that it may seem like an extreme thing to do a person tearing their clothes and pulling out their hair would have been showing the extreme emotions a person had from disappointing God by our actions. And finally, throwing oneself down to the ground is a visible sign of a person’s humility. Lying prostrate in front of God implies not only a recognition of how sign makes us unworthy but it also shows a deep desire for mercy from God.
Other than perhaps fasting it seems as though most of these outward signs of repentance have gone away among believers. We live in a different culture and a very different time in the world’s history. But then how do we show repentance and sorrow over our sins? God doesn’t tell us how to outwardly show what is going on our heart. In Christian freedom our contrition (that is feeling sorry over our sins) may look different for each of us. We may kneel, bow, and perhaps fast. God doesn’t command or even expect any of those things from us. But there is one thing connected to repentance that God desires from each of us. That is a change of mind and heart. But those things too he must work in us. And then, through his Holy Spirit working in us through the Word and Sacraments we empowered to live a renewed life of love and service to God.
In the Word of God that we will consider in our sermon together this morning the Prophet Zephaniah reminds of us what believers do when they are repentant. We hear him say:
“SEEK RIGHTEOUSNESS…SEEK HUMILITY”
I. In your heart and mind
II. In your words and actions
The name “Zephaniah” means “the LORD hides” or perhaps “the LORD has hidden.” The prophet Zephaniah was evidently a person of considerable social standing in Judah and appears to have been related to the royal family. According to 1:1, Zephaniah prophesied during the reign of King Josiah (640-609 B.C.), making him a contemporary of the Prophet Jeremiah, Nahum, and perhaps Habakkuk. He is one of the so called “Minor Prophets. That doesn’t mean he was under the age of 18 or that he worked in a mine. The 12 Minor Prophets just have shorter prophecies when compared to the “Major Prophets.” They are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel.
Like the other Minor Prophets Zephaniah was sent by God to call his people to repentance and to announce the coming whirlwind of his judgment. In particular, Zephaniah focused on the coming of the day of the LORD, when God promised to severely punish the nations, including apostate, or unbelieving, Judah. The prophet portrays the stark horror of that ordeal with the same graphic imagery found elsewhere in the prophets. But he also makes it clear that God will still be merciful toward his people; like many other prophets, he ends his pronouncements of doom on the positive note of Judah’s restoration. When God calls people to repentance some will repent and reflect that repentance in their lives. He called on his countrymen to seek righteousness and humility.
I.
Once again, let’s go back to our Old Testament Lesson for this Sunday. “Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, you who do what he commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the LORD’s anger.” I have a quick question for you. If that was the Lord’s message to the people of Judah what stood in the way of a complete repentance by every person in the nation? Wouldn’t every person hear that and say, “You’re right Zephaniah. We need to humble ourselves and seek righteousness!” This is where we can’t blame God or the Word he spoke through his prophet. The people stubbornly rejected God’s call to repentance. So, it would seem like only a few did what the prophet told them to do.
Now, let’s ask that question of ourselves. What stands in the way of repentance in our lives. We have the Word of God spoken through Zephaniah. In fact, we have it translated into our own language. We can read it and review it any time in paper format or electronic format. But like the majority of those who rejected God’s call to repentance we too have a stubborn sinful nature that wants to ignore what God says. Thankfully, God has had mercy on us. He has overcome our sinful nature. He has crucified it with Christ. Do we still need to hear the warnings found in God’s call to repent? Yes, as long as we live our Satan, our sinful nature, and the world in which we live will try to pull as back into unbelief. So Zephaniah warns us, “On that day you, Jerusalem, will not be put to shame for all the wrongs you have done to me, because I will remove from you your arrogant boasters. Never again will you be haughty on my holy hill.” When God’s judgement came upon Jerusalem he would wipe out those who remained unrepentant. But he would have mercy and those who were repentant. The LORD continued his message through Zephaniah. “But I will leave within you the meek and humble. The remnant of Israel will trust in the name of the LORD. 13 They will do no wrong; they will tell no lies. A deceitful tongue will not be found in their mouths. They will eat and lie down and no one will make them afraid.” Although our thoughts probably go immediately to Judgment Day Bible scholars point to the fact that the Judah was likely under threat of invasion at that time. And, yes, in the not too distant future the Babylonians would invade and destroy Judah. The vast majority of the people would be deported to Babylon leaving just the poor of the land behind. So this prophecy would be fulfilled—at least in part. The final fulfillment of all the warnings in the Bible about judgement will, of course, come on Judgement Day.
Here again, is where we see the connection to our lives today. The time to repent has long passed for those to whom Zephaniah prophesied. But we have another day of grace. Yes, today might be the Last Day or our last day. So, today, we asked God to again work repentance in us. What has to change in your life? When you leave here today what is it that God would want gone in your life? To help us get specific about repentance let’s turn back to our Gospel Lesson for today. When you hear or read the Beatitudes do you say, “Well that’s nice. The world would be a better place if people acted like that and had those kinds of attitudes.” Do you see the problem we face? It’s a challenge for us to reflect these attitudes. Like the world we want to say that the kind of life described here is for suckers! Today, brothers and sisters, God the Holy Spirit enables us to seek righteousness and to seek humility—in our heart and mind.
But how do we do that? A man named John Flavel said it this way, “They that know God will be humble, and they that know themselves cannot be proud.” That’s one way to seek righteousness and humility. Know God better through his Word. It will cause us to be humble. And the same thing will happen when we know ourselves better. When we know how far from God’s expectations we fall in our sinfulness, we become more humble.
So now let’s talk specifically about seeking righteousness and humility. The righteousness we are to seek is not one which we produce, but one which the Lord gives us through faith in Christ. The Apostle Paul declared, “A righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:21–24). A clue to the fact that Zephaniah has Christ’s righteousness in mind is found in his words, “perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the LORD’s anger.” Centuries earlier, when the Lord was preparing to lead Israel out of Egypt under Moses, he taught his people that there was a way to be sheltered and hidden from his wrath, a way that he himself would provide. Before the final plague came over Egypt and destroyed all of the firstborn, the Lord had Moses institute the Passover. Every household among the Israelites was to kill a lamb and smear its blood on the doorjambs of the house. When the Lord swept through the land of Egypt in his anger, he would see the blood on the houses of the Israelites and pass over them. Because of the blood, they would be sheltered from the Lord’s fierce wrath. The Passover lamb was a type, a shadow or reminder, of Christ. When he came and shed his blood, the place of protection from the anger of God was created for all. In a recent Gospel Lesson we heard John the Baptist point to Jesus and declare to his disciples, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). We could rephrase what he said this way: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who shelters us from the fierce anger of God.” That is how we seek righteous and humility in our heart and mind.
II.
The LORD’s words through Zephaniah not only address righteousness and humility in our heart and mind they also address those things in our words and actions. Several years ago the Peanuts comic strip had Lucy and Charlie Brown practicing football. Lucy would hold the ball for Charlie’s placekicking and then Charlie would kick the ball. But every time Lucy had ever held the ball for Charlie, he would approach the ball and kick with all his might. At the precise moment of the point of no return, Lucy would pick up the ball and Charlie would kick and his momentum unchecked by the ball, which was not there to kick, would cause him to fall flat on his back. This strip opened with Lucy holding the ball, but Charlie Brown would not kick the ball. Lucy begged him to kick the ball. But Charlie Brown said, “Every time I try to kick the ball you remove it and I fall on my back.” They went back and forth for the longest time and finally Lucy broke down in tears and admitted, “Charlie Brown I have been so terrible to you over the years, picking up the football like! I have. I have played so many cruel tricks on you, but I’ve seen the error of my ways! I’ve seen the hurt look in your eyes when I’ve deceived you. I’ve been wrong, so wrong. Won’t you give a poor penitent girl another chance?” Charlie Brown was moved by her display of grief and responded to her, “Of course, I’ll give you another chance.” He stepped back as she held the ball, and he ran. At the last moment, Lucy picked up the ball and Charlie Brown fell flat on his back. Lucy’s last words were, “Recognizing your faults and actually changing your ways are two different things, Charlie Brown!”
We can relate to what Lucy said. Seeing our sins and actually changing our ways are two different things. In time we may make excuses for ourselves. “Well that is just the way I am. I can’t change.” So how can we change our actions? Only after God’s Word works true sorrow in us over our sins can we find the power to change in the gospel. In his letter to the Romans the Apostle Paul declared “that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance.” (Romans 2:4) In Titus 2:11-14 we are reminded of how God works repentant actions in us. “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” Other places in the New Testament express a similar thought. Philippians 2:3 reminds us, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.”
Sackcloth and ashes, fasting and weeping. Tearing clothes and pulling out hair. Prostrating oneself. These were all outward signs of repentance. But, of course, what God really wanted from his people was repentance in their heart and mind which would lead to repentant words and actions. If we jump from Zephaniah to another of the Minor Prophets, Joel. We hear God say that exact thing. - “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” (Joel 2:12–14) Today we ask God to work that kind of repentance in each of us. Today we seek righteousness and humility in our heart and mind and in our words and actions. Amen.
