One evening last week I came home late from meetings to have
a card handed to me. It was from Max, a neighbor kid who’s as cute as can be.
The card read, “Dear Doug & Barb. I’m sorry for making skid marks on your
patio. Will you please forgive me?” I looked at Barb as if to say, “What’s this
all about?” But if you know anything about my wife, you know that she was
filling me in as soon as my eyes diverted from the card.
It seems that Max and a neighbor girl were using our
driveway and patio as a race track. That’s nothing new. What is new is that Max
had decided to change the mode of transportation. Instead of using the #1 toy
of last season – a cool, plastic 4-wheeled car that surpasses any “big wheel”
variant I’ve ever seen – he opted for his bicycle. Now it’s one thing to ride
your bike on the “Rehberg long course”; it’s another to lay rubber for more
than ten feet a dozen or more times! It seems that Jimmy Buffet was right when
he sang, “There’s a woman to blame.” Max has fallen into the common male trap
of trying to impress the girl. After all, if one skid mark doesn’t impress her,
maybe eleven more will!
When Barb filled me in on the details it turned out that
Max’s indiscretion spread like wildfire. His parents sprang into action trying
to remedy the problem before Doug set his eyes on the carnage. Really, for the
life of me, I still can’t figure out this fear of me. (Maybe I’m not as sweet
and lovable as I think I am!)
Anyway, the rest of the story happened two days later when
Max’s mom marched him over to face me. He stood there, directly in front of me,
sheepishly repeating his written plea. “Doug, will you forgive me for making
skid marks on your patio?” Instantly I grabbed him, hugged him, and said, “Of
course I forgive you, Max. You’re my buddy!” His mother looked like a
five-hundred-pound weight had been lifted from her shoulders, and the smile on
Max’s face was the stuff of Norman Rockwell.
I’ve thought about that incident in the last few days,
especially as I’ve focused on Acts 17:16-34 and Paul’s ministry in Athens. Look
at what he says in verse 30: “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he
commands all people everywhere to repent…” It’s a fascinating statement for a
lot of reasons. First, he’s not speaking in the synagogue, he’s in the Aeropagus.
Second, he’s not talking to Jews, but Gentiles. Third, he’s not talking to
God-fearers, but polytheists. Fourth, he’s not talking about what commonly
passes for repentance in evangelical circles these days (turning around), he’s
talking about biblical repentance – a whole life change. Rather than addressing
behavioral change based on a concerted human effort, he’s talking about a
thorough life change founded on the totality of the divine effort in Jesus.
There’s a lot in this text that further informs us as to
what walking with Jesus looks like. But to boil it down to its root, what we
have is a picture of a man living what Martin Luther refers to as “a life of
repentance” – the surest sign of walking Jesus’ way. (By the way, how do you
think skid marks on a patio compare to lash marks on the back of Jesus?)
In preparation for Sunday’s message, you may wish to
consider the following:
- What was the first of Martin Luther’s 95 theses? Why did he start there?
- What is Jesus’ point to Simon the Pharisee when He tells him the parable of the forgiven debt in Luke 7?
- Why is Paul in Athens?
- Why does he leave the synagogue and expand his ministry to the marketplace? (see vs. 17)
- What is an agora?
- What does Luke mean in verse 16 when he says that as Paul looked around his spirit was “provoked”?
- What is the result of his spirit being provoked?
- What does he mean in verse 22 when he says that he “perceives” that in every way they are religious?
- What is the result of this perception?
- What is the ground of true repentance?
