Perrydox.com is devoted to the pursuit of truth, whether plain or paradoxical, whether simple or sublime, or simply absurd yet absolute.
Luke 15:17 – Sad And Ironic
This is not a happy article. There will be no laughing on your part, or puns on mine. If there are any smiles, they most likely will be paradoxical smiles of sad recognition. This is an article about a real life situation that is both sad and ironic.
Sad and ironic are two words that used together should seldom, if ever, describe a church or a Christian. And yet sad and ironic too often describe situations running askew of God’s ideal for His people and running amok among God’s people. This is sad, because of what God wants for us. This is ironic, because of what God wants to do for us, and what God wants for us to do for one another. After all, irony is characterized by the poignant difference or incongruity between what is expected and what actually is. What is both sad and ironic is often what we do to one another is not what God’s wants for us, nor is it how we want to be treated. There is so much happiness and satisfaction in following the simple truth of the Golden Rule. However, truth, our version of it, and our reaction to it, is often sad and ironic.
For example, a rumor spread through a congregation. By the time someone had the courage to ask the one being gossiped about; it was third or fourth hand information. Sad. Isn’t it sad that brothers and sisters would gossip about another brother or sister? Is that what God wants us to do? Is that how we want to be treated? Isn’t it ironic that if others treated us the way we treat them that we would be sad, hurt or even angry?
Probably one of the most neglected commands in the Bible is found in Matthew 18:15 – “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.
Go to the brother, don’t go around your brother to other brothers…or sisters!
According to the rumor, one Christian had apologized to another Christian for not being more involved. So far, so good, right?
The one apologizing should be commended for recognizing their failure and wanting to correct it. As the rumor expanded — as all rumors do both in contents and contacts — supposedly the Christian being confessed to did not commend and compliment the repenting family member. “Supposedly” did not. To commend the confession would be commendable. Instead, according to the rumor, supposedly the response was, “Well, it is about time you came to your senses.” Supposedly this was said with condescension…or least heard with condescension…despite what might have been said.
Think for a moment before we react to that supposed verbal reaction. Would such a response have been appropriate? Think….
That response is, of course, if indeed it had happened according to the gossip, possibly rude…but could it be true? Yes! That would have been an appropriate response if said matter-of-factly and not said with condescension.
But, mostly likely, that is not what even happened. Truth and rumors have as much in common as do diet food and great taste; or sports cars and great gas mileage; “leisure suits” and fashion sense (OK. Maybe there might be one smile in this article). Sometimes the two go together, but more often they don’t.
But let’s examine the thought, “Well, it is about time you came to your senses.” Does that thought remind us of any situation in the Bible?
“But when he came to his senses, he (i.e., the prodigal son) said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! (Luke 15:17)
Literally, the phrase, “came to his senses,” is “came to himself.”
Vincent’s Word Studies says, “A striking expression, putting the state of rebellion against God as a kind of madness. It is a wonderful stroke of art, to represent the beginning of repentance as the return of a sound consciousness.”
Robertson’s Word Pictures explains, “As if he had been far from himself as he was from home. As a matter of fact he had been away, out of his head, and now began to see things as they really were.
Could we rightfully say to the prodigal son, “Well, it’s about time you came to your senses?” Isn’t true repentance coming to our senses? While the prodigal son’s father did not respond to his son’s repentance by saying, “Well, it is about time you came to your senses” that is what repentance is all about! That’s what happened to the erring son. That is how the Bible – that is how Jesus – described the prodigal’s repentance.
While responding that way might be a pride-filled response, if we are truly and deeply repenting should we be upset if that is said to us? No, we should be looking deeply into ourselves. True humility would respond back humbly – “Yes, it is about time I came to my senses.”
I am not suggesting that when we hear someone confess, that we retort back, “It’s about time you came to your senses.” But have you ever noticed that we do not appreciate others telling us what we are willing to tell ourselves? Ahh, isn’t that a little bit sad and ironic? Shouldn’t the truth be the truth?
It is sad how ironic it is that someone repenting objects that another recognizes that they came to their senses. But then again, this article was not supposed to be happy. But sadly it does describe a true event…except for what happened isn’t what really happened…isn’t that ironic…and sad?
Comments