Wake Up, Look Up

Hello everyone and thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch, and in today's episode, we're asking the question, are you really sorry? Now, this is prompted by an article I read recently in the New York Times about the new mayor of New York City, Mamdani and his wife. his wife has been in the news recently because some old kind of tweets and social media posts from back when she was 15 have resurfaced, and they're troubling. They use racial slurs, homophobic slurs, she talks, anti Semitic, she supports terrorism and terrorist groups. I mean, some pretty, Pretty dark stuff. Of course, she was 15 too. And most of us said and did some stupid things. We were 15. What caught my attention is not so much the story of the things she posted when she was 15. that, to be honest, I don't know what to do with that. People say and do a lot of dumb things when they're 15. It just so happens that this generation, the things they said and did are online. But what was interesting is her apology. When she apologized, she didn't clarify which post she was sorry for or which things she said. She no longer feels. She just kind of vaguely apologized for things she had texted or tweeted in the past. But what's interesting is you only have to go back to, like, the last year or two to find troubling things she's posted online. For example, she liked posts that celebrating the attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023. You remember when supporters of Hamas invaded Israel and brutally murdered innocent civilians? Many people celebrating that as, quote, unquote, freedom fighting. She was liking those posts. Well, I gotta tell you, two years ago, she wasn't 15. You know, this is just emblematic of something that I've noticed in our culture is we have no idea what. What it looks like to really be sorry. And I wanna teach you this. Not so much about the mayor of New York and his wife. None of us, for the most part, live in New York City. But because what's going on with her is something that, if we're not careful, goes on with us. Jesus says it this way. In the Gospel of Luke, he talks about bearing fruit in keeping with repentance. John the Baptist will say, bear fruit in keeping with repentance. In other words, for John the Baptist, for Jesus, repentance isn't about what you say, it's about what you Do. Certainly words are a, part of it, but the words only matter and only become meaningful in so much as you actually do the things that show you're sorry. So I want to contrast two words for you. The first is posture, and the second is power. Our culture adopts a post posture of repentance. We'll say things like, I'm, sorry. I'm gonna try to learn from this. I realized now my mistake, there was a lot going on there. Posture is about doing the things I think you need to see and hear me do to move on. You can tell in one on one relationships by the way, when a person is posturing for repentance because they're eager to change the subject. Hey, hey, I said I was sorry. Can we just move on? What else do you need me to hear me say? Haven't I already said that? What they're doing in that moment is they're saying, hey, I feel like I've checked the boxes. Let's just move forward. that's posture, but it's not actually repentance. Here's the key. Repentance always involves giving up power. It's always saying to those that you've hurt, hey, I've hurt you. Which means I need to take on a posture of giving up power. Which looks like saying to you, here are the ways I think I've hurt you, but maybe I've even done more. Would you share with me all the ways that I've hurt you? Hey, I desire restoration and reconciliation. Can you tell me the steps I would need to undertake to make that happen? It's actually giving the power to the person you've hurt and saying to them, I so badly want to make amends. I so badly want to be reconciled that I will move at your pace, through your process. Truly repentant people lay down the power to make excuses, the power to justify, and the power to set the tone. That isn't what she's doing. She's not saying, hey, I'm, sitting down with different groups to learn how these things are harmful. Hey, I'm starting to hear from more people that maybe some of the opinions I've shared are not helpful. I'm actually asking different groups to walk through my social media activity and show me there's no willingness to learn. There's no desire to actually reconcile, to actually heal what has been harmed. And I'm not picking on her. It just so happens she lives her life in the public. I see this all the time in my own heart. And as your pastor. I see it in yours. So here's the question. If you're currently sorry for something, or next time you're sorry for something, is it posture or is it power? Are you still controlling how things get fixed, how quickly they get fixed and the ways they get fixed? That is not the fruit of repentance. Consider this. The first step of repentance for any sinner is towards God. But doesn't God lay out the terms, you must come to Jesus, confess your sin, place your faith in him, right? And we lay that down. That is what repentance looks like. Giving up power. So, I guess I'll end with the question. Are you really sorry? Are you willing to give up the power to show it? Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. 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