The Damaged Disciple: Lent, 2025
Most merciful God, we confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways, to the glory of your holy name. Amen —Confession of Sin (Lutheran liturgy)
“The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” —John 1:29
“And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.” —Joel 2:13
Judeo-Christian scripture verses are from the King James Version
The last introductory verse, frequently quoted at the beginning of Lent, encourages us to turn toward God in repentance. It is good to do, indeed necessary, to lay our faults at the feet of the Lord. There is a reason that services of worship begin with the confession of sin. These must be honestly faced, grappled and dealt with, to clear our approach to the Divine. As I grow older I find that I take more time to look in the rear view mirror to consider mistakes I have made and how I have veered from the path of right action. Yet there is no undoing what I have done. I must stand naked before the Lord “just as I am”. To walk the path of life is to walk the path of sin and error. We may make corrections, but will eventually stray again. The bad news is that we are all damaged. The good news is that there is provision for us to regain newness of life and access to the “causeless mercy” of the Divine presence. Humility is the key, for only in the stripping of all pretension may this be done. The season of Lent provides a focus, an opportunity, to reduce our footprint. In it lies our renewal and liberation. We must “become as dust” (or ashes) to pass through to spiritual freedom.
The Lord is characterized in the Hindu scriptures as fire destroying impurity, a reduction to ashes. Here is the complete text of Sri Isopanisad 18: “ O my Lord, as powerful as fire, O omnipotent one, now I offer You all obeisances, falling on the ground at Your feet. O my Lord, please lead me on the right path to reach You, and since You know all that I have done in the past, please free me from the reactions to my past sins so that there will be no hindrance to my progress.” Prabhupada (mentioned later) comments: “By surrendering to the Lord and praying for His causeless mercy, the devotee can progress on the path of complete self-realization. The Lord is addressed as fire because He can burn anything into ashes, including the sins of the surrendered soul….one who surrenders at the very beginning, as recommended in this mantra, at once surpasses all preliminary stages simply by adopting the devotional attitude. As stated in the Bhagavad-gita 18:66, the Lord at once takes charge of such a surrendered soul and frees him from all the reactions to his sinful acts.” This should encourage and enlighten Jews and Christians as well. It is liberating to be reduced to absolute humility, and we should look forward to attaining this condition. In it we may pass through life in wholehearted openness and trust, free of presumption. [see the related post, The Gate. The Raft, the Bridge: on What Will Pass Through]
These selections from Psalm 51 contain the language of repentance:
“Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me….
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow….Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.”
The Lord’s Prayer provides a dynamic mechanism whereby we may seek God’s forgiveness. It levels the playing field by a reciprocal asking for our own forgiveness as we ourselves forgive those who have wronged us. If we forget the sins of others, may we then not ask God to forgive ours? Such a dynamic and interactive approach holds amazing promise to restore us and those whose paths we have crossed in our life events.
The gospel of Luke (7:37-50) tells the story of forgiveness proceeding from devotion. I will repeat it in its entirety: “And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner.And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on.There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet.My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also?And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.”
This brings us to the question: Is there such a thing as unforgiveable sin? Rev. Milton Gabrielson (mentioned in a previous post) wrote that it was at the point where the human being has “lost the power of discrimination between good and evil, and therefore both the power and the desire to repent and change is lost. It is the condition when the soul of man can no longer respond to the Light of God, for it has lost all distinction between light and darkness.” In another message he stated that there is hope in repentance, for “If we can still cry over the good we have wasted, we can still go on to regain the good we have left behind us.” In being broken in life, the light of God nay shine through and lift us in a new wholeness.
More from the Hindu tradition. There is much that it can teach us and many parallels which validate the Judeo-Christian scriptures if we search for them. Of several commentators, Prabhupada has shed light on devotion, bhakti, as the superior spiritual path: “while some seekers have to work hard on the path of self-control and austere self-discipline, either by constant practice or by the aid of philosophic wisdom, the devotee [like the woman in the passage from Luke] makes an easy ascent to a high elevation—not because he is more energetic and better equipped than his fellow-workers in other paths, but because he has resigned himself completely to God, and God, being pleased with his devotees who cling fast to Him and know nothing else, grants them wisdom and raises them up through higher and higher stages of self-elevation, self-realization, and bliss.”
And further: “The Lord fully maintains his unalloyed devotees, and He guides them progressively on the path of devotional perfection. As the leader of His devotees, He ultimately awards the desired results of devotional service by giving Himself to them.”
This commentary describes the mechanism by which grace is imparted: “The Lord is so kind to His devotees that even though the devotee sometimes falls into the entanglement of vikarma [you will recognize the word root karma here]—acts against the Vedic directions—the Lord at ones rectifies the mistakes within the heart of a devotee. This is because the devotees are very dear to the Lord.”
Prabhupada also said that one should learn how to cry for the Lord. The Sanskrit word is laulyam. This same passionate longing finds expression in some of the great church music, notably the compositions of J.S. Bach. It is echoed by Hebrews 5:7-9: “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.”
There is a word of caution, however: The freedom of release from sin is not necessarily instantaneous: “A devotee should not expect immediate relief from the reactions of his past misdeeds. No conditioned soul is free from such reactionary experiences, and because material existence means continued suffering or enjoying of past activities.” It is good, then, that we call our sins to mind at the beginning of worship.
Thus, the path of devotion, whether understood in the Hindu or Christian sense, is the superior path of spiritual realization. This is further validated by the Srimad Bhagavatum: The devotee “has expiated all his sins by uttering the name of God and surrendering himself to the beloved Lord. One, however sinful, who loves God and surrenders himself to him, is his beloved and his own. The mere name of God has power to save even the most depraved….when the name of God and God’s love have purified the heart, then indeed are all sins completely destroyed.” A further passage reads, “Thus by surrendering thyself unto me through all thy actions, and remembering me constantly, thou shalt come to love me. When thou hast come to love me, there will be nothing more for thee to achieve.” A contemporary writer, Raghunathan Jayanthi, writes, “God looks only what’s inside your innocent heart and love without expectation…”
Buddhism, often looked upon as impersonal and austere, takes on an entirely new aspect in the scriptures of the Pure Land school. This branch of the tradition echoes the “grace through faith” found in Christianity. Alfred Bloom [Shinran’s Gospel of Pure Grace] describes patriarch Shinran’s teaching that the practice of the recitation of Amida Buddha’s name is based on the Buddha’s aspiration (”the Vow”) to save all beings: “Therefore the ultimate cause of the effectiveness of the recitation was Amida Buddha (also known as Tathagata) himself”, which “legitimized the practice of recitation for the common man.” The invocation of the name fulfills the aspirations of all beings, for it purifies minds and causes us to cast aside impure thought. [see the related post, In Search of the Great “I AM ] Thus, “sins are cleansed and birth in the Pure Land is secured….It is the intense determination to pass from the world of woes into the world of bliss and will not be obstructed by the distracting threats of the world of decay.” We should not be too concerned with our own sinfulness, for it is specifically for the Vow of Amida Buddha “is specifically meant for them”. Does this not resemble the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world? Shinran “maintained that the evil man need not fear for his salvation, because Amida Buddha had accomplished it.” Even our good deeds cannot surpass this goodness. Nembutsu, the Pure Land way, declares that persons with a heavy or light burden of sin “must take refuge in the selected great jewelled sea and become Buddha…”
To conclude, Bloom writes, “Once this faith is aroused, salvation is assured. There need be no anxiety for the future, nor any frustrating religious disciplines calculated to close the gap between our real and ideal selves.” Salvation by grace through faith, nothing more, nothing less.
Does this not resemble the closing verse from John 14:1-6? “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
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