Even Now…
“Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart,
with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;
Rend your hearts, not your garments,
and return to the LORD, your God.”Joel 2:12-13a
Lent is such a privileged time for all Christians. It reminds us of who we are, to whom we belong, and how that great chasm between God and man was bridged. It tells of the greatest story mankind has ever heard, the story of an all-powerful God who has become one of us so that we might be saved – not by magic or spells, but by His very own blood, His very self.
On the first Sunday of Lent we always read of the Temptations of Jesus, and what strikes me each time I read and ponder that passage (in all three synoptics) is that Jesus was led by the Spirit. That even before He started His public ministry, Jesus showed the importance of obedience. All that Jesus does is from the Father and He does nothing apart from the Father (see Jn. 5:19). We know Jesus stays true to this His entire earthly life. Even when the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees plotted and schemed to get rid of Him, Jesus remained steadfast in carrying out the will of His Father. Nothing can get in the way between the Father and the Son – no trials, no difficulties, no hardships. Throughout His public ministry, Jesus showed us what it means to be sons and daughters of the Father and what that relationship should look like.
Relationship is at the very heart of the story between God and man. From the moment Adam and Eve disobeyed God until the time of Jesus, a great chasm existed between God and man. Sin was great and the desire to return to God was weak. God sent prophets, appointed judges, and anointed kings, yet the people still chose to not listen and placed their trust in other gods, resulting in slavery and captivity. “Return to me” is what God said to the people through the prophet Joel. God desired that His people return to Him so much so that He did the unthinkable – He sent His only Son into the world to take on our human flesh. He came not to condemn but to save, and He did so by giving Himself completely to His Father and to His people, all the way to the Cross. When Jesus stretched out His hands on the Cross, He bridged the gap between heaven and earth, for in Him humanity and divinity are one.
Even now — even in our sinfulness, in our wayward ways, in our stubborn pride, in our selfishness — even now, say the Lord, Return to me. The Lord does not care where we are or where we’ve been, what we are doing or what we’ve done, He simply cares that we are here now, at this moment, desiring to return to Him.
This Lent, may we grow closer to the God who cries out to us, “Return to me.”
Adapted from the introduction to “Return to Me,” our Lenten reflection devotional.
