Repentance leads to action
It’s not just a feeling,
When pursued with purpose
It brings about our healing.
Remorse is gross passivity
It is the guilt complex and all
But all it ever makes us do
Is to brood about our fall.
Judas is a case in point
You would recall what he did,
He betrayed his loving Master
And then ran away and hid.
Trying to reverse his action
He returned the filthy lucre,
Its allurement and its charm
Had suddenly lost their power.
Refusal to accept the returned funds
Drove him to suicide,
His human attempt to make amends
Led to his demise.
Surely, he was sorry,
Of this there was no doubt
But though he showed much remorse
He still counted himself out.
He never availed himself
Of the chance to return to Christ,
He brooded in his own remorse
Hoping that would suffice.
Judas never repented of his wrong
And finally hanged himself,
Having betrayed his loving Master
He had no uses for his wealth.
Of course, he had hoped
That he could have them both,
If only Jesus would have broken free
He would still have had his post.
Peter and the other disciples:
They repented of their sin,
Before, they had followed afar off
But they all returned to him.
Peter was a special case:
He had denied the Master,
But the Master rose as he said he would
And singled out Peter after.
Remorse is kind of strange:
It’s like, “sorry it didn’t work out”
But quite unlike repentance
There is no turn-about.
Repentance leads to action
Remorse is passivity,
Repentance brings restoration
Remorse is futility.
The responses of Peter and Judas
Are expressions of these two,
Repentance and remorse:
Which of the two grabs you?
Stewart Russell © August 2020
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