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Lectionary for Sept. 27, 2026
18th Sunday after Pentecost
Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32; Psalm 25:1-9;
Philippians 2:1-31; Matthew 21:23-32
I’ll be honest, I don’t think of repentance as often as I probably should. I think about justice every day. I think about loving my family and neighbors every day. I long for the kingdom of God every day. But how often do I—or any of us—really ponder repentance?
An old story from the Mishnah recounts Rabbi Eliezer telling his students that they should be certain to repent the day before their deaths. The students balked, saying none of them knew the day they would die, so how could they know when to repent? His answer was simple: since no one knows the day of their death, they must repent every single day (Pirkei Avot 2:10). The lectionary readings this week insist on perpetual, humble repentance.
Let us start with what repentance is and is not. Repentance is not feeling sorry for what we have done wrong. That’s called guilt. Repentance is two things: 1) ceasing to do the evil that we have done, and 2) seeking to make right the wrongs we have caused or allowed. Repenting is always social and always restorative. It’s not just an internal feeling.
In our reading from Ezekiel, the prophet addresses repentance and sin. He was led to speak against popular parables of his day, such as “Children pay for the sins of their parents.” Ezekiel proclaimed that the soul that sins—or does righteousness—is the soul that is recompensed. God is not like climate change, in which later generations are affected by the sins of their ancestors. Instead, God will punish or reward according to the actions of that person.
The people of Ezekiel’s day recited another proverb as well: “God’s way is not right.” Seemingly righteous people came to bad endings, and people who had lived terrible lives seemed to find grace at the end. To this parable, Ezekiel proclaimed that God does not take averages of a life. If a woman is righteous all her life but rejects her goodness and chooses evil in the end, she will be judged by her last orientation. In the same way, Ezekiel said that if a person lives a life of evil but then repents and chooses to do what is right in her last days, God will regard her through this final repentance only. The accumulation of our good or bad deeds doesn’t seem to matter nearly as much as our orientation toward or away from God.
When we witness the repentance of someone else, it is always a miracle of the kingdom of heaven. We are called to join in that miracle of repentance—on the day of our death and every day before as well.
Jesus underlined Ezekiel’s message in his defense of his ministry in the temple by telling a brief parable of two sons. One son said he wouldn’t obey his father, but then he repented and did what his father had asked. The other son initially was willing to obey but chose to disobey his father in the end. Jesus asked which son had truly done the will of the father. Of course, it was the initially disobedient son who repented and chose the right path!
Jesus used his interlocutors’ answer to shame them. If you see people who were initially disobedient choosing to repent and follow God, why would you not also repent and follow God? That’s the question Jesus asks all of us. When God’s Spirit enables repentance and lives are miraculously (I don’t use the word lightly) transformed, what does that inspire in us? Are we initially joyful? Do we roll our eyes and assume there will be backsliding? Or, as I think this passage is calling us to do, do we look to our own lives for what repentance God might be calling us to perform, inspired by what we witness in the lives of others?
Look, we might feel like the folks in the temple talking with Jesus. Of course, the tax collectors and sexually immoral (see note below) need to repent! But my sins aren’t so public, or they somehow grieve God less. In this line of thinking, we cheat ourselves of the opportunity that Jesus is offering. When we witness the repentance of someone else, it is always a miracle of the kingdom of heaven. We are called to join in that miracle of repentance—on the day of our death and every day before as well.
Writer’s note: “Pronē” in the Greek certainly can be translated as “prostitute,” but it is also inclusive of folks who participate in illicit sexual acts, whether for profit or not, reflective of the Hebrew “zana.”
