Coming Home
Is it possible to give up all chances to be forgiven?
See to it that no one becomes like Esau, an immoral and godless person, who sold his birthright for a single meal. You know that later, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, even though he sought the blessing with tears. - Hebrews 12:16-17
In today's reading form the Letter to the Hebrews, it sounds like Esau sought repentance and was denied, but that would go against all we believe about God as taught to us by Jesus.
Where is the father in the Parable of the Prodigal? Where is the man running to the child who has come home?
In reading many of the commentaries on this topic, I was surprised to find that some indicated that Esau could not gain redemption because he had rejected his birthright and thus blasphemed against the Spirit, rejecting God.
While that may be true, and Jesus does say that...
Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men (Matthew 12:31).
I'm not so sure that Esau's situation is one of being rejected from repentance.
What caused Esau to shed tears was the failure to receive his father's blessing, having been tricked out of it by his brother Jacob.
Now we can argue which brother is more deserving of God's blessing, and there is a good possibility we would have good arguments on both sides, and I think that is the point.
No matter what we do, there is an opportunity to come back to God and redeem ourselves.
That's the good news in all of this, but it leaves us with the one possibility that could fail, blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
I think the best way to describe this one is to call on Charles Schultz and his depiction of the conflict between Lucy and Charlie over the football.
Every time Charlie Brown trusts Lucy to hold the ball for him to kick it, she pulls it away at the last moment and he falls.
Some day, we hope, she will leave the ball in place and redeem herself, but that day never comes.
It's not a perfect example, but it works for this weekend and I like it.
More to come...