Jesus called people to repent and believe in him. What is repentance?

Well, consider Zakias in Luke chapter 19. He was a short man and usually people in crowds don't mind short people standing in front of them,

but Zikeia, we're told, has to climb a tree to get a glimpse of Jesus.

Why? Because people hated him. They wouldn't let him through and that's because he was a tax

collector. I know you probably didn't tune in to hear me talk about taxation. Do bear with me.

When the Romans took over a city 2,000 years ago, they wanted to tax it, and tax it heavily. So what they would do is they would hire a native, somebody who lived there who knew the place inside out,

someone who could make sure that nobody was hiding any of their earnings from the occupying Roman

forces. And the Romans would say to these tax collectors, here's how much we want and you can

keep anything you want beyond that.

And the Romans would even provide soldiers to enforce whatever the tax collector demanded from people.

So somebody like Zakias was hated.

He was seen not only as a thief, but also as a traitor to his friends, his family, his people.

But then Zakius meets Jesus.

And he joyfully responds to Jesus' request to come to his home.

And Zakia says to him, behold Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I've defrauded

anyone of anything, I restore it forefold. That's what repentance looks like. It's a realization of the

seriousness of our sin. It's a joyful realization of God's mercy in Christ. It's a turning from our sin in disgust and a turning towards

obedience, whatever that obedience costs. It's a visible sign that we are truly saved.

As Jesus says to Zekas when he hears what Zakias plans to do,

today salvation has come to this house. The Greek word for repentance is metanoia, which literally means to change one's mind,

but it's not a fickle thing the way that we might change our mind on something,, change it back again.

It's a transformation of outlook,

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