Missing the Mark

Twice the passage tells us of believers coming to Jesus to repent. Twice it mentions believers coming to beg forgiveness for their sins. Twice it tells us of those who come before God, and cares to mention their humility; they admit to where they have gone wrong, they admit to their “sin”.

Sin is not just our slip ups. It’s not just the momentary giving into temptation; the coveting, the slander, the jealousy and strife, the bitterness and malice. Sin is not just momentary. In fact, the common Greek word for sin used in the New Testament is “hamartia”. This is a word derived from a technical word used in archery, meaning to miss the mark. So hamartia is not just the momentary slip up, but also existential “missing the mark”. Our hamartia, our sin, is often a longterm missing the mark - the arrow that misses the bullseye. 

We might ask ourselves: in what way are we missing the mark? In what way is the arrow missing the bullseye? Where is my life orientated away from God’s kingdom? Where is my attention devoted, where does our heart lie? 

Oftentimes; it’s not clear to us, what is going wrong, the way forward is obstructed and obscure, our sin is deep in rationalisations and barriers defensiveness. So it’s difficult to discern just how we’re missing the mark. It’s difficult to discern the best way of building God’s kingdom forward. The passage reminds us that difficulty isn’t unique to us; the same issue faced the people described in the Gospels too. 

Elsewhere, in the book of Luke, when crowds of people ask John the baptist : “what shall we do” he responds quite plainly: “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” Tax collectors also came to be baptised and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorised to do.” Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”’

Later on, Jesus would tell something similar: “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”