Melting Stony Hearts

Reflection on Revelation 9:20-21 — 11/6/2023

The rest of humankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands or give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their fornication or their thefts.— Revelation 9:20-21

Hannah Arendt once said, “No punishment has ever possessed enough power of deterrence to prevent the commission of crimes. On the contrary, whatever the punishment, once a specific crime has appeared for the first time, its reappearance is more likely than its initial emergence could ever have been.”

That means punishment, rather than leading to repentance and reform, more often leads to repetition. Such was the case in Rev. 9. One would think that after the locust, plagues, and other monstrosities wrought their wickedness upon the earth, people would fall down, eager to repent of their ways. But “they did not.”

Punishment sometimes secures right behavior, but only for a while. All parents know this; you can punish your kids into cleaning their room, but you’ll have to keep on punishing, and in doing so you might actually be forming them into messy children. If you would have them become the kinds of persons who like a clean room, a different approach is necessary.

On one occasion Gandhi discovered that a little boy lied to him. He called the small school together and said, “Boys, I am sorry to find out that one of you is a liar. As punishment I am going off to fast today.”

E. Stanley Jones reflects on this incident with these words:

That may be passed with a smile, but not if you knew the dead earnestness of Gandhi and the sheer moral weight of the man. There could not have been a more terrific punishment, for long after any physical pain from physical punishment would have died away there would persist the spiritual pain from the lashings of conscience awakened by the sufferings of the man who loved them. In the light of Gandhi’s acting thus it becomes easy for them to step up from the thought that if one man would take on himself suffering to bring a boy back from a lie to the truth, then if there were One divine enough and holy enough, he might take on his soul the very sin of a whole race to bring us back to good and to God. The cross thus bursts into meaning when lighted up by this lesser act.

— The Christ of the Indian Road by E. Stanley Jones

The apostle Paul had a keen insight to God’s method of reform when he wrote, “God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.” — Romans 2:4

As Gandhi modeled the ways of God that preferred self-suffering, rather than imposing suffering on others, we can do the same and trust that God, who sees the heart, can also melt the heart, bringing forth repentance.

Gracious God, you have revealed yourself as compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness. Forgive us our obstinacy, melt our hearts again when sin hardens us. Give us a clear vision of Jesus, our suffering savior, that repentance will flow from us as our truest form of praise. Amen.

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