God's verse hits us with both sweet and sour

By John Pearring

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022021.cfm
Isaiah 58:9-14
Luke 5:27-32

The little tidbit of a verse that opens our Gospel for Saturday’s readings presents an important insight about God. He wants us to succeed.

I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, says the Lord,
but rather in his conversion, that he may live.
Ezekiel 33:11

It’s not much of an intellectual theological treatise, if that’s what you’re looking for in statements from God. At first. Very quickly, though, the sense of who God is explodes. It’s like a lemon drop. When you pop one into your mouth the sugar attracts our attention right away. Those little brush of crystals rubbed into the surface keep the hard candy in place. And then, the lemon flares out like it’s a planned surprise.

For me, that surprise happens every time. I know it’s going to happen, but it’s a jolt nonetheless. Great stuff, those lemon drops. Like God, we can expect them to deliver.

Also like God, lemon drops have been around for a long time. Folks everywhere have enjoyed them and their awakening, a mix of sweet and sour, in a sugary and lemony burst. Ezekiel wrote this similarly sweet/sour verse given from God late in Hebrew scriptures, somewhere between 570 and 590 BC. I think that’s just about the time of the invention of lemon drops. I have no evidence. Wikipedia says early 1800's. My guess on timing could be off by more than three thousand years. But, hey. This verse from Ezekiel is the equivalent of a lemon drop verse.

First, God clarifies any notion that a wicked man’s demise fulfills some kind of divine gratification with a clear and definitive “I take no pleasure …” Not that there’s a lot of thinking out there that God is a cranky God. Just enough thinking for God to make a point of catching our attention. God is not nefarious. Sweet and sour. He wants us to succeed. Many of us, however, may choose wickedness.

Second, the Lord is quoted saying this verse. God made sure Ezekiel heard this, and was prompted to include the insight about God's desire for us in his 33rd chapter. Well, to be clear, the editors of Ezekiel’s writings were prompted in that way. More sweet and sour. With the Hebrews ultimately getting the horrifying punishment of the destruction of their temple and their exile from Israel, the tribe of Judah begins to take the stage as the premiere remnant of the Hebrew people. Wickedness and hardened hearts are the reason for God’s allowance of the terror and humiliation, and eventual dispersion of the tribal foundations. 

Conversion is God's purpose, Ezekiel states. His purpose is not wrath, like we’d imagine as an unbridled emotion. God doesn't operate unbridled. God invokes sourness upon the Hebrew people’s nation in order to turn them sweetly back to him. Ezekiel protested the upcoming difficulties, which included slaughter. This is not like Abraham, or Moses’ pleas. God does not relent. This is historical judgment.

God wants the Israelites to convert from their promiscuous, rebellious and violent path. 

And so here we are in Lent. With so much focus on re-evaluating our sinful ways, and yearning for holiness, we can take heart. The sourness of our sin can be sweet with our repentance. 

He will renew your strength,
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring whose water never fails.
Isaiah 59:11

God's faithfulness is akin to a long awaited lemon drop. After just a few seconds, when we finally taste it, we can feel that familiar pleasure — his desire that we return to him.

Yum.