If You Don’t Recognize Yourself as a Sinner…

7 March 2026  Micah 7:14-15, 18-20

Saturday of the Second Week in Lent

“He does not retain His anger forever because He delights in mercy.”

(Micah 7:18)

All those who do not see that God is intensely focused on mercy, forgiveness, and compassion are missing the most important thing about God. If they don’t see that, they can’t possibly recognize the most important thing about Jesus. Mercy was the first and last thing on His mind – he stood with sinners in the Jordan River (cf. Matthew 3:13-17), lifted up the Prodigal Son in His most important parable (Luke 15:11-32), and from the cross prayed, “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do” (cf. Luke 23:34).

Mercy is the most important news in the Good News.

We can only recognize a God of Mercy, however, if we recognize ourselves as people twisted and distorted by sin. Who pays attention to mercy but sinners?

We all want mercy. We don’t all want to regard ourselves as sinners. We really don’t want to say our sins out loud to someone else. The cost of that is to miss the most important thing about God.

If we don’t recognize ourselves as sinners, then we are like the older brother in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, who regarded divine mercy with anger and resentment: “But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf” (Luke 15:30). Mercy is a word snarled and not prayed for people like that.

If we don’t recognize ourselves as sinners, then we are like the older brother in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, who regarded divine mercy with anger and resentment: “But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf” (Luke 15:30). Mercy is a word snarled and not prayed for people like that.

If we don’t recognize ourselves as sinners, we are like the Rich Young Ruler, who feared the loss of his possessions more than he wanted salvation, and walked away from mercy with sadness and rejection. Mercy is absurd as a camel going through the eye of a needle for people like that (cf. Luke 18:18-25).

If we don’t recognize ourselves as sinners, we are like the many who said to Jesus, “We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets” (Luke 13:26), and never understood that proximity to Jesus is not the same as a relationship with Jesus, never understood that nearness and indifference can go hand in hand. Mercy is a word shrouded in confusion for people like that.

If we don’t see ourselves as twisted by sin, we miss the most important thing about God, viz. His mercy, which is to say we miss salvation.

The words “university,” “conversation,” and “conversion” all have in common the Latin verb vertor, which means “to turn.” “University” means “a turning toward the One,” a recognition that Truth is just one thing, and the purpose of life is to turn toward it. “Conversation” means “a turning toward the Other” to be truly and deeply attentive to what is good and true in the Other. “Conversion” means “to turn all the way around,” recognizing that you are facing the wrong way and correction means stopping and reversing course, the way you have to turn all the way around to correct an error in long division, going back to where the error was made and starting over. All of these things are implied in recognizing ourselves as sinners, without hope except in the mercy of God, recognizing God as, above all a God of mercy.

We all want mercy. We don’t all want to regard ourselves as sinners. We really don’t want to say our sins out loud to someone else. The cost of that is to miss the most important thing about God.

How much do you want mercy?