Lent 4 Newsletter Reflection
In this week’s scriptures, we overhear two very different “confessions.”
In John 18, Jesus stands before Pilate and speaks a quiet, steady truth: “For this I was born… to testify to the truth.” His confession is not a list of wrongs but a revelation of who he is—one whose kingdom is shaped not by force, but by truth, mercy, and self‑giving love.
Then in 1 Timothy 6, Paul reminds the church of their calling: “Fight the good fight of the faith… take hold of the eternal life… for which you made the good confession.” A good confession, Paul suggests, is not merely admitting where we’ve fallen short. It is courageously naming the One we belong to and the life we are striving to live.
During Lent, confession often gets reduced to guilt management. But the scriptures invite something deeper and more life‑giving. A good confession is an act of alignment. It is the moment we stop pretending, stop performing, and speak honestly—about our failures, yes, but also about our hopes, our commitments, and the truth we want to shape us.
To make a good confession is to stand, like Jesus, in the light of God’s presence and say:
This is who I am. This is who I long to become. And this is the One I trust to lead me there.
Lent gives us space to practice this kind of honesty. Not to shame us, but to free us. Not to weigh us down, but to help us “take hold of the life that really is life.”
May this season teach us the courage of a good confession—spoken with humility, grounded in truth, and held in the mercy of God.
Pastor Greg
