The word “repent” has a bad reputation. We associate it with angry street preachers who berate us of our “immorality” and tell us to get our hearts right or we’ll burn. None of us likes being told we’re wrong. Doubly so when the person telling us we’re wrong may just as easily be convicted of the same crime.

Often, we dismiss these invitations to change as a matter of tone — as in, they aren’t asking very nicely and we aren’t in the mood to listen to them. If they asked nicely, we might consider it. Except we probably still wouldn’t.

When Jesus tells us we need to repent, he’s doing so, not from a place of virtue, as the street preachers who assert that they are inherently without sin, that they have overcome this and stand above it, but from a place of wisdom which says we all need to change, that we all need second chances, and that it isn’t too late to do it now.