Restitution

"And he shall make restitution for the holy thing he has defiled.” Leviticus 5:16

A woman once went to her pastor and confessed to the sin of gossip. “God has forgiven me, hasn’t He? I asked Him to forgive me,” she asked.

“Certainly God has forgiven you,” the pastor assured her, “and you didn’t have to tell me of your sin if you didn’t want to. But in telling me, you can get help to make amends.”

"Make amends? What do you mean?” She asked. “It’s not like I really hurt anyone.”

The pastor asked her to do something for him. He gave her a feather pillow and instructed her to take it to a cliff. Once there, she was to rip it open and shake it vigorously. The woman did as she was told. The next morning she returned.

“Now I want you to go gather up all those feathers,” the pastor said quietly.

The woman gasped at the enormity of the task. “But pastor! That’s impossible! The winds have taken those feathers and blown them all over creation!”

He paused, then asked “What do you think happens to all those little words you whisper about people? Where do you think they all go?”

She hung her head. “All over creation,” she whispered.

We may be quick to say “Sorry” when we do wrong. But we should be quicker to make amends. Speech is practically worthless if not accompanied by appropriate action.

A pastor and a soap maker went for a walk together. The soap maker said, “What good is religion? Look at all the trouble and misery of the world! Still there, even after years – thousands of years – of teaching about goodness and truth and peace. Still there, after all the prayers and sermons and teachings. If religion is good and true, why should this be?”

The pastor said nothing. They continued walking until he noticed a child playing in the gutter. Then the pastor said, “Look at that child. You say that soap makes people clean, but see the dirt on that youngster? Of what good is soap? With all the soap in the world, over all these years, the child is still filthy. I wonder how effective soap is, after all!”

The soap maker protested. “But, Pastor, soap cannot do any good unless it is used!”

"Exactly!” replied the Pastor.

What good is our apology if it is not accompanied by appropriate action? How is the person to know we really mean what we say? They cannot judge us on our words alone for they cannot read our hearts to determine our sincerity. The only thing that is truly meaningful to the other person is action. Remember Zacchaeus? What was his response after his encounter with Christ? “If I have overcharged people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!”

Only then did Christ respond, “Salvation has come to this home today…”