Turn Around — It’s Not Too Late
Wednesday of the First Week in Lent
Jonah 3:1-10; Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 18-19; Luke 11:29-32
When you hear the word repent, what comes to mind?
“Change your evil ways,” like young Carlos Santana sang at Woodstock?
Repent means something very simple:
Turn around. Change direction.
Jonah is the most reluctant prophet in the Bible.
God says: Go east.
Jonah boards a ship and sails west.
God points one way. Jonah runs the other.
Not because he fears failure — but because he fears success.
He knows God is merciful.
If the city turns, God will forgive.
And Jonah does not like that idea.
So before Nineveh repents, Jonah must repent.
West becomes east. Escape becomes obedience.
And then comes the message that would turn the city around:
“Forty days more, and Nineveh will be destroyed.”
No miracles. No spectacle. No emotional soundtrack.
And something shocking happens.
They listen.
The whole city shifts. Even the king steps down from his throne, covers himself in sackcloth, and says:
Maybe God will turn back. Maybe we will not perish.
And they are spared.
Some call the story fiction.
Even if it were, its boldness is breathtaking:
A prophet imagining God forgiving his people’s enemies.
Then comes Psalm 51.
David.
Powerful. Gifted. Chosen.
And guilty.
When confronted, he does not defend himself.
He prays:
“Create in me a clean heart.”
That is repentance.
Not excuses. Not image repair.
A new heart.
Here is the uncomfortable truth.
Many prophets preached for years.
They warned. They pleaded.
Few listened.
But in Jonah’s story, a city hears.
Sometimes strangers turn faster than insiders.
In the Gospel, Jesus says:
The people of Nineveh will rise up in judgment.
Because they listened.
And now, someone greater is here.
But many did not listen.
They chose another path. And history followed.
In the year 70 AD, Jerusalem and the Temple fell.
What if they had turned?
And yet — others did.
Small communities began to grow across the Roman Empire.
No armies. No power. No violence.
Just a different way of living.
And slowly, that way outlasted the empire.
Repentance is about direction.
Nineveh turned. David turned.
What about us?
Jesus still stands before every generation.
The question is not:
Are we bad enough?
The question is:
Are we willing to turn?
Because sometimes the difference between ruin and renewal is simply this:
Listening — and changing course while there is still time.
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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© 2025 Krakus.
Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 (Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial).