The texts of Lent read in Year C show us a God close to his people, to each believer, and especially to sinners. A God near at hand, and patient: full of mercy, he does not resign himself to the wanderings of his children, to their straying, to their falls; his wish is to reconcile all in his Son.
Man's speedy resolve to change his ways, to become a new creature, is the only fitting response to this unwearying patience of God.
Such is the meaning of the gracious delay he accords us:

Go away, and don't sin any more
Jn 8:11