The big message from Jesus in three out of the four gospels is to repent. You have heard that right? “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” If you have spent any time in the New Testament you are familiar with that phrase. Repentance is key to Jesus’ ministry, and you no doubt have heard this word spoken many times in church. But what does it mean? What does it really mean to repent?
We often tie the concept to sin. We tell each other to repent of your sins. From that perspective you might gather that repentance has much to do with getting rid of sin. Or maybe repentance is what you do after sinning as a way of atonement. So is repentance a “one-shot” deal? Do we repent because we have done something wrong and we want to get back in God’s graces?
When navigation systems were just coming out for cars my wife and I tried one out. We were on a trip and the car we were in had one. So we put in where we wanted to go and started driving. We followed every turn it told us to follow, and finally ended up at our destination: a hot dog vendor. Only we didn’t want hot dogs, and we had not told the system to go there. We both had a good laugh after we realized what happened. The system was in some sort of demonstration mode. It wasn’t really taking us to where we wanted to go.
Nowadays we all have GPS directions available to us from our phones. And they do a pretty good job of getting us where we want to go. But what happens if you choose not to follow the steps it lays out for you? Have you ever decided not to make a turn that the system told you to take? If you do this the program will most likely tell you to turn around to get to the next step. If you continue to go against its directions a different thing happens. Mess up enough and the phone will re-route you, often giving you new directions to get to the place you wanted to go.
The thing about those navigation programs is that they are constantly evaluating your progress. They don’t just get directions at the beginning and let you do the rest. Your path is monitored so that updated instructions, if necessary, can come to you.
I think this is a far better model of repentance. Jesus’ preachings are a call to align yourself to God’s will. That is not really the kind of thing that you can do once. It’s not even the kind of thing that you should do only when you make a mistake. Jesus want a continual evaluation. Where are you? Where are you going? How are you going to get there? Those questions should be asked everyday, not just at milestone moments.
I think when you ask those questions you will understand that the call to be a Christian only really has meaning in terms of community. It would be pretty hard to actually practice your faith on a deserted island, surrounded by no one. Jesus shows us this quite often, starting with his choice of disciples. Fisherman play a large role in the ones who got called. You may think of fisherman as isolated individuals, but that wasn’t really the case. There were people who made the nets and maintained the nets after a catch. Other suppliers were needed for boat building and repair and for sails and anchors. Often a fishing enterprise was a family affair, and the people who brought home fish for a living belonged to a syndicate who processed the fish and handled the taxes. Hired laborers were also common. Fishing was a community profession. And Jesus called people to be fishers of men. The implication is that this will also be a community project. Jesus’ way will cause you to interact with people, meeting them where they were and teaching them the meaning of repentance.
When viewed from the perspective of community, repentance forces us to ask slightly different questions: What are your relationships like? What should they be? How are you going to make them better? And continual repentance means we are always evaluating, always asking ourselves those questions.
The “Great commandment” backs up this way of thinking:
Matthew 22:36-40
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Jesus seems to be telling us two things here:
Have a right relationship with God.
Prove it by having a right relationship with others.
The call for repentance is a continual call to align ourselves with God’s will. The challenge is to do this in terms of our relationships. This is what the Kingdom of God is really all about.
God Bless