Looking at the snippets of sermons that we have from both John the Baptist and Jesus, they have one thing in common: the pronouncement of God's kingdom demands a response. They called that response "repentance," which literally means to turn around, move the other way.
Talking with a fellow IV staffer the other day about what we expect people to do with our teaching. We more or less expect people to consider, ponder, muse, ruminate.
But repentance is not ruminating. Cows ruminate. They chew grass, it goes down to one stomach to churn around for a bit, then they spit it back up, and chew it up some more.
This is roughly what most of us do when we hear the gospel/when hear something spoken to us as the truth...if we give it any thought at all.
But repentance is life change. Not thinking about life change, not regurgitating half-digested truths occasionally for further consideration. Repentance is doing life change.
Jesus' radical message was not intended as another item on the buffet-line of ideas or possible ways to live your life. It was something that demanded a response.
Repentance or rejection are demanded of us when confronted with the ultimate truth-claims of Jesus. Certainly we must consider carefully. Much is at stake.
But Jesus invitation was not a soft-pitched one. He comes strong: "Repent!" Not "Think about repenting when it's convenient for you!
1 comment:
Well said.
There is way too little mention, let alone emphasis, of repentance in much contemporary protestantism.
Churches are pandering to the Culture, which believes the only way to love someone is to affirm them blindly. One of the witnessing/preaching hurdles we face is that people are offended by a God who doesn't love them "just the way they are" (including the sin).
But I'm sure I don't have to tell you...!
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