Year B, 1 Epiphany, Mark 1: 4-11
UNEDITED
[4] John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
[5] And there went out to him all the country of Judea, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
[6] Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, and had a leather girdle around his waist, and ate locusts and wild honey.
[7] And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.
[8] I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
[9] In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
[10] And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove;
[11] and a voice came from heaven, “Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased.”
John the Baptist is not the kind of guy you would invite to a cocktail party. He is awkward and he is going to talk about the very things you shouldn’t talk about at cocktail parties. But at the same time there’s something appealing about him. A friend once introduced me to another person at a cocktail party and said, ‘This is Andrew Pearson, he’s a minister, but you’d never know it.’ My reaction, to this day, is that it was refreshingly offensive. I think I understand what my friend was trying to say, but there is no mistaking what John the Baptist was about—repentance.
Though his message may not have been popular among some, popular he was. They came out into the wilderness in droves to be baptized by him in the River Jordan. This was not a tent revival on the edge of town – he was out there. I think the reason why he ate locusts and wild honey was because that’s all there was to eat. The wilderness where he baptized is about an eleven-hour walk from Jerusalem, down the road that leads from Jerusalem to Jericho, known as the valley of the shadow of death, of the parable of the Good Samaritan fame. But they came to hear this prophet, to repent, and be baptized by him.
Repentance is an oft-misunderstood word in the world and in the church. What is it that these people thought they were doing when they came out to repent and be baptized? What does repentance mean for us?
I think these are important questions because ‘repentance’ in the minds of many people is not the biblical idea of repentance, and can absolutely wreck a person. And the key to understanding what repentance is is the Greek word used here in this text which is metanoia. You aren’t going to have to remember that, but you are going to need to remember what it means. It means to have your mind changed. It means that you have done a 180 in regard to what you once thought was true. And in the case of repentance, it means that you are brought to a place wheew you acknowledge that God’s judgment about you is accurate and yours about you is wrong. This is not how most people think of repentance.
Most people think that repentance is a way to right your life, to get back on track, to feel really bad about something that you’ve done, to make things right with others, including God. And if you look up ‘repentance’ on Wikipedia, this is what you will read. Repentance is something that we must do in order to satisfy God, and thereby merit his favor and goodness towards us.
This understanding of repentance is what leads people to think things like, ‘If things are going bad, I must have done something wrong.’ Or, ‘If I’m extra good; if I go to church, say my prayers, and read my Bible, then a positive outcome is guaranteed for me.’
But repentance is not about straightening up or reforming your life. Repentance is not about getting right with God, turning over a new leaf, or trying to squash bad habits, this is reformation of life and reformation of life is merely an outward change. Repentance is the work of God in the soul.’[i]
When I was in college I was having some car problems and so I asked the guys I lived with if they had any recommendations on where to get my car fixed. One of them quickly said to the guy sitting next to him, ‘I don’t need a mechanic, what I need is a car.’ Those who are out in the wilderness don’t need to have their lives repaired, they need a new life. Reforming your life is like car repairing. Repentance is the recognition of the lack of a car. Repentance, therefore, ‘is not doing anything.’[ii]
Repentance too is more than just feeling bad about sin. A New Yorker cartoon was recently passed on to me that has a guy walking into a flower shop and with a scowl and he says to the florist, “I need something that says, ‘I’m sorry about that thing I said that caused you to totally overreact.’” In our day and age we are quick to apologize when we have been caught or when we are sorry for the consequences of our actions, but not necessarily for what we have done. ‘I am sorry for what happened; I didn’t mean to hurt anybody.’
What John the Baptist is doing in the wilderness is making sure nobody gets off the hook. His job is to ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight’ (Mark 1:3). John the Baptist is out to destroy any self-righteous understanding of repentance and salvation. If you think you can do it, John the Baptist is in the business of using the Law to absolutely crush you, you brood of vipers. And then to turn you to the savior, who is Jesus Christ.
Repentance is the product of salvation. It takes God to intervene in your life in order to bring you to repentance. ‘Grace is God’s unmerited favor to those who have merited the very opposite. Repentance is the sinner’s recognition of and acknowledgement of [your] lost condition and, thus, of [your] need of grace’[iii]
Repentance is not something that you can do and it is not just something that you feel it is to have your mind changed so that you can say that God’s judgment about you is accurate and yours about you is wrong. It turns out that as a Christian, repentance is something that happens a lot. Tim Keller writes this:
Martin Luther opened the Reformation by nailing ‘The Ninety-Five Theses’ to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral. The very first of the theses was: ‘Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ…willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.’ On the surface this looks a little bleak! Luther seems to be saying Christians will never be making much progress. But of course that wasn’t Luther’s point at all. He was saying that repentance is the way we make progress in the Christian life. Indeed, pervasive, all-of-life-repentance is the best sign that we are growing deeply and rapidly into the character of Jesus.[iv]
When we are crushed by the Law, when we are under the ministry of John the Baptist and we are commanded to repent, this ministry begins to do its work and by the power of the Holy Spirit, our hearts are turned toward him who proclaims you as righteous even when you are not.
And Jesus does not do this from a faraway place. He comes into the wilderness himself. If John’s baptism was about repentance then why was Jesus baptized? ‘He would fulfill all righteousness and show that God’s law is really valid. Yet at the same time He would make it possible for all those who had broken the law to be liberated from their guilt.
That’s why Jesus also wanted to be baptized. It means he identified himself with guilt-ridden humanity. He didn’t put himself above us, although he could have. On the contrary, he subjected himself to judgment. He [did the] penance and made our burdens and guilt his own.’[v] Jesus is there in the wilderness. He is not in Jerusalem; he doesn’t dwell in the Temple. He’s not going to be found at a special retreat center. He is just as present in the wilderness as he is in those times when things are going well. His Lordship is not confined by the geography of the heart or by life’s circumstances. He has entered into the equation and the result is that its sum has fallen upon him. He has taken on the consequences.
This morning, if you are in the wilderness and crushed by the load of your sin, if you are left in despair over your condition as a human being, and you are looking to Jesus for salvation, this is the work of the Spirit in you.
Come ye Sinners Poor and Needy
Let not conscience make you linger,
Nor of fitness fondly dream,
All the fitness He requireth
Is to feel your need of Him.
This He gives you,
’Tis the Spirit’s rising beam.’[vi]
Almighty God, change our hearts so that we might turn to you. For in our strength we cannot amend our lives, only realize daily our need of you. In your Law we see that we are not what we want to be or ought to be, and so Lord Jesus, we come to you, miserable offenders, empty handed, with nothing to bring you but our sins, and yet we come with boldness because of your great love for us. By your Holy Spirit, we repent. Change us Lord. AMEN.
Bibliography
Eliot, George, ‘Janet’s Repentance’ in Scenes of Clerical Life, OUP (Oxford, 1985).
Giertz, Bo, To Live with Christ, Concordia, (St. Louis, 2008).
Ironside, H.A., Unless You Repent, Gospel Folio Press, (West Port Colborne, 1994)
‘All of Life is Repentance’ by Tim Keller, (www.redeemer.com).
Lane, William, ‘The Gospel of Mark’ in The NICNT, Eerdmans , (Grand Rapids, 1974).
Ryle, J.C., ‘Mark’ in The CCC, McGrath and Packer, eds., Crossway (Wheaton, 1993).
The White Horse Inn, Repentance and Personal Transformation, November 26, 2011.
[i] Ironside, H.A., Unless You Repent, Gospel Folio Press, (West Port Colborne, 1994), 18.
[ii] Ibid, 19.
[iii] Ibid, 16.
[iv] ‘All of Life is Repentance’ by Tim Keller, www.redeemer.com, 1.
[v] Giertz, Bo, To Live with Christ, Concordia, (St. Louis, 2008), 87.
[vi] Come Ye Sinners Poor and Needy by J. Hart
