Revisiting Repentance
Matthew 3: 1-17
Lining the Corridor
Repent…
We have seen many athletes being endorsed by Nike and Adidas. We have seen presidential candidates in the US being endorsed by important people. We see these kinds of endorsements all the time. What you don’t see all that often is a preacher being endorsed by Jesus. That you will only find in the gospels when you read about John the Baptist. Jesus endorsed his preaching in an undeniable way. He asked John to baptize Him. I can hardly think of a greater stamp of approval on John’s ministry than Jesus saying I need to be baptized by this man.
And so, I thought to myself, being a preacher myself, always looking to refine my trade, I better take some notes from this John the Baptist. I did and I was baffled. I really don’t like the tone he started his sermons with. He starts with the word “repent”. I have been taught that the time of turn or burn preaching are over. That to tell people to repent makes you sound judgemental as if you tell people they are vile sinners and not good enough for God. But in Matthew 3 we read that people streamed to John in spite of him opening his sermons in such a judgemental way. They went out into the dessert to listen to him! I bet he had huge white tents with air-conditioning and great kids ministry to compliment him. Or do we perhaps have the wrong connotation with the word “repent”? I guess we need to revisit this term because John didn’t wear suits as nice as mine and air-conditioning weren’t around. It must have been his message itself that drew the crowds.
Repent is the Greek word metanoia. Many sermons have told you before that in its most literal sense this word means to turn, to make a 180 degree turnaround. If you say it to a person, it means you think that person is not at a good place. People hate hearing that. You know why? Because they know it. They feel stuck where they are and they generally try their best to make the best of it and to stay positive. So, you introding into their lives and tell them what they know but try to avoid thinking about, doesn’t go of well…unless. Unless you can give them with this message two other things. The first thing you need to do is to tell them there is a better place for them. The second one is you need to show them that there is a corridor by which they can get to that better place. You have to offer hope for people to be inspired to turn and repent.
Look closely and you will see this is what John did. He tells people to repent. But then he sketches repentance as a response to something new God has just done. He says: “Repent for the Kingdom of God has come near to you”. He doesn’t just say there is a kingdom of God somewhere in heaven when you die. He says it has come near. He is saying through Jesus this Kingdom of God has a corridor. A corridor leading from your current circumstances to a better place you didn’t think existed.
What John does, he is preaching just outside the city in the wilderness. Symbolically he is standing in the corridor. He is lining this corridor, pointing at Jesus who is inviting you to follow Him through it to the other side. Let us consider corridors for a while. Have you noticed how there is always a empty corridor in a horror movie? If there isn’t one, it is a bad horror. Why? Because corridors are scary. There is so much truth in it when people say: “Rather the devil I know than the one I don’t”. It is so hard for us to open up to the possibility that there is a richer life awaiting us. We are afraid of the unknown. It feels very lonely to take those first steps into the corridor of change for the better. That is why horror movies always has an empty corridor. It scares the hell out of us. But in real life scary corridors sometimes also keeps us in the hell we are currently in.
John starts lining the corridor. He tells people the corridor is not empty. There are no enemies waiting to attack you, well maybe some but there is a very good and strong and knowledgeable friend showing you how to get through the corridor.
If I grasp the term repentance like this, its not only something that I feel I can preach, it is something I feel I want to and must preach. Augustine said that he found out to late in his life that God promise forgiveness upon repentance, but he doesn’t promise repentance upon sin. It means to repent is what we must do as a response to the change of heart and the grace offered us in Christ. William Temple said:
“to repent is to adopt God’s viewpoint in place of your own…in itself, far from being sorrowful, it is the most joyful thing in the world, because when you have done it you have adopted the viewpoint of truth itself, and you are in fellowship with God”
Repent! Repent from thinking this is as good as it gets and it is downhill from here. Repent from thinking Jesus is not powerful enough to show you the way out of addiction. Repent from coping and start thriving. Repent from thinking life has no corridors to better places and from thinking those corridors is too long and too lonely for you. Because that is denying that Jesus came to bring newness. How dare we settle for less (I borrowed this sentence partly from Greta Thunberg!).? Advent is the season we prepare ourselves for the newness only Jesus can bring. We do it by opening up to the possibility that there is a better place for us and a way, a corridor to get there. Because Jesus broke through and has never stop breaking through since.
Lining the Corridor
John wasn’t only a very effective and courageous preacher, he was also a guy that wasn’t vague about his role. He saw himself as a pointer, someone that must become less, so that Jesus can become more (we find that in the gospel of John). John told people that he is only lining the corridor. He is but a voice cheering and a finger pointing to the One who leads the way through the corridor, Jesus.
I think this is a beautiful description of what our role as church is. We line corridors. We are the people in this community that believe that because of Jesus, there is hope. There are better possibilities, richer lives awaiting those God calls in Surrey. We cannot carry people there. It is for God to turn hearts and for them to decide to turn direction, but we can line the corridors. You know in what other kind of movie we also always find corridors? In Sports movies. And they are inspiring ones, not scary ones. Why? Because they are lined with fans that cheer the team on as they run through it into glory on the field. The guys in the stands are the cloud of witnesses of people that came before us. We are in the corridor and our role is essential.
How does one line a corridor well? First of all, you don’t fill a corridor with clutter like my son putting his cricket kit in my corridor making his poor family trip over it. You bring as little as possible to the corridor. That is why we read that John lead a life of simplicity. He wore simple, basic clothes, he ate a simple yet healthy Keto diet (ok not Keto but healthy). As humankind we used to live in a time where gathering was essential because scarcity could kill you. You had to gather as much as you can whenever you could. But what saved us in a previous time can now steal life. What will kill now, is the clutter of having too much. We block people from seeing Christ because we are so obsessed with our stuff. Make advent a time where you rid yourself of nonessentials and embrace simplicity.
Secondly, we line corridors well when we root ourselves. John, probably intentionally, looked and acted like Elijah. Jesus himself linked the two. John understood that in a corridor you are part of a line of people, some who came before you and some who will come after you. You shouldn’t be held captive by the traditions of old, but we should also not think God only work in our time and does so only through us. We should listen to the voices of those who came before us. People who lived through World War 2 and the depression for instance has much to teach us when it comes to living simple lives. C.S Lewis teaching was a response to the nihilism people felt after World War 2 and it is so relevant for our time.
Lastly, we line corridors for people well when we are humble. When we truly and honestly become convinced that we really are no better than anybody else. John oozes humility. We tend to think humble people are kind of longsuffering, bland people. We wrongfully think of John the Baptist as a strict and serious man. One of the first things we read about John the Baptist that he leapt for joy in his mother’s womb when the birth of Christ was announced. Humility isn’t something you just achieve by dying of yourself. It is a gift that you behold when you find joy in someone better than you. When you find it in Jesus who although He is better than you in every way, loves you like Himself. Jesus’s love makes you both humble and joyful. Doesn’t the world need more humble, joyful people desperately?
Close
It sometimes strikes me anew that the gospel truth is different. Way different. I basically told you two things. Repent and get out of the way so that Jesus can do what you cannot. Every marketing guru will tell you that is the worst thing you can tell people. What you should tell people is that it is all about them and that they can stay just where they are and what they are. But though this message might prevent people from leaving, it doesn’t help them to find life. I don’t want people just to find their way to our church. I want the people who find their way to this Church to find life in Jesus.
Today we welcome new congregants to our congregation. It is a wonderful thing. People are joining this wonderful mission, this great line of witnesses lining the corridors for humankind to get to a better place by following Jesus.
Let us turn to the Jesus who makes everything new. Let us point to him with everything we have. Let us leap with joy when we reflect on Him coming into our world because you know you find yourself in a womb with a corridor leading to new life, not a prison. Repent!
Amen
Copyright Rev. Gabriel J Snyman