Robert Frost told us that he would traverse the road less traveled I wonder if he did. There is always a road though isn’t there? An autobahn speeding concentrated speed demons from one place to another, or a barren desert roads between Salt Lake City and well anywhere. No matter what we do we are always on some type of road even if we pull over to the side for a smoke break we are still on the road just not moving and before to long we stamp out the slow burning light of yesterdays progress and move ahead of smoke driven mechanisms.
And there in and of itself is the deep metaphysical purpose. There is a road and it looks little like the roads most traversed, we know it as little more then the pilgrims’ way. It is slow of progress and saturated in the ponderings of wiser men then we. This road leads nowhere we know but we do know it meanders down the deep pacific blue, and all suspect it will go somewhere wonderful.
When you think of the word repent what comes to mind first; an angry street preacher spitting flies into driving cars and carrying a sixteen foot cross condemning the world and spouting STDs as consequences, or do you think of a gracious, benevolent, loving Jesus. I guess it all depends on who you are and what you know the definition and consequence of repentance to be. For much of the world it seems that people think of repentance as just a notch above getting fired, something that equals religiosity and the loss of all fun and excitement.
I’m not sure where these presuppositions surrounding repentance developed but let me be the first to tell you that if you believe repentance to be the beginning of a boring existence your wrong. When Jesus spoke of repentance He spoke of something beautiful, an act where we stop living in one kingdom and begin to live in another one.
In fact when we see the word repentance it is generally right after we have just heard something about the kingdom of God. “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand,” repent for the kingdom of Jesus is about to break lose on the world. The reason John the Baptizer and Jesus taught this way was because of what they knew the kingdom of God to be, something different, something beautiful, something counter-cultural.
The difference and the beauty of the kingdom is wrapped up in the lifestyle of its citizens, a people group who have no boarders but exist throughout the world and yet still hold allegiance to one another and Christ above all. A people group who are following the example of their leader the slaughtered lamb and dying everyday for people who don’t know and don’t love them. These people put no stock in material wealth but sell their belongings as needed to provided for the needs their communities. This is the beautiful difference that is the kingdom of Jesus, the kingdom of God.
It makes sense then why Jesus and John would have taught repentance after talking about the kingdom of God because to repent means to turn. To turn from the old lifestyle to give up the ways of the word and to live a different kind of life. Often when we think of repentance I think we think of a prayer and a few choice words that we say to God and maybe it is partially that but it is so much more, to repent is to live differently and that kind of repentance is beautiful and radical.
I wonder if the street preacher who is spitting flies and spouting STDs knows that he’s ruining the beauty of repentance. Because he is and what Christ offered looked different it was an invitation to be apart of a beautiful story and a beautiful kingdom that thrived in the midst of the kingdoms of the world.
