Passage: This Week's Second Reading

"Repentance and Faith"

All three of our readings this morning have one common theme. They all have a sense of or cause a feeling of urgency. Jonah went a days walk, one third of the distance through the big city of Nineveh, and the Word of the Lord quickly accomplished the purpose of Jonah’s visit. Before Jonah even got a good start on his mission, the city believed God, proclaimed a fast, and turned from their evil ways.

And in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he encourages the Corinthians not to be consumed with the things of this world. He writes; "The appointed time has grown short. The present form of this world is passing away." You could get the impression from those words that the Last Day could arrive at any second. And it might, but Paul wrote those words about 1,950 years ago.

And in our Gospel lesson, we get the account of Jesus calling four of his disciples. And we read that they "immediately" responded to his call. We also get a powerful verse in verse fifteen; Jesus said "The time has come. The Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" Sounds like something that needs to happen right now.

Now, on it’s face, that verse may not seem all that important. But let’s look at it a little closer. Jesus goes to Galilee after John the Baptist’s arrest. He didn’t go there to escape from Herod. He wasn’t running away from danger. Instead of being at the center of the publicity he would get in Jerusalem, Jesus went to the Jewish province that was farthest from Jerusalem. Jesus had a lot of work to do, a lot to teach, and lives to touch. Jesus had to give us a larger glimpse of God’s love for us through his life and ministry.

"The Kingdom of God" is one of the primary concepts in the New Testament. Matthew uses it a few times, or calls it "the kingdom of the heavens." But this grand biblical concept cannot be defined by comparing it to earthly kingdoms. The greatest earthly kingdoms are merely imperfect shadows of God’s kingdom. And anywhere God is, there too is his power and grace.

This divine kingdom goes back to the beginning of time, and rules the world, and will continue to rule it until the end of time as we know it. Everything in the world yields to the power of God and the will of God. There are two parts to this kingdom. One part is the kingdom before Christ, which looked forward to His coming. That is the part from Adam and the people of Israel, until the birth of Christ. The second part is the kingdom after Christ, looking back at his coming, right up to the present time. That kingdom is the church, waiting and watching for Christ to come again.

With this understanding of the kingdom, we can see what Jesus means when he says "the kingdom of God is near." Jesus has come and by revealing himself to us with power and grace as the Messiah, and by completing his redemptive work, he stands as the King of salvation. Since the kingdom is present in the person of Jesus Christ, you would think that everyone would want to be a part of his kingdom.

But it seems that there are two requirements; repentance and faith. Jesus repeats the call of John the Baptist. "Repent and believe in the good news!" It’s a simple message of Law and Gospel. Repentance in the narrow sense is contrition and sorrow of the heart for sin. The Greek verb μεταvοια (metanoia) is one of the most important concepts of the New Testament. It is a repentance that not only includes a 180 degree change of mind; it also refers to a religious change of heart which turns from sin and guilt to cleansing and forgiveness by God’s grace.

How much do we struggle with this change of heart and mind? Our Old Adam’s would much rather remain in our old sinful ways. We would by nature rather lead lives filled with debauchery and every kind of evil, and trust in ourselves for everything, than live lives of faith and trust in God. Jesus called on his hearers to turn away from their lives of sin, to be sorry they had fallen away from God, and to trust in him as their only source of forgiveness. Now is the time to put sin away.

Surely we say, that’s the good news that mankind needs. But how was Jesus going to get that word out? He was only one man, and he was in a constant battle with the religious leaders of the Jews. He was an ordinary man in a pagan world, a world that had a god for pretty much everything. How could Jesus get out the message that the kingdom of God was here in human flesh, and still complete his mission of salvation?

He was going to need some help. And that help would come from the men that immediately followed him, and became his disciples. There was some urgency to what had to be accomplished. Jesus had about three years to do everything he needed to get done. Out text says that the response from Simon, Andrew, James and John was immediate. When Jesus called, they were ready to follow him.

The practical side of Jesus’ mission required the help and participation of others. He didn’t wait for them to come to him but at the outset of his ministry spent some time going after candidates, most of whom were nothing like himself.

If the call of the first disciples is any indication, Jesus wasn’t looking for experts in religious discourse, cheerleaders who would be part of an entourage, role models of high moral character and religious piety or techies versed in communication theory and practice. He doesn’t go headhunting at the local synagogue or collect resumes from Jerusalem.

Instead, he goes to the lakeshore reeking with the stink of fish, and begins by inviting some fishermen to be on his team. While the text gives us no indication of the specific roles Jesus was looking for in Simon, Andrew, James and John, we can get a clue at least about the basic character of the disciples he was calling and, indeed, still calls today.

Before we go there, though, we have to remember that any entrepreneurial venture worth its salt begins with a solid mission statement. We find that statement in verse 15 of our text; "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel." The time is now, God is here, change your ways and believe the good news.

The announcement of the kingdom would have sounded both exciting and dangerous to those hearing Jesus by the Galilean lake. It was exciting because it meant that God was going to act decisively on Israel’s behalf, but dangerous because that meant a challenge to the prevailing Roman authority. In fact, for many first-century Jews, "kingdom of God" was a revolutionary slogan that presaged violent revolt against Roman power. Jesus, however, would use that slogan quite differently. Indeed, for Jesus, the coming kingdom was a sign that God was going to do something on behalf of all of creation, redeeming God’s people from sin, making outsiders to be insiders and decisively defeating evil and death. That was the "good news" that required a response.

A response seems to be what Jesus was looking for as he came to the lakeshore. He was doing his own "fishing" for people when he came upon Simon and Andrew, and invited them to join him in his work. James and John were next, leaving their undoubtedly astounded father by the boats with the hired help as they, too, set out after Jesus. Traditionally, many readers of the gospels assume that these fishermen were poor, destitute individuals with nothing to lose who follow Jesus to try and break the monotony of their everyday lives.

But a close reading of Mark reveals quite a different scene. The truth is that these four fishermen were likely quite prosperous. We learn later that Simon and Andrew had a house and an extended family (Mark 1:29-31) and that James and John, along with their father Zebedee, were wealthy enough to be able to hire additional help for their fishing business. Chances are that with this kind of background these men may have had some education. These weren’t desperate drifters with nothing to lose, but well-established businessmen in a culture where prosperity and family were everything. Following Jesus, then, was no small

disruption of their lives but a complete change of course. Throwing in with Jesus meant throwing out their security, their reputations and their livelihoods.

Jesus wasn’t going to try to evangelize the whole world single-handedly. He was thinking ahead to a kingdom that would be established after his work was finished. He was thinking ahead to the kingdom called the Church.

When you look at the call of all the disciples, it’s easy to miss the fact that Jesus is all about disrupting our normal lives. The announcement of the kingdom was a proclamation that everything was changing. Later, these same disciples would be accused of "turning the world upside down" through their preaching and activity in the name of Jesus (Acts 17:6). Being a disciple means being willing to drop our own agendas and get on board with the kingdom agenda of Jesus. We’re not called to simply be advisers and supporters of Jesus, but true "friends" and investors who stake our lives and livelihoods on his vision for the world.

Business, wealth, family, all became secondary to following Jesus and becoming fishers of men. Following Christ became their only purpose in life. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, the same faith that filled their hearts also fills ours. Christ can be first in our lives too, but we need a change of heart and a change of mind. We need our sin to show us that we need a Savior, and when we come to that realization, that is when faith begins in our hearts.

Here in the person of Jesus was light for a people living in darkness, and hope for those sitting in the shadow of death. Jesus was the Good News sent by God. Jesus was the One who would defeat darkness and death. But that victory would cost him his life. It would require the blood sacrifice that had been foreshadowed by all the sacrifices made on Jewish altars. It would require the blood of the spotless, sinless, Sacrificial Lamb.

That blood, shed on the cross of Calvary, defeated the destruction and eternal death that our sins deserved. That blood turned away the wrath of God. Through faith in the sacrifice made by Christ on the cross, God sees us as his children and has compassion on us.

Connected through our Baptisms to Christ and his death and resurrection, we need not fear death. Just as Christ rose to eternal life, we too shall rise and share that eternal life as kings and lords in the kingdom of heaven. Earthly kingdoms rise and fall, and earthly kings are nothing without their subjects. But in reality, we aren’t subjects in God’s kingdom. We are part of God’s kingdom. We will each have a crown, with Christ as the King of kings and Lord of lords; we shall be kings and lords in a kingdom of where everyone is a king.

But time is growing short. Jesus is calling to each of us. He needs men and women to be "fishers of men." We need to get the word out that the Kingdom of heaven is near, and that it’s time to repent and believe the good news.

Through the Holy Spirit working in our hearts, the realization of our sin and the realization that we can’t save ourselves has shown us our need for a Savior. We have repented and we believe. The sin in the world around us shows us the need that the rest of the world has for that same Savior. By the power of the Holy Spirit, God has called each of us. He has called us firstly to be his children.

He has also called us to be Ablaze with the desire to share all that God has done for us with a world searching for what we already have. Most people struggle with this world, searching for relief from the burdens of sin and death and the troubles of this life.

Brothers and sisters, you and I are in a unique position. We already know the prescription for relief from those burdens. We know where people can find a cure from sin and eternal death. We have the privilege of sharing the Word that can bind up the heart of the brokenhearted, and proclaim freedom for the prisoner. All of that is available through faith the blood of Christ shed on the cross for our sins. In Jesus’ holy name, Amen.