After reading Genesis and Exodus this summer, I’m taking a break and jumping back into the New Testament.
Honestly, I really didn’t feel like trekking through Leviticus! It felt like a chore.
So here we are in the first Gospel, the book of Matthew.
If you’ve watched The Chosen, like me, you probably now have a mental image of this Gospel writer.
Particular. Observant. Good with numbers, although they didn’t make him responsible for keeping track of the money.
Matthew could put two and two together.
He seems to have been quite familiar with the Old Testament, always jotting down notes when something Jesus said or did jogged his memory. This becomes abundantly clear through the numerous Old Testament references in his Gospel.
Matthew watched and listened to Jesus, connecting the dots between what he witnessed and what the prophets had written.
That’s why I say he could put two and two together.
I’m jumping straight to two verses that drew my attention in the early chapters: Matthew 3:2 and 4:17. Both repeat the same words, spoken first by John and then by Jesus:
Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.
New Living Translation
Or, as The Message puts it:
Change your life. God’s kingdom is here.
The contrast between where our lives are headed and what the kingdom of heaven looks like cannot be overstated.
Hence the invitation to repent.
For a variety of understandable reasons, the word repent leaves a bad taste in many people’s mouths. This is unfortunate.
To repent means to change. To reorient yourself.
We’re not talking about small tweaks. This is a 180-degree change.
You are heading east until you realize you need to be going west. Not northeast or southeast. West.
You are headed in the wrong direction, and if you continue that way, you will not find what you are hoping for.
The trouble is, you might think you are already headed in the right direction.
This is what makes repentance, turning around, so difficult. It requires faith.
Why faith?
Because I think I’m doing okay. I believe what I want is somewhere ahead of me. Now I need to trust the person who is telling me, contrary to everything I had thought until then, that I need to turn around.
I don’t just need to change direction to find what I am looking for. Continuing in my present direction may actually ruin me.
Jesus, and John preparing the way for Jesus, both invite us to turn around.
Change direction.
Repent.
Why?
Because the kingdom of heaven, God’s kingdom, has come near. And apparently we weren’t headed that way.
Jesus brought the kingdom near and demonstrated what heaven-life looks like. He showed us what life truly is and what it means to experience it to the fullest.
Our internal GPS is not quite leading us there.
Do you trust Jesus enough to undergo the 180-degree change required to follow him?
We are not simply following him to some random destination. We are following him into abundant life.
This isn’t only about life later, in some distant future after we die, although, yes, it includes that too.
Jesus invites us to turn around and begin living the life of his kingdom here and now.