Repent – and change
'Repent', cried John the Baptist, 'for the kingdom of heaven is near' (Matt. 3:2). And turning to the crowds he lashed them with his tongue: 'You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?' (Luke 3:7).
These words of denunciation, together with John's dress and rugged way of life, may conjure up for us a picture of a hell-fire preacher, manipulating his hearers with threats of destruction. His message was, certainly, one of repentance; but his main theme was change more than judgment. He was not calling the Jews corporately to national acts of penitence - to tears and sacrificial offerings - but was seeking to show individuals that their own lives contributed to the collective sin. So when they asked him 'What should we do then?' he gave simple and practical answers: 'The one who has two tunics should share with anyone who has none'; 'Don't extort unauthorised taxes'; 'Be content with your wages'. Essentially his message was that we should love our neighbours as ourselves.
It was this kind of repentance that was to prepare the way for the Lord's coming - a change of heart. For Jesus didn't come to save a nation but to save individuals and to make a new community of them, a new nation.
Indeed, in the prophecy of John's birth, spoken by the angel in the temple to Zechariah, John was described as one who would 'turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous'. So, the tax collectors and the soldiers were to express their repentance by their changed behaviour at work; others were to embody it by a changed attitude to their possessions. Those who had turned away from God were to change direction and return to righteous paths. And those with broken relationships were to seek reconciliation - within their families, and beyond.
Has the world ever been in greater need of reconciliation than today? From broken families with abused or neglected children to nations bombarding each other's cities into rubble, the church must be in the thick of things, living in unity, reaching out in love and urging - with a prophetic voice like John's - the repentance that leads to change.
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