THE BEGINNING OF YOUR JOURNEY HOME!

“The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”  (Mark 1:1)

One day a man on horseback came racing into a small town on the frontier. He yelled out, "Big Jake is coming! Big Jake is coming!"  The townspeople were terrified. They ran into their homes; slammed and bolted the doors; closed up their windows; children were sent to hide under their beds.

In the saloon, the bartender was still trying to board up his windows, when all of a sudden his heart stopped.  He saw the biggest man he had ever seen coming right in his direction. The man was gargantuan. He had strips of bullets draped across his chest, and strapped to his legs were two of the biggest shotguns the bartender had ever seen. He was dressed in black, from head to toe, and he looked mean and nasty.

Finally, the huge man stepped into the saloon and up to the bar and said: "Give me drink of whiskey, and make it quick!"  Trembling, the bartender obeyed, and with hands shaking handed him a glass. The man gulped it down in one swallow. The bartender stuttered, "W-w-would you like another drink?"  The man yelled back: "No way! I’m out of here!  Haven’t you heard, Big Jake is coming!"

Many people thought that John the Baptist was the messiah. They thought he was the Savior that God was sending into the world. But John told the people that he wasn't the one. Instead, he said that he came to prepare the way.  Even though John was full of the power of God, he said that the one who would come after him would be even more powerful than he.

Many have asked about John’s rummage sale outfit and bizarre diet.  It is simple.  He is dressed like the prophet Elijah (2 Kings 1:8), and that is important.  For it was believed that Elijah would return to announce the imminent Day of the Lord’s coming (Malachi 3:1, 4:5)  The gospel writers intend for their readers to see John as the fulfillment of the anticipated arrival of Elijah preparing the way and announcing the Lord’s coming. 

Do you realize that if all we had was the gospel of Mark, and did not have Matthew or Luke, we probably would not be celebrating Christmas as we know it?   For in Mark there's no Mary, no Joseph, no shepherds, no wise men, no star shining in the sky to guide their way, no adorable baby in a manger. All we have is John the Baptist screaming his lungs out in the in the wilderness calling on people to turn from their sins and begin a new life.  

But even so, I really appreciate the gospel of Mark and the way Mark gets straight to the point.  It is a characteristic of Mark to boil away everything but what he saw to be the essentials of the Christian gospel, and he begins with John the Baptist. 

John's message was confrontive and straightforward. He called on the people (calls upon us) to prepare the way of the Lord – through repentance.  But for many people today, when they hear the word "repent," they figure it is an old-fashioned and out-dated word, and has nothing to do with us today.  For the most part, people today would tune John the Baptist out.

It's kind of like how people tune out the emergency instructions of the flight attendants as an airplane is about ready to take off. While the flight attendants are giving all kinds of important information about oxygen masks and emergency exits, most people usually tune it out, doing everything but listening to what the flight attendant has to say. Because people figure: "Oh, I’ve heard it all before.  It’s not big deal!”

But the problem is if there should happen to be an emergency, there isn't time to go back and to have the flight attendant repeat what she has already said. It'll be too late. What you need to do is pay attention right from the start.

That is why we need to heed John’s words right now – because, you see, there is an impending, looming emergency right now!   The emergency is your sin – and my sin.  When it comes to sin there is no Ho-Hum attitude about sin allowed.  We must not put it off any longer because if we do, it may be too late.

But what about repentance?  I really believe we have grossly misunderstood repentance.  The common image of repentance, for most people, is that it is a knee-jerk response to a perceived threat.  “Repent or else!  Repent or die!  Repent or go to hell.”  That kind of repentance is an image we take from the fire and brimstone preachers that instill fear and terror.  But is that truly repentance?  Is repentance a divinely forced confession under the threat of torture and the terrors of hell?  We know prisoners will say anything to escape the pain of torture and threat – even lie.  Is fear and terror the beginning point of faith?  Is this Mark’s message?  Is this “the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God?”  (Mark 1:1) 

A friend of mine likes to tell a story on himself about when he was boy. He tells of a time when he was caught shop-lifting candy bars from the neighborhood grocery store. The manager of the store happened to know him and his parents. The manager told the boy to go home and tell his parents what he had done. The manager said he would call his parents later on!

At first he was in a panic. He was afraid! He wanted to run, but there was no where to go. So, he finally went home, and told his parents what he had done.

Reflecting back on that episode many years later, he realized that when he decided to turn towards home he wasn't terrified. He said he felt a strange kind of peace come over him. Looking back on it, he now realizes he went without terror, because in his heart he intuitively knew that ultimately what was there to greet him was not judgment, but love!  Oh yes, he was punished for what he had done, there were consequences for his sin.  But even so, he knew he was loved. He knew that by turning and setting his face toward home, as hard at that seemed at the moment, he intuitively knew he was moving in the direction of love.

"Repent!" says John.  Translated it means, "Turn your face towards home, because there is love there; a love like the world has never known."  But in turning towards home, there is much to turn away from, and much to let go of and leave behind.  Repentance is not something we do to earn and deserve God’s love; repentance is what we do after we hear we are loved. 

I once had a conversation with a man who came to me and admitted to the sin of adultery.  He told me that his spouse knew all about it, but still declared her love for him and wanted him to come “back home” to their marriage.  I told him how fortunate and blessed he was that her love was still there for him.  I told him how precious and rare that kind of love is in the world.  However, he also confessed to me that he wasn’t sure he could let go of his illicit relationship.  I told him in no uncertain terms, “Come to your senses man! Drop the other and go home.”  Unfortunately, in the end, he could not. 

When our conversation ended that day, I felt so incredibly sad for him.  It made me realize again that repentance is not easy; repentance is gut-wrenching and heart-wrenching.  The power and lure of sin is seductive, and it is not easy to turn away from all that would lure us away from our relationship with God; not easy to turn our backs on all the false and empty promises the evil one dupes us into thinking are the truth; not easy to turn away from all of our self-justification; the excuses we make for ourselves; our moral ambiguity; the blaming of others for our troubles.  It is not easy and nobody ever said it would be. 

I once heard a story about a fellow who called up the highway department to complain about the condition of the road in front of his house. He kept calling and calling, complaining about all the potholes and bumps, but the highway department never did anything. Finally, the man kept calling so many times the highway department said that they would do something about his road. The next day the highway department put up a sign that said: "Rough Road Ahead." 

I wonder if that's not what a lot of us do when it comes to our sins?  We may see the sins that are there, but we minimize them, instead of taking more radical action.

Repentance means to take radical action; to come to your senses!  Repentance is to realize that all of these voices to which you've been listening that claim to be authentic are bogus. They really cannot deliver on what they promise. They don't have the power or the ability. Repentance is to stop and hear the one authentic voice, and turn around toward that voice. And when you do you will spend far less time listening to the phony and shallow past voices, and follow the new voice of love that will lead you into a new future and new kind of life!

There's a story about a ten year old boy who was failing math.  His parents tried everything from tutors to hypnosis to help him, but to no avail. Finally they decided a private school was the only thing. So, they enrolled him in a Roman Catholic parochial school.

After the first day his parents were surprised when he arrived home and went immediately to his room and studied math for two hours. This went on for weeks and weeks until the end of the semester. When the boy presented his report card to his parents he had an "A" in math!

The parents were dumfounded. "What made the difference?" they asked him. "Was it the nuns?" "No!" he said. "Was it the one-on-one tutoring?" He said, "No!"   They continued pressing him:  "The textbooks? The teachers? The peer-mentoring? What?"   "No! No! And No!" he said. He then continued. "On that first day, when I walked in front door and looked up and saw the guy nailed to the 'plus sign' I just knew they meant business!"

The Lord does mean business when it comes to sin, but it is not God’s business to terrify us.  Rather through Jesus Christ, God takes the sins of the world, including yours and mine into himself, and draws us to himself with an awesome language of love.   

I heard it said once that the world lives in the shadow of two fists:

First, there are the clenched fists of human sin and defiance that always ends up inflicting pain upon self and others, because that’s pretty much what a clenched fist does.

But there is also the fist that opens; the fists of the man who willingly opened his hands and placed them against a wooden beam and allowed spikes to be driven through them; the hands that bled and died with a divine love and grace that makes it possible for you to turn and come home; a divine love that invites you home. 

“The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”  (Mark 1:1)

REPENT!    It is the beginning of your journey home!