REPENT
The time has come and the kingdom of heaven is close at hand. REPENT, and believe the Good News.
The evangelist Mark is the most concise of the Gospel writers. In just four verses Jesus is baptised, goes into the wilderness and then emerges to begin his public ministry. There is an air of urgency and a sense that time is short.
Jesus emerges from his baptism and wilderness experience with a message that is uncompromising. His cry of ‘Repent’ is for deep and radical change where hearts are to be turned away from all that would hinder their love for God. Jesus echoes John the Baptist, who in turn echoed the Old Testament prophets who proclaimed the great day of reckoning, the Day of the Lord. With imagery of warfare and cataclysm the Old Testament prophets warn of a time when God will come to right all wrongs.
As the Gospel unfolds Jesus will show us by the way he lives, teaches and loves what it means to repent and to change our hearts. Lent can be a time when we take stock and look at the places in our lives where our hearts have become stuck and seem unable to turn. The Scriptures are there to guide us and to challenge us.
How is God calling you to a change of heart this Lent?
(Mark 1:12-15, First Sunday in Lent)