Jesus comes to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, saying, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
Backing up a few verses in Mark, we find Jesus being baptized by his cousin John and the voice of God thundering affirmation of Jesus’ divinity. The Spirit of God immediately drives Jesus into the wilderness for 40 days of temptation by Satan. The story in today’s reading immediately follows his time in the wilderness.
These are the first words of Jesus’ public ministry: “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” For Mark, this proclamation is the heart of Jesus’ purpose, and the ministry to which he calls his followers.
We will spend most of this year reading from Mark’s account of the Good News of Jesus. So let’s take a moment to explore this purpose statement.
“The time is fulfilled.” Ancient Greek has two words for time: chronos and kairos. Chronos is the root of ‘chronological.’ Chronos time ticks away in seconds and minutes, in an orderly and measured progression. Kairos time is all time in one moment, like seeing all the frames of every movie ever made in one blink instead of watching them sequentially. Kairos is often referred to as God’s time, since it verges on incomprehensible by the human mind. Jesus says kairos is fulfilled.
God’s time is fulfilled, or coming to perfection, with the ministry of Jesus. Adding Jesus to the wholeness of humanity brings holy perfection to the grand mosaic. God’s love in human form, modeling for us how to live with one another as God imagines, changes life for all people, for all time.
And, “the kingdom of God has come near.” In this perfection of God’s time, God’s kingdom is coming to be in its fullness. After 40 days of asserting the power of God’s love against the powers of the temptor, Jesus embodies the perfection of God’s vision. Freshly acquainted with all the ways the world will attempt to discredit, gaslight, and dismiss the power of love, he speaks to our fear of letting go of comfortable power structures.
His directive for our response to the kingdom he brings: “repent and believe in the good news.” The word traditionally translated as ‘repent’ actually means something more like ‘be of a new mind.’ Loosen up the old ways of thinking. Open your mind to a new paradigm. Let go of worrying about the past.
Instead, believe in the good news. Good news that God comes into the world as a really nice guy from a small town and a blue collar family. Good news that he speaks plainly for everyone to understand. He eats with everyone: wealthy folks and synagogue leaders, tax collectors, panhandlers, single women, foreigners, people ignored by proper society. He promises peace, strength for the weak, freedom for the oppressed, justice and respect for all people.
This “good news” sounds frightening to those who are comfortable with the status quo. Comfortable with ‘those people’ over there and no closer. Comfortable holding the loss of human lives to exposure, to drug overdose, as acceptable casualties of war at arms’ length. Unmoved by the pain and terror of people living unhoused, of children detained without parents, of women and children trafficked like commodities. The kingdom of God can feel like uncomfortable news when we realize our comfort with the human power structures of the world.
Jesus commands: Acknowledge your human shortcomings and let go of them. Our repentance activates our participation in bringing peace and justice to reality.
If we passively receive the Good News and it does not change us, it is not good or news. If we believe that the Good News of the kingdom is for us, we receive it and start mulling it over. Considering how it convicts us - in the sense of feeling responsible for what we have done and what we will do. Good News changes us, and moves us to participate in God’s kairos vision.
Be of a new mind, and believe in the good news of God’s kingdom.
“The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
Having announced the purpose of his ministry, Jesus begins calling disciples to follow him. Peter and Andrew, James and John, leave their livelihoods at his invitation. Literally, they drop their nets and go with Jesus. They know nothing about him. A holy and intriguing invitation compels them to go and see for themselves what he is about.
Kairos, time all at once, says this is our story. In our individual lives, and in our life together as community and congregation. Whether we feel settled and comfortable with our life, or feel like we are in a wilderness of uncertainty, beginning something new or watching something end, Jesus invites us all to come and see what the kingdom of God is about. Invites us, one and all, to be of a new mind of curiosity and hope.
The present form of this world is passing away. God’s kingdom is springing forth. We are called beyond every rational possibility to leave our nets, to leave the comfort of the lives we have known, and follow the One who invites us to God’s vision.
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