Repentance for Forgiveness
Mark 1:1-8
One day a man on horseback came racing into a small town on the frontier. He yelled out, “Big Jake is coming!” All the townspeople were so terrified that they ran into their homes and bolted the doors. They sent the children to hide under their beds. In the saloon, the bartender was 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. He had strips of bullets draped across his chest, and strapped to his legs were two of the biggest guns that the bartender had ever seen. The man was dressed in black, and he looked incredibly mean. He stepped up to the bar and said: “Get me a drink, and make it quick.” So the bartender obeyed. The man downed the drink in one big gulp. So the bartender said: “Would you like another drink?” But the man snapped back: “No! I don’t have time. Haven’t you heard? Big Jake is coming!”
After the Chosen People returned from the second exile, they heard from the prophets that the messiah was coming. For nearly 400 years, the people watched and waited – and then they saw John the Baptizer. John was larger than life, looking all gruff and tough in his camel hair clothes and leather belt, living out in the wilderness where the folk religion believed that demons lived and mere mortals perished.
John may have reminded them of the Biblical hero, Samson, who ate the wild honey out the body of the lion he had killed with his bare hands. John ate locusts, which conjured up images of someone who had the power and the will to turn back a potential plague upon the land – instead of the locusts destroying the land by eating all the plants, John ate the locusts to stop them in their tracks. John spoke powerfully, with a clear message, and was obviously sent by God to the people.
All the evidence was there – so they thought that John must be the messiah. But John says to them – “I don’t have time for this silly confusion. I can’t save you. Haven’t you heard what I have been saying to you? Big Jesus is coming!”
John had a simple message – prepare for the coming of Jesus through a baptism of repentance for forgiveness. The messiah is coming, more powerful than anyone you have ever seen before, so powerful that he makes John look less than the lowest servant in the house. You don’t want to be on the wrong side when the messiah comes, so prepare yourself by getting on the right path again. Be baptized as a sign of your repentance for straying from the holy path of the Chosen People, and receive your forgiveness so you can stand with the messiah instead of against him.
We are so used to hearing about John calling the people to baptism that we forget that this was something new that he was doing. This was a novel idea because it combined two very different things together. John took something common and he gave it a new twist. And he took something difficult and he made it accessible for all.
Baptism was something so commonplace in Judaism that it was hardly worth mentioning it when talking about their day-to-day living. In Judaism, baptism was about restoring purity, or ritual cleanliness, that had been lost in the course of living among sinners in a fallen world. It is what one did every single time before entering a synagogue or the Temple. A person would walk down the steps into a ritual bath called a mikveh so that they could then rise on the other side ritually clean. You did this because you were coming into the presence of God, the Shekinah, so you washed away your uncleanliness so you could stand before God.
John’s novelty is that he was baptizing persons in the Jordan River, which is nowhere near any synagogue, and at least 22 miles from the Temple. Actually, to be accurate, he didn’t baptize them in the river – John built a mikveh on the edge of the river, diverting river water into it – kind of like our casino boats in moats. So calling people to be baptized in a river seemed like a very odd thing to do.
But if we recall our Hebrew history, we remember that the Jews entered the Promised Land by crossing over the Jordan River. Archaeologists have found the likely spot where John did his baptism, and it is on the far side of the river away from Jerusalem. To be baptized by John meant re-entering Israel as someone who was ritually clean. We might compare that action to renewing our membership vows, or our wedding vows, or our citizenship vows. John was calling the people to renew their claim to being the Chosen People, to live fully into what it means to be the Chosen People in a world that needs a constant reminder that there is only one God.
What keeps them from living as the Chosen People, of course, is their sin. And the way to deal with sin is repentance. Repentance, however, was much more involved, and much harder, than simply walking through the mikveh. One hadn’t repented simply because they had been baptized. No, repentance included regretting the sin – you had to know that what you did was not in keeping with the will of God. Repentance included resolving to avoid the sin in the future – if you accept the will of God, then you can’t keep doing things that are contrary to the will of God. And that is as far as most people want to take repentance – I’m sorry for what I have done, and I pledge to do right from now on.
But there is more to the Jewish understanding of repentance. Repentance included worrying about the future consequences of the sin that has been committed – who is affected by what you have done, and who are the unintended persons who could be affected in the future. Repentance included acting and speaking with humility – we are not the Chosen because of who we are, but because of who God is. Repentance included acting in a way opposite to that of the sin –for example, for the sin of lying, one should become more intentional about speaking the truth.
But there is more. Repentance included understanding the magnitude of the sin – every sin was a breaking of the covenant between God and your people, which could lead to the anger of God towards your people. Repentance included refraining from lesser sins for the purpose of safeguarding oneself against committing greater sins. Repentance included confessing the sin – not just to God, who already knows, but to the community which is responsible for holding you accountable.
But there is more. Repentance included praying for atonement – since you obviously have failed, you need God’s help to be restored. Repentance included correcting the sin however possible – for example, if you stole an object, the stolen item must be returned or if one slanders another, the slanderer must ask the injured party for forgiveness, even as one works to undo the harm caused by the slander. Repentance included pursuing works of steadfast love and truth – sinning breaks the community, so you have to work to rebuild a community where God’s steadfast love is supposed to be revealed.
But there is more. Repentance included remembering the sin for the rest of your life. It included refraining from committing the same sin if the opportunity presented itself again. And repentance included teaching others not to sin.
Repentance was a long row to hoe! Repentance was so hard that time had to be set aside each year specifically to help the people repent. Yom Kippur is the end of an intentional time of repentance, so the people could celebrate the restoration of their community and covenant with God. Everyone knew that repentance was very difficult.
And that is what makes John’s baptism so novel. John comes to the people, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This baptism will cover all the work of repentance, and you will be ritually clean – you will be ready to get back to living the way you are supposed to be living. John proclaims, come and receive my baptism so you can stop living in the failures of the past and start looking to the future that the messiah will bring. That all sounds like a great deal – as far as it goes.
John says that one more powerful than he is coming. That’s the kind of thing modest people say when it is clear that one is comfortable with the amount of power they have – even when it is clear that they have considerably more power than everyone else in the room. But John isn’t being modest. In spite of John’s good works to help the people focus on living as the Chosen People of God, that amount of good pales in comparison to the good that the messiah will bring to the people. John’s combined efforts are worth less than once untying the messiah’s shoes so the messiah can remove his sandals before walking through a mikveh before entering into the Temple. Or, as John puts it into perspective – I baptize with water, but the messiah will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. So get ready – Big Jesus is coming!
On this second Sunday in Advent, we are asked to consider this passage from the Gospel according to Mark. It seems like an odd choice for a scripture reading to prepare us for Christmas. Mark’s gospel doesn’t have any stories about Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem. Mark doesn’t tell us about Wise Men from the East following a star. There aren’t even any stories about shepherds watching over their flocks by night being visited by angels. The gospel just starts with this larger-than-life character of John, wearing the clothing of a prophet, eating bugs and honey in the wilderness, telling the people they need to repent of their sins and seek the forgiveness of God. Even by John’s own admission, John isn’t that important to the story. So what are we supposed to understand about John as part of our waiting for the coming of Christ?
Some may find it interesting that John was a cousin to Jesus, related through their mothers. But we don’t know if Mary and Elizabeth are first cousins, or once removed, twice removed, or even more distantly related. The degree of the relationship wasn’t that crucial in Biblical times for someone to be considered your cousin. It’s an interesting connection, but that is not the relationship with John that makes Jesus special. Being the Son of God makes Jesus special.
John might have been included because he was a larger-than-life character, and he had his own ministry that was popular with the people, just like Jesus did. But then, Rabbi Hillel and Rabbi Shammai also had very popular ministries at the same time as John and Jesus. Yet, neither Hillel nor Shammai is included in the gospel story. Being popular with the people is not what makes Jesus special. Being the Son of God makes Jesus special.
John might have been included to point out how dangerous it was to take on the religious and political establishments of that day. We know John was arrested and then put to death, just as Jesus was. But John wasn’t the only religious leader to meet that fate. There were even others who claimed to be the messiah, which John denied being, and they all met with death. Their stories would seem to be more relevant that John’s. Dying for your cause is not what makes Jesus special. Being the Son of God makes Jesus special.
So why do we include John at this point in our journey to Bethlehem? I think it is because John was calling the people to practice a means of grace. A means of grace is something that can not and will not save you – but it can help prepare a place in our lives that only God can fill.
People are still looking for a messiah. Some look for larger-than-life characters. Some look for a leader who has rejected the ways of the world. Don’t be confused by the claims of those who promise that they can deliver you from all your problems. They can’t save you. So listen for the voice of the prophet who calls us still to repentance for forgiveness. Big Jesus is coming!