Every time I read about John the Baptist, I feel like I did at Efrem’s 90^th birthday when I saw names like James Garner and Jane Russell.  I felt that I should know this person, but I really have no clue who they are or what they did.  John the Baptist has a well-known name, all four Gospel’s speak of John the Baptist and give him special honor: he is the forerunner for Jesus.  Furthermore, the Gospels suggest that the only way to know who Jesus was and why Jesus did what he did is to know about John the Baptist, yet our knowledge of John remains dark and muddled. 

The Scriptures tell us a few things about John the Baptist; I would like to list ten of them for you.  First, he was the only child of Zechariah, a priest in the temple, and Elizabeth.  Second, his birth was a miracle foretold by the angel Gabriel.  His birth was a miracle because Zechariah and Elizabeth were elderly, beyond their child-bearing years.  Third, God marked him off as a prophet before his conception.  Fourth, he grew up in the desert, wore the traditional prophetic cloths of camel hair, and ate a traditional prophets’ diet of locust and wild honey.  Fifth, he gathered around himself a group of disciples in the desert, a group that remained together after his death.  Sixth, John was not just an ordinary prophet; he was given the spirit of the prophet Elijah in order that he might prepare the Israelites for their coming Messiah.   Seventh, one way John prepared Israel for her coming Messiah was to baptize people for a remission of their sins in the Jordan river, so important was John’s baptism the Jesus was baptized by him. Eighth, the second way John prepared Israel for the Messiah was to preach a message of repentance and he was a fiery preacher who upon seeing the Pharisees said, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath…And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children of Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the tree and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Matthew 3:7-11) He also publicly denounced Herod Antipas for marring his niece Herodias, who also happened to be married to Herod’s brother Phillip. Eighth, Herod imprisoned John and later had him beheaded. (Mark 6:14-29)  Ninth, he was a cousin of Jesus through his mother Elizabeth who as a cousin of Mary.  Tenth, Jesus claimed the John was the greatest man born of woman.  If we were to summarize this collage of facts, we could say that from his conception, God called John to be the prophet who would prepare Israel for the coming Messiah through baptism for the remission of sins and through his preaching of repentance. 

Since John is the forerunner of Jesus, each of the facts about John is like an avenue or a street that leads toward Jesus Christ and I would like to follow one of these avenues to Christ this morning, John’s preaching of repentance.  I have chosen this avenue because we walk this route every Sunday when we hear the words, “Ye who do truly and earnestly repent of your sins…”  I have also chosen this avenue because repeatedly, the Scriptures speaks of the absolute necessity of repentance, thus it behooves us to know what repentance is and how it leads us to Christ. 

When we hear the word “repent” we usually think of being sorry for something, in fact “to be sorry” is the first definition of repent in my dictionary.  This is not surprising since the word “repent” is a 13^th century English word that derived from the Latin word poenitire, which means, “to make sorry.”  However, how sorry do we have to be?  What if I am only partially sorry? Furthermore, how do I know when I am truly sorry? Theologians attempted to answer these questions by saying there are two types of repentance: attrition and contrition.  Attrition is an affirmation that I deserve to be punished, but I am more sorry that I was caught being naughty than for the naughtiness I did. My children excel at attrition, but it is not true repentance.  Contrition is remorse over sin, a willingness to make restitution and move toward better behavior.  However, as helpful as this distinction may be, it still does not answer our pressing question of how sorry or remorseful do I have to be?  It is tempting to brush this question aside thinking only an overly self-conscious Freudian would dwell on such a thing, but this question deals with a necessary attribute of Christianity, an attribute, without which, we cannot live.  It was also one of the questions that lead to the Reformation. Martin Luther knew he could never be sorry enough for his sins, he could not have certainty that his repentance was contrition, not attrition and his search for forgiveness and peace lead to the Reformation.

What began to ease Martin Luther’s spiritual anxiety was reading the New Testament in Greek.  John the Baptist did not speak Latin, he probably spoke Aramaic and Greek and the New Testament Greek word we translate “repent” is metanoein and this word means “to change one’s mind.”  Thus, while the Latin and English word “repent” focuses on our emotional or existential response to sin, the literal translation of the Greek focuses on our rational or mental response to sin.  When we sin, we are choosing to follow our own path; we are choosing to walk by our own desires and choosing to run following our own will.  We could think of repentance as a change of mind when we follow God’s path, walk by his desires, and run after his will.  However, as helpful as the literal understanding of metanoein is, repentance is not merely a mental activity.  Furthermore, how do we know that we have really and truly changed our minds for our minds are just as muddled and confused as our emotions. 

In the 1^st century, the word metanoein had a wide range of meanings and the meaning that the writers of the New Testament, especially John the Baptist, almost certainly had in mind was found in the Old Testament.  The Old Testament speaks of repentance as Israel’s turning back to God.  Many Old Testament passages on repentance occur when Israel was living in exile, when Israel had divorced herself from God’s covenant and had separated herself from God’s presence.[1] In fact, the three great prayers of repentance in the Old Testament: Daniel’s prayer in Daniel 9, Ezra’s prayer in Ezra 9 and Nehemiah’s prayer in Nehemiah 9, all are uttered in the context of exile[2].  Repentance, therefore, in the Old Testament, was a prerequisite for coming back into God’s presence and his covenant.  I suggest to you that when John the Baptist (and Jesus and the Apostles for that matter) spoke about repentance this was what he had in mind.  He envisioned Israel turning back to God, adhering to God’s way and aligning themselves with God’s will.  This all makes perfect sense in the context of John’s prophetic purpose, which was to prepare Israel for the coming Messiah.  John preached repentance so that when Israel turned back to God, they might recognize God walking in their midst in Jesus.  This is no different today, when we repent, we turn back to God and find ourselves face to face with Jesus whose embracing arms that bear the marks of the cross are our guarantee that we have been forgiven. 

Two further questions remain if repentance is turning to Jesus Christ, what about the Latin and English definitions about feeling sorry for our transgressions?  When we turn and encounter God Almighty in the person of Jesus Christ, we will find true remorse.   When we see Christ, we can utter nothing other than the words of Isaiah, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”  Furthermore, when our gaze is fixed upon Christ, rather than our turbulent emotions, our remorse is transformed into joy, for just as Isaiah was cleansed with a coal from the heavenly alter, so we will be cleansed by the all-consuming love of Christ.  If repentance is turning to Christ, what about the Greek word for repentance what about changing our minds?  When we turn and encounter the Light of Life, Jesus Christ, our darkened minds cannot help but be changed because darkness always flees before the light.  As someone has aptly summarizes our situation with these words: “It is certain that a man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon God’s face…For we always seem to ourselves righteous and upright and wise and holy unless by clear proofs we stand convinced of our own unrighteousness, foulness, folly and impurity…Just so, an eye to which nothing is shown but black objects judges something dirty white or even rather darkly mottled to be whiteness itself…So it happens in estimating our spiritual goods [a]s long as we do not look beyond the earth.”[3]  When we turn to face Jesus, the crucified and risen Messiah, we will find true remorse and our remorse will be transformed by his consuming love into joy.  When we turn to face Jesus our dark minds will be transformed by his glorious appearance. 

In conclusion, John the Baptist preached a message of repentance so that Israel would be prepared for her Messiah, Jesus.  John’s message has not been altered by the shifting sands of time, to be prepared to meet our Messiah, we need to repent; we need to turn away from our following our own paths, walking after our own desires and running after our own will and turn to face the incarnate God Jesus.  So heed the words of John the Baptist, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” (Matthew 3:1)  

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[1] Passages such as Leviticus 26:40-45, Deuteronomy 30:2, Isa. 44:22, and 55:7, Jeremiah 3:10, 4:1, 5:3, 18:8, Ezekiel 14:6, Hosea 3:5 and Joel 2:12.  This partial list taken from N.T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, pg 248, footnote 15.