From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
Matthew 4:17

You know that guy who stands on the street corner with the sign, “Repent! For the kingdom of God is near!”? The message is ominous and, worse,  that guy gives people this odd idea that repentance is transactional. Give up your bad behavior to get the good stuff God offers!

The first of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses relays a kind of biblical repentance that is deeper and more invitational: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent',” he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” (The entire life of believers!) Luther based this on Matthew 4:17, when Jesus issued an invitation to repent because “the kingdom of God has come near.” It’s like Repent! I’m here to claim you as my own!

Repentance is more than acknowledging our bad behavior. That’s actually easy to do. It’s a turning away from or a changing of one’s mind about anything that smacks of self-interest to turn toward Christ and the life of submission and sacrifice he requires. Even our good actions can have sin at the roots: pride, competition, or comparison, for example. Repentance then is running toward Jesus because the Spirit has awakened this deep understanding of ourselves as in need of grace in all areas of our lives, not just the places we notice are broken. 

Father, teach me to repent today of very specific sins. Not just those sins that are apparent to me, but the ones that feel hidden – wanting to be right, my anger, my worry, my desire to enthrone me and my will instead of yours. Let today be a day that I experience your joy because in my heart I’ve turned away from the very things that plague me.