When Man Repents

When Man Repents

Why this meme resonated with me?

Written by the Panhandling Philosopher

 

 

            The above meme appeared on my Facebook wall, posted by Rev. Kenneth Tanner. In crediting him with being the one who posted this meme which I found enlightening I would also encourage others, if interested to find Kenneth Tanner on Facebook or follow him @kennethtanner on Twitter.

            I am writing this particular blog to describe why this meme resonated with me at this point in time, whereas a few years ago I would likely have thought it represented something of a wishy-washy liberal denial that each and every human being needs to repent individually of their sins. Today I see this as something at the core of what it means to bear our burdens while also bearing one another’s burdens. Just as importantly today I see repentance not only as something I do in response to Christ’s Gospel, but the work of Christ which I enter when I am called to repent, believe, and follow Christ. So let me explain a few changes in my perspective that have brought me to this point where I see these words by Zacharias of Essex and find myself saying with a loud reply, “YES. AMEN.”

            The first truth to be thought about in connection to this meme; is to ask ourselves how do we imagine the work of repentance to which a Christian is called. I think for many of us we think of repentance as an individual’s independently chosen response to the call of the Gospel. We hear a message and are called upon to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Simple isn’t it? But maybe it is not as simple as that. Maybe our repentance has always been meant to be connected to the work of repentance which Christ began for us and which Christ will complete within us.

            Think of John the Baptist’s ministry. He came to Israel to prepare the way for Messiah. He proclaimed repentance and baptized a baptism of repentance. Along with his ministry of baptism for repentance he proclaimed that one was coming who was greater than he was. The day came when that expected one came to John in the waters of baptism. Jesus prepared himself to be baptized by John. John paused. He knew Jesus was the one. Jesus did not need baptized by him. John was the one who needed baptized by or into Jesus. He paused. Did Jesus really mean to be baptized in John’s baptism? Jesus told him that it was necessary to bring about all righteousness.

          We need to realize how our repentance is connected to Jesus’ taking on the work of repentance for us.

            There is a simple reason Jesus wanted to be baptized. He was being baptized into repentance on our behalf. The call of the Gospel that calls upon us to take up the work of repentance is issued to us as an invitation to enter into Jesus' work of repenting on our behalf. We enter that work as followers and co-laborers and participants in his work of redemption. This should influence how we regard baptism and repentance. We do not repent as people independently responding to the Gospel by concentrating on our works of repentance; rather we find our work of repentance in following Christ who is now the focus of attention as we seek God. We enter a work of repentance initiated by Christ that we enter into. It will be worked out in us until it will be completed by him in the day of Christ's exaltation. The Christian call to repent is itself a gracious call to find our repentance in Christ's determination to repent on behalf of our sin stained humanity.

            There is something more we should consider.

 The sin for which there needs to be repenting is a sin that exceeds individual dimensions. Sin has entered our humanity both individually and corporately in connection with the whole of humanity.

            God created us in his image. Within Christianity we recognize that part of being created in God’s image is that God is Trinitarian. He exists simultaneously as one and many. He is one God revealed in three everlasting persons. We believe in God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; who are one. Yes it is a mystery. But the mystery extends to our creation. God, according to the Scriptures created Adam and then from Adam formed Eve. They were made; she from him that the two might become one. From their union as one came all the descendants we know as humanity. Perhaps this happened historically exactly as expressed, or perhaps this is a literary story conveying a truthful representation of the human story. Whichever it might be, the Bible is telling us that God created us, in our humanity for unity within humanity, as well as for individuality. We as human beings are interconnected and are created for and from a human union. In the New Testament this is expressed not only in marriage, but more ultimately in the union of Christ and the Church. Think of what it means for our human unity to have been subjected to the presence and reality of sin.

            Jesus told us of the sin of tying millstones upon another. Our sins are not merely individual. Adam’s sin has affected us. My sin affects others. Other sins have complicated my life and have given me tendencies towards the sins which were present in shaping my life. W.H. Auden in his brilliant poem regarding the beginning of World War II entitled “September 1, 1939” describes this phenomenon so well. He is describing how one day the historians would show how the madness of 1930’s Germany could be traced to Luther, but on September 1, 1939 Auden could only relate to the news of war thinking of a truth that children were taught to learn. Auden writes: “I and the public know what all schoolchildren learn, those to whom evil is done do evil in return.” Do we understand his words? The presence of evil shapes us and we struggle against a multiple headed serpent when we seek to repent from sin. We struggle with the sins that we imagine, the sins we choose, the sins which we imagine are ours individually. But we also struggle with the sins that have been imposed upon us in our being shaped by life. Furthermore we must repent not only for the sins we have done, but the sins which having gone out from our being have now become the millstone that shaped another person's sins. There is no fine line dividing individual from corporate sin, both have overcome us. Both need repentance. We speak only of individual sins only because we know we are incapable of offering a repentance to absolve us or our communities of our communal sins. But Jesus has come into the world and has entered John's baptism of repentance to fulfill the needs of righteousness.

            Jesus took on the work of repentance as the second Adam. He alone, as the second Adam, as the fullness of humanity from which a redeemed humanity shall be drawn forth from the water and blood of his wounded side; He alone is the fullness of humanity capable of repenting fully for both individual and collective human iniquity.

            That is perhaps the understanding that Zacharias of Essex drew upon in his understanding of the work of repentance. Repentance is something bigger than any of us can offer to God in our individual persons. Repentance is something that has to be connected to the Jesus who bowed down before John the Forerunner and entered the work of repentance for our lost humanity and for our individual needs as well as that of our collective humanity. He took upon himself the work of repenting for the whole Adam and for the whole of creation. He is the only who could do so. But when we are called to repent and believe and be baptized into him, we are called to enter that same work of repentance as his followers and co-laborers. We enter repentance not only for our individual sins but for the whole Adam and for the whole of creation. This repentance is worthy of the work of a great Savior who is the divine presence of God, who has made his eternal home in the humanity that was created as the image of God.