Epiphany 3

Epiphany 3 (Matthew 4:12-23)

Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven has come near.

Context defines content.

Another way of saying this is: people hear what they want to hear.

Jesus began his public ministry in the context of Divine Manifestation. At Jesus’ baptism, God the Father, God the Holy Spirit and God the Son set the context for the Good News of the Messiah. The Good News is the reunification of a lost rebellious humanity in the person of Jesus the Anointed one. Salvation is organic not legal. Because salvation is organic it is a gift.

Jesus’ call to repentance extends the call to repentance issued by the prophets. John the Baptist, the last of the prophets, sets the stage for Jesus by calling people to repent in order to prepare.

All true prophets issue the same word: repent.  Repent of your choice to separate from God, Repent of your rebellion against the person of God. Repent of actual sins of omission and commission that result from your separation and rebellion. Then: prepare. Prepare for the Good News of Salvation.

The Good News of Salvation is that the Kingdom of Heaven has come near. The Good News of Salvation is that the Kingdom of Heaven is a personal relationship with the Father, in the Son, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

People could understand the call to repent of actual sin. They could not and would not understand the call to repent of their separation from God and their rebellion against God. Had they been able to do that there would have been no need for the co-eternal Beloved Son to come to earth and unify his divinity with our humanity in Jesus Christ.

Had people been able to acknowledge our personal and corporate responsibility for Separation and Rebellion the Law of Moses and the Prophetic Call to repentance would have been enough. It wasn’t enough. The long history of Israel reveals how the Law and the Prophets can only prepare the way for the Way of Salvation.

Salvation is reunification and transformation.

Reunification takes place at the incarnation, the crucifixion and the resurrection. In Jesus God adopts human nature into the eternal community of infinite Love. That eternal community of infinite love is the Trinity,

Most people then in Jesus’ day and now in our day think of salvation as an external event. In that context, the Kingdom of Heaven is an external expression of knowledge and power we can earn or claim.

Jesus proclaimed by word and deed that the Kingdom of Heaven is an internal event. Jesus declared: the Kingdom of Heaven is within you. In that context, the Kingdom of Heaven derives from and manifests in the personal relationship Jesus offers us in the new humanity he gives us.

We cannot earn salvation. We have no claim to salvation. Salvation is a gift. In our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation the giver of the gift is the gift. The gift is universal and unconditional. Jesus is the gift who offers himself to everyone everywhere without exception and without condition.

Jesus is the Father’s gift to humanity. A personal relationship with Jesus Christ is the Kingdom of Heaven.  Jesus transforms and re- energizes the call to repentance. Repent of your continued choice to remain lost in separation from God and in rebellion against God.

Such repentance does not require perfection. Such repentance only requires accepting the one fixed and immutable truth of our species. That truth is that God the Father created all of us and each of us by God the Holy Spirit to be the forever friends of God the Son. That friendship is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Salvation is not about getting our own way. Salvation is not about being right and making other people wrong. Salvation is not about manipulating people with fear or living from the place of fear. Salvation is the new life in Jesus Christ. Salvation is the new way of living by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. That new life is our choice to participate in the active dynamic creative universal and unconditional love of the One God who is Three persons. Salvation, the Kingdom of Heaven, is the Way we live and move and have our being in the personal relationships God created us to enjoy.

The lack of peace and the lack of joy indicate to us where we are still living from the place of separation. The rigid inflexible demands of self- will indicate to us where we are in a state of rebellion. The prayer of repentance is the prayer Jesus modeled for us. That prayer is the prayer of real presence that says to God: not my will by Thy will be done. The call to repentance is the call to surrender pride, self-will and fear to the infinite and eternal love of the infinite and eternal God who is Love. 

The Kingdom of Heaven is within you. It is as near to you as your next breath in all of its abundance, delight and everlasting life. The Kingdom of Heaven is the personal relationship God offers everyone in the new life of Jesus Christ.   Repent. For the Kingdom of Heaven has come near.