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| Jesus calling Peter and Andrew to be "Fishers of Men" LDS Media Library |
This week we study Matthew 4 and Luke 4–5. The Sunday
School manual suggests using part of the lesson to talk about how “commitment
to follow Christ means accepting His will and forsaking our own.” The Savior’s
callings of Peter, Andrew, John, and James are used as examples to start the
discussion (Matthew 4:18–22; Luke 5:1–11). But notice what Matthew mentions
right before telling this story:
From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. (4:17)
But what does repentance have to do with forsaking our own
will and following Christ? Absolutely everything.
(I told you last week I was going to dive into what repentance meant in the first century AD.
So here we go …)
When it comes down to it, that’s what repentance is. Rather than blather on with my usual
rambling musings, I’m going to go ahead and quote, at length, from N.T. Wright,
an Anglican minister who many (including some Latter-day Saints) consider the
greatest living scholar of the New Testament:
Jesus’ opening challenge as reported in the Gospels was that
people should “repent and believe.” This is a classic example … of a phrase
whose meaning has changed over the years. … How are we to unlearn our meanings
for such a phrase and to hear it through first-century ears? It helps if we can
find another author use it at around the same place and time as Jesus.
Consider, for example, the Jewish aristocrat and historian Josephus, who was
born a few years after Jesus’ crucifixion and who was sent in AD 66 as a young army
commander to sort out some rebel movements in Galilee. His task, as he
describes in his autobiography, was to persuade the hot-headed Galileans to
stop their mad rush into revolt against Rome and trust him and the other
Jerusalem aristocrats to work out a better modus
vivendi [way of living]. So when he confronted the rebel leader, he says
that he told him to give up his on agenda and to trust him, Josephus, instead.
And the word[s] he uses are remarkably familiar to readers of the Gospels: he
told the brigand leader to “repent and believe in me,” metanoēsein kai pistos emoi gensesthai.
This does not, of course, mean that Josephus was challenging
the brigand leader (who, confusingly, was called “Jesus”) to give up sinning
and have a religious conversion experience. It has a far more specific and
indeed political meaning. I suggest that when we examine Jesus of Nazareth
forty years earlier going around Galilee telling people to repent and believe
in him or in the gospel, we dare not screen out these meanings. Even if we end
up suggesting that Jesus meant more than Josephus did—that there were indeed
religious and theological dimensions to his invitation—we cannot suppose that
he meant less. He was telling his hearers to give up their agendas and to trust
him for his way of being Israel, his way of bringing the kingdom, his
kingdom-agenda.[1]
Understood this way, we can understand why Matthew would
follow this with the stories of Peter, Andrew, John, and James forsaking their way
of life to follow Jesus. They were, in a very real and literal way, repenting.
Today, we tend to think of repentance as an effort to
overcome sinful behavior. But ultimately,
its about forsaking our own wills, and aligning ourselves with God. When
understood this way, we can see sin as our own wills and desires which are not
in harmony with God. I can’t think of single “sin” (i.e., anything we are taught
not to do) that does not somehow fit within
this definition. But I think this could also be inclusive of things not typically
thought of as “sins,” per se. I won’t list anything off—it is certainly not my
business nor my place declare anything a “sin,” and I am sure you are perfectly
capable of thinking up relevant examples yourself, anyway. But this
understanding makes essentially anything that gets in the way of us submitting
to God’s will a sin.
Perhaps it might be productive for us all—myself included—to
personally consider and evaluate our own behaviors, actions, thoughts, and so
forth, and consider what might be getting in the way of aligning our wills with
God’s will. And then strive to make those necessary changes.
Anyway, I hope this understanding of repentance can in some
way be useful and insightful for not only your study of Matthew 4, but the
Gospels—and the gospel—as a whole.
[1] N.T.
Wright, The Challenge of Jesus:
Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press,
1999), 43–44.
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