Read: Matthew 4:12-25

Have you ever noticed how the same message can sound very different when coming from two different messengers?

I can almost hear my mother’s lilting voice, sweetly summoning us in for supper on a summer afternoon: “Dave, Doug, Darlene, Daryl, Dawn . . . it’s time to come in and wash up for supper now.” But, if any of us was too slow in responding, my father’s booming voice could be heard through the neighborhood: “David John . . . it’s time. Come in and wash up for supper. NOW!”  

Virtually the same words, but they sounded very different to me.

In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus used the exact same words as his cousin John the Baptist: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (4:17; 3:2). Perhaps unfairly, I imagine a wild-eyed John, costumed like an 8th century BCE prophet (his clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist), thundering that message at the top of his lungs: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

How do you imagine Jesus’ voice–his tone, volume and rhythm–speaking those same words?

The Hebrew/Older Testament word translated “repent” is shuv (which is very close to the Aramaic word that both John and Jesus likely used); and the most basic meaning of shuv is simply “turn” or “return.” This is a bit of an oversimplification, but the emphasis of John’s ministry was what his hearers needed to turn from—destructive, dead-end lifestyles, hypocrisy and self-righteousness. The thrust of Jesus’ message was what his hearers could now turn to—the kingdom of heaven!

We often think of repentance as involving regret, remorse, deep sorrow for our sins; and those broken-and-contrite-heart experiences are surely important (cf. Psalm 51). But, as Frederick Buechner writes, true repentance “. . . spends less time looking at the past and saying, ‘I’m sorry,’ than to the future and saying, ‘Wow!’ ”

We will be discovering the “Wow!” in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount over the coming weeks.

Question: What in this Scripture passage evoked a “Wow!” from you?