Believe in the Good News

Mention the prophet Jonah and many people think of a whale. (He actually was in the belly of a fish.) Hardly anyone remembers his message. We get to hear it Sunday: he calls on the city of Nineveh to repent. Jonah’s preaching was so successful that everyone put on sackcloth – even the cattle, an amusing detail omitted from the reading. Because of that, God “changed his mind about the calamity” he was planning. God’s purpose did not change: God still desired repentance, that everyone would turn toward God.

The Apostle Paul thought there wasn’t much time left to repent. He lived with the daily expectation of the return of Christ, and counseled others to do the same. His expressed that hope in ways that seem foreign to us. All of his examples are to act as though you’re not doing what you’re doing, like living as though not married or mourning. Today we would use different language: live lightly, or with detachment. The basic idea is the same, however; one’s relationship with Christ should be primary.

We see that illustrated when Jesus calls his first disciples. He finds two sets of brothers – Simon Peter and Andrew, and later James and John, the sons of Zebedee – and calls them away from their livelihood and their families. They immediately go with him to become “fishers of people.”

Their departure happens so abruptly that interpreters are tempted to suggest some previous encounter with Jesus. There’s a hint of that in John’s Gospel, but Mark is intent on showing just what it means to be a disciple of Christ. It means leaving everything behind. Perhaps in his enthusiasm Mark overstated his case. Peter still visits his mother-in-law, some disciples still own boats, and there’s a post-resurrection scene (also in John’s Gospel) where the foursome has returned to fishing.

How do putting on sackcloth, living as though you’re not doing what you’re doing, and leaving everything behind become the good news of God? They are tied together by the message of Jesus: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” “To declare that God’s kingship has come near is to say that God is now fulfilling his agelong purpose,” as one commentator puts it. It’s the purpose seen in Jonah, drawing all people toward God. Paul wants everyone to live within that time of fulfillment, God’s time, eternity breaking into human time. Experiencing the kingdom in the person of Jesus is what causes Simon, Andrew, James, and John to leave everything behind and follow.

The kingdom of God has indeed come to us through Jesus Christ. It is already here, but not yet fully arrived, waiting for the return of Christ. “Already/not yet” is the central paradox of the kingdom of God. Where does that leave us? In the in-between time. Everything has changed because of Jesus, yet life still looks the same and time seems no different. It is only through the eyes of faith that we see a different world dwelling in eternity. It is that vision of the good news that enables us to live lightly, to live in hope, to live in the knowledge that new life comes to us through Jesus Christ.

[3 Epiphany: Jonah 3:1-5, 10; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20. The commentary quotation is from The Gospel of Mark by N.T. France.]