Repent, and Believe in the Good News
based on Mark 1:40-45
Rev. Karen A. Goltz

            “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” (Mark 1:15)  It was with these words that Jesus began his ministry early in the first chapter of Mark.  But what does it mean?  What time?  How has it been fulfilled?  How has the kingdom of God come near?  What does it look like?  Repent from what?  And believe in the good news?  What is this good news that we’re supposed to believe in?  That the kingdom of God has come near?  We’ve already pointed out the problem with that.  So what are we supposed to do with all this?

            If I seem a little frenetic right now, it’s because I am.  Mark’s gospel does this to me: for five of the last six weeks the lectionary has had us in Mark, and we’re not even out of the first chapter yet!  First Jesus was baptized in the Jordan by John the Baptist, then we took a quick jump over to John’s gospel to see him call Philip and Nathanael.  Then back to Mark’s gospel, where we find out that John the Baptist has been arrested, and Jesus begins his ministry in Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”  As he’s passing along the sea of Galilee he sees Simon and Andrew, then also James and John.  Now hold onto your seats because as soon as he sees them he calls them, and they immediately drop what they’re doing and follow him.

            From there they go straight to Capernaum, and on the Sabbath they enter the synagogue where Jesus begins to teach in such a way that astounds everyone, and even casts out a demon from their midst.  And at once his fame begins to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.  Now as soon as they leave the synagogue, they enter the house of Simon, where they at once tell Jesus about Simon’s sick mother in law, whom he heals.

            Then that very evening at sundown, the whole city gathers around the door to the house, hoping to be healed.  And he does indeed heal many, well into the night.  Just a few hours later, while it’s still dark, Jesus goes off by himself to pray.  Before he’s there long his disciples find him, and he tells them it’s time to move on, that there’s work to do elsewhere.  So they go and continue proclaiming the gospel throughout Galilee.

            And then a leper finds him and begs him, saying, “If you choose, you can make me clean.”  And moved with either pity or anger—the Greek isn’t clear which—Jesus says, “I do choose.  Be made clean.”  And immediately the leper is healed.  And at once Jesus sends him away with a stern warning, which the leper ignores, and Jesus is forced into the countryside because of his fame, but even in the wilderness people come to him from every quarter.

            Did you follow all that?  That’s chapter one.

            One thing Mark’s gospel is clear about: Jesus is on a mission, and he doesn’t have any time to waste.  His mission we know: he’s already told us.  Last week we heard him say, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the good news there also; for that is what I came out to do.” (Mark 1:38)  And that lines up well with how he began his ministry: with the words, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”  And back at the beginning we are, and round and round we go, and don’t you just love circular arguments so early on a Sunday morning?

            But the urgency of Jesus’ message should tell us something.  The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near.  It’s here now!  Things are different today than they were yesterday.  The waiting is over!  God’s kingdom has broken out of the constraints of heaven and is flooding over the earth as we speak!  Come on, come on, there’s no time to waste!

            The breaking in of God’s kingdom on earth means things are changing, and changing quickly.  Jesus’ frenetic activity at the beginning of Mark’s gospel testifies to this.  He’s both telling people about the kingdom of heaven, and demonstrating what it is.  He doesn’t go to the chief priests and scribes, or to other established religious authorities.  He finds some ordinary, run of the mill, nothing-special-about-them-whatsoever fishermen, and teaches them a new way to fish.  He transforms their ordinary lives into lives of extraordinary service and ministry.  He inspires them to leave behind what they know, what is comfortable, familiar, and respectable, and go with him into the unknown.  They cease to be regular working schmoes, and they become instead servants of the kingdom, bondmen of the king.  Repent, and believe in the good news.

            In the synagogue, he teaches with authority, but even more importantly, he casts out a demon.  And not just any demon.  He casts out a demon that had possessed a man who attended the synagogue.  Technically it was wrong for Jesus to heal on the Sabbath, but this was one of their own, so exceptions might possibly be made.  Here is a man, a member of their community, a regular at worship, possessed by a demon, making him a poser and a fraud within their midst, and Jesus restores him to his rightful place.  A poser and a fraud no more, Jesus reveals the deception, and removes the barrier that prevented this man from being a genuine member of the community.  Repent, and believe in the good news.

            Without a break, Jesus ends up confronted by Simon’s sick mother-in-law.  Now this is a woman and therefore a second class citizen, but also a matriarch in a properly observant Jewish home.  Stretching the bounds of acceptability, Jesus heals her (still on the Sabbath).  She’s not an insider as much as the man at the synagogue was, but she’s not really an outsider, either.  She’s on the fringe.  And Jesus reaches out and heals her, too.  Repent, and believe in the good news.

            Many in the community who are sick or demon-possessed seek him, and no one is turned away.  The kingdom of God cares that its citizens are suffering, and uses its bounty of grace to ease their pain.  Repent, and believe in the good news.

            Even those who are outside the city, outside the community, even those who are shunned and cast out of society, even they are welcomed.  The beggar in today’s gospel has risked his life going into the public square, knowing that he is considered unclean, and that anyone who touches him even accidentally will also be unclean, and shunned.  He’s dangerous, and he’s feared.  But he’s also a sad, sorrowful, broken human being, and he recognizes that with Jesus, things have changed.  He knows he has no right to demand anything, but instead he asks, he begs, “If you choose, you can make me clean.”  It’s not his physical suffering he wants relief from—he doesn’t say, “If you choose, you can heal my leprosy”—rather he wants to be made clean, and let back into the community.  And according to the charter of the kingdom of God, he should be.  Not because he deserves it, not because he’s entitled to it or it’s his due, not because he’s a good person who asked nicely, but because the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near.  And Jesus stretches out his hand and touches the man, making himself unclean with that touch, because to touch a leper is to be as a leper yourself.

            Only, immediately with that touch, the leper is no more a leper, and neither he nor Jesus is unclean.  Jesus has declared him clean, and clean he is.  Repent, and believe in the good news.

            I’ll give you a preview of the weeks and months to come.  Jesus never slows down.  Mark’s gospel is full of words like immediately, as soon as, and at once.  The breaking in of the kingdom of God is too big, too great, too radical to gently ease people into.  It’s a flood of love and grace, humble sacrifice and acceptance, and too many people are in such desperate need to hear it that we don’t have time to go slowly.  Are you an ordinary, run of the mill, nothing-special-about-you-whatsoever working schmoe?  Perfect!  You’re just who God wants!  Because you’re wrong; there is something special about you.  Jesus came to call you to something extraordinary, using the skills and talents that you already have to do the work of the kingdom.  And those weaknesses and failings you have that make you think you’re not really cut out for the job?  Don’t bother trying to hide them; Jesus already knows about them, and he doesn’t care.  Your humanness, your brokenness, is exactly what makes you uniquely qualified to reach out to people just like you, who also don’t think they’re worthy.  Because there is no one—no one—who is beyond the reach of Christ’s mercy.

            It doesn’t matter if you’re already on the inside of the community, on its fringes, or well outside its bounds.  The waiting for your salvation is over.  It’s time for you to be welcomed home, and loved and accepted as you are.  Turn from the things that try to convince you that God couldn’t possibly love you, and know that that turning is possible, and you can be free.  Or, put another way:  The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.  Amen.