The big rethink

When we look for authentic answers to our deep existential questions, we normally rely on our wits: we read books, we follow lectures, we discuss with those more informed than ourselves, and we think it all through. We seldom pause to realise that all this happens on a purely human level; we probably weren’t looking for divine in-put anyway.

When we open the New Testament, however, and start seeking there for potential answers, we may well be struck by an unusual word, a challenging call. Whether it is Jesus (Matthew 4.17), or John the Baptiser (Matthew 3.2), or the apostle Peter (Acts 2.38) or the apostle Paul (Acts 20.21) – the same challenge rings out: it is the call to “repent”. Jesus is radical: “Unless you repent,” he affirms, “you will perish” (Luke 13.3, 5). 

This call has a double meaning, requiring a double dose of humility. Firstly, Jesus calls his followers to have a big re-think. It’s as if he knows that whatever anyone thinks (about the big questions), they’ve got it wrong! Another way of saying it is that Jesus brings the true answers that everyone needs to listen to. By nature we do not have the correct grasp of things – we are ever seeking, often very conscious of how far we are from getting good answers. If you’re in that frame of mind, be happy! You’re on the right track. You need light from the One who said, “I am the Light of the world” (John 8.12). As you rethink and put faith in the true answers that Jesus brought, you will be wisely led: as Jesus said, “he who seeks, finds” (Luke 11.9).

Secondly – and this is even more humbling – we have to re-think the way we are living. To repent means to turn away from all that is wrong, to reject sin in all its many forms, and to commit to learning how to live what Jesus would call a good life. This can be quite radical – depending on how deep one may have gone into various ungodly life-styles. But it is absolutely beneficial! Jesus’ answers to our existential questions are not merely theoretical: they demand to be heeded and to be translated into how we live. He teaches us what true fulfilment really is – how human beings find the deep happiness we long for (not the frothy gaiety that always leaves a hang-over, a deeper emptiness, an aching void). Jesus came, he said, “that people might have life – abundant life” (John 10.10). He speaks of joy and peace that he gives. “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11.28). “If anyone is thirsty,” he cries out using another metaphor, “let him come to me and drink”; “the one who drinks the water that I give him will never thirst – it will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life” (John 7.37, 4.14). Great promises! And Jesus honours them!

So his call is both to believe in him and to repent. This double commitment may take but a moment, but it leads to the most fulfilling life possible for a human being. Obviously it needs to be nourished, informed by the reading of Jesus’ teachings, but here is the key to the kind of life that we all, deep down, long for but cannot find. 

Clive Every-Clayton