“And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” Mk Ch1, Vs15 KJV

What time was it?

It was widely understood by the Jews that John the Baptist was Elijah (aka. Elias) re-incarnated, the prophet who was promised to reveal the Messiah. Mark was suggesting to Jewish listeners that The Master was their promised Messiah, but without saying it explicitly for fear of the Romans, to whom a Messiah would be a challenge to their authority in Judea.

[Later, on the mount of the transfiguration, Peter would receive inspiration from the Holy Ghost, and confess to The Master, that he knew that he was the Messiah.  The Master warned him never to say it publicly while he was yet alive.]

John had just been put in prison either after the baptism of The Master, or before he actually met The Master (depending on which gospel you read). His follower, of which there were many thousand, were beginning to look for a new leader after John was arrested. And this was assumed to be The Master, though even John was not sure he was the promised Messiah.

Now, leaders always came in pairs, and one usually dies before the second could come to power. Moses had to die to give way to Joshua. Similarly Elisha gave way to Elias. Here John the Baptist gives way to The Master.

The Master brought the Kingdom of God to Israel.  Paul would later teach that being  “in Christ,” was being in the Kingdom of God. Much later on, the Church Fathers’ of the second century taught that The Master himself actually was the Kingdom of God.

Now the next phrase is critical for all of people “repent ye.”

Here, The Master is addressing us  as a group (he did not say “thee” which addresses an individual.). Repentance is a behavior that requires involvement of the entire Church. Not something you can do alone. In the early Christian communities, as described in the Pauline letters, everyone in the congregation looked out for everyone else. There was no private repentance. Repentance was not something a brother did alone with a Bible in his hands.

Repentance was the procedure used to stop sinning altogether. It demanded a lifestyle change.

The Jewish procedure  was called “Teshuva.”  In Greek the word which referenced this procedure was “Metanoia.” which was interpreted as the need  to “turn around, to turn away from the sin of the “world” and instead to look to The Father.”

It required that the Jews live a righteous life. Teshuva contained instruction on what to do, to be declared righteous by God YHVH. When The Master said “repent ye” the Judeans, and Galileans would have understood that The Master was calling them to “Teshuva.”

Peter, the originator of the gospel of Mark, knew Teshuva, but when Mark wrote down “metanoia,” as the central distinguishing feature of Teshuva, he clearly did not have the knowledge of Teshuva - Mark was neither Jewish nor a baptized Christian and was not a disciple of The Master. In the English translation of the NT  the word “metanoia”  - “repentance” - was understood as something you did in order to stop doing something you shouldn’t be doing; a single act for a particular sin. The idea of repentance being a life long struggle to do the Will of God, was lost.

In the early catholic Church repentance was associated with personal confession of sins to a Priest, with the promise to try to do better, but with little expectation that the sinful act or thought would never be repeated. In the Episcopal Church we don’t talk about repentance anymore, except during Lent, and the result is that hardly anyone knows what the Bible means when it tells us to repent. Most people associate it with forgiveness only. The Master teaches that each of us must forgive any brother we have harmed before we come to the altar rail and offer ourselves to God. As a group we must ask for forgiveness of one another; then as a group we face the altar and ask God to forgive us.

“But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.” Mark 11:26, KJV.

But this penitential act is not “Teshuva.”  for which there are only brief reminders of a procedure. Every Jew would have been taught Teshuva since a young man. : John the Baptist said:

“Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, ...” Luke 3:7, 8, KJV.

“And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits;” “And they went out, and preached that men should repent.” Mark 6:7, 12, KJV.

To find out what both John and Jesus meant by “repent,” we have to look to our lectionary. There in the writings of the lectionary, we find rules for repentance that The Master may have taught his disciples.

Of the many reasons we all come to Church; the most important is the opportunity to show our love for God and to demonstrate love for one another. The Master said:

“These things I command you, that ye love one another.” John 15:17, KJV.

The Master gave this command to his disciples at the very end of his ministry, so that they would have it clearly in their minds while they were alone waiting for the “comforter” to come. 

In Church,  we say prayers and hymns, and are reminded of what it means to love one another.

The Liturgical kalendars of: Roman, Orthodox, Anglican, Episcopalian, and Lutheran churches instruct the congregations throughout the year, of what must be done to truly repent. The collect, and readings for the day have been chosen to remind the congregation of what must be done for repentance at that time of the year.  Of course, most congregations no longer recognize the meaning of the instructions.