The Time is at Hand
By: Jon U
Tags: Christian, God, Jesus, Christianity, Christian Living

Repent! “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” [Mark 1:15]

Some of you might be thinking what have we gotten ourselves into with this guy!? We have a street preacher telling us it’s the end times?! It’s actually not what you may think. I’ll come back to this. So when I was in grad school the first time around at Clemson, I had received money from family and friends as a graduation gift from FSU. My plan was to use this money to buy a kayak. Between moving expenses and just plain and simple poor budgeting, I spent the money. I figured that money was for the kayak. I’ll buy it after church on Sunday with the credit card. I mean the way I looked at it was, it really was the same money I just needed to figure out where the already spent money came from That is “really” what I’m financing.

Well, I get to church. And this is a time when I’m really starting to understand what it means to hear from God. My faith was just starting to develop. That morning the preacher began a series about money. About how financial responsibility is a spiritual issue. My heart sank. I felt like he was reading my thoughts, and preaching straight to me. I had a choice. Right in front of me was presented a situation and I could stay the course or I could turn away from the original course and make a different course. I knew what I had to do. So I bought the kayak….. KIDDING! I knew I was not to do that. I knew it was not God’s will.

I recall another time. I was about to do something I knew I shouldn’t. I think it involved money again. Either that or something relationship-oriented? I was ready to do that, and on my radio came on the Verve Pipe song titled “I Want All of You.” That was like a little dagger stabbing me in the heart. God was saying God wanted all of me not just some of me. I knew it was not a coincidence.

So, what does any of this have to do with Mark?: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the good news.” You’ve likely heard people say or maybe even have said yourselves:

The bible is clear on this

“This” meaning whatever subject at hand. What is actually meant by this is: my understanding of this scripture is clear. Look! It’s in the text! Well, outside of the original language, culture, and context, it is not always as clear. The New Testament of the bible was written in Koine Greek, which is an ancient form of Greek spoken by commoners rather than aristocracy. It is not the same Greek spoken today in Greece. So let’s examine this scripture in the Greek.

While these two texts tell the same basic story, there is a subtle difference. Matthew does not include the word “time,” but Mark does. The word that was translated into time here in Mark is kairos. The Greeks had 2 different words for time. Kairos and Chronos. For those of you getting bored with the language study, just stay with me here. Chronos, (xrónos), is translated as age (1), all (1), delay (1), exact time (1), long (5), long ages (2), long* (1), period (2), time (30), times (5), while (5).

Kairos, (καιρὸς), on the other hand, translates into fitting season, season, opportunity, occasion, or time. So what does this mean?! Jesus here, is not saying this is the end of the world, repent now. If that was the message, it would be Chronos. But it was Kairos. It’s like he is saying: in this moment, in this fitting season, I am ushering in the kingdom of God. Repent and believe.

The next keyword is metaneo, (μετανοέω), which translates into repent. Talk about a word that gets a bad wrap! Repent, means to change mind, change an action, or, as more commonly referred to by evangelists, change one’s inner posture toward God.

3DM ministries describes these “kairos moments” as grace-filled opportunities where we can change the trajectory of our life.

In this “kairos moment”: Jesus came to Peter, Andrew, James, and John and said because I am here with you, now, in this moment, you have an opportunity. He did not say to them, make a choice for me as your savior or perish in eternal fire.

This was kairos, an opportunity, not chronos, the ultimate time.

So going back to my story… The kairos, the moment in which God intersected me was the preaching on financial responsibility. God intersected my path. By changing my decision that was repentance and believing was following through on that changed decision. The trajectory of my life changed even if in a small way.

So I could hear another question being is this really what the passage is about? Did it not say “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel”? Isn’t the bigger picture about becoming a Christian? About following Christ?

Yes, that is true. Jesus offered those listening something new. That is what all of his signs were about. He was fulfilling prophecies from the scriptures and He was living out his preaching. He was talking the talk AND walking the walk. This was evidence of a new era. The kingdom of God is here. It hasn’t been completely fulfilled. The world has not been fully reconciled and redeemed in its current state. But, Jesus ushered in something new. He also awakened us to a new understanding of how to live.

Jesus’s message and all of his signs point to repentance love. Heart matters. Not just knowing the right rules. Jesus opened a new pathway to commune with God.

So what does this mean for each of us? Maybe some of you are not sure where you stand with believing in God. Maybe this is your kairos moment, your fitting season, your opportunity to repent meaning to change your posture toward God. The fact many of you are here, your posture is already changed you want to know more to take the next step. Here is where this example I gave about the kayak fits into the text.

The fascinating thing about studying theology more deeply is learning about how intricate the scriptures really are. There are surface meanings, but there is so much more. When you extract this verse “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” ….. It can sound like a street preacher sign. But when you read it in the context of the entirety of scripture it has a much larger theme. In fact, it has many themes.

When you look at John chapter 8, the woman was caught in adultary, and Jesus told the Pharisees, let he without sin cast the first stone, then he said go and sin no more. There was the kairos moment, the fitting season to change. It was the kairos for the Pharisees, the religious leaders to stop being hypocrites, and for the woman to change the trajectory of her life. Why the man participating in adultery was not addressed is for another time.

In John chapter 4, the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus shared with her that he is the living water, the messiah. How did she repent? She became the first female evangelist in the gospel of John.

The time is here. God has convicted you or invited you to change something. What will you do?

Let’s look at repent again. What is this about? Is this a one time thing? Was this Kairos moment for the deciples a one time offer to change one thing and them move on? No, as theologian Stanley Hauerwas states, repentance requires training called discipleship. The mission of the United Methodist Church is: Make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi to follow him. That was Levi’s kairos moment. Levi became known as Matthew, one of the original disciples. How did he repent? He became a disciple! Being a tax collector then was more like being a loan shark. No one likes the IRS, but these are not the same type of professions. Tax collectors then illegally extorted people. Matthew left the illegitimate profession and became a follower of Jesus.

This verse: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” is a theme of God intersecting in the world and inviting us to make a change. We have simple kairos, one-time changes to make throughout life. And discipleship trains us to recognize these throughout the journey.

These moments happen all the time. Not just on Sunday when the misfit minister is talking too much upfront. Following these prompts. Part of discipleship, is life-long, and ongoing. If we do not follow these prompts to change, then we just admire Jesus rather than follow him.

So, the Kingdom of God is at hand. What is God calling you to do? Is God saying to end an unhealthy relationship? To not buy something you can’t really afford? To take a leap of faith and take that new job across the country? What?

I’ll leave us with this brief conversation noted by Hauerwas. Try and note what the kairos moment is that is slapping one of these brothers in the face is. Take note of what discipleship looks like:

A story that James McClendon tells about Clarence Jordan, the founder of the Koinonia Community, an interracial farm in Georgia, wonderfully illumines the difference between being a disciple and those who simply admire Jesus. In the early 1950s it is said that Clarence asked his brother, Robert Jordan, who would later be a state senator and a justice on the Georgia Supreme Court, to represent Koinonia Farm legally. His brother replied: