I Need to Give-Up My Agenda

Advent & Christmas

December 14, 2023

I Need to Give-Up My Agenda

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

Mark 1:15 (NRSV)

Read: Mark 1:14-15

Two things caught my attention in this passage. When Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near”, I think of the prophecy in Isaiah 40 of the second Exodus, of God coming in person to establish his Kingdom on earth. There are some references to the fulfillment of the prophecy coming after 70 times 7 years, which would roughly coincide with the time Jesus spoke these words. Thus, those who heard Jesus make this proclamation, heard Jesus’ claim to fulfill the prophecy, that he, Jesus, was God coming to His Kingdom. The Gospel of John is not the only place where the divinity of Jesus is revealed. (We can also see this in Mark’s quoting of Isaiah 40 and Malachi 1 in the opening passage of Mark 1)

Secondly, the word, repent, caught my attention. I quoted the NRSV above because the NLT added some words; “Repent of your sins.” That is not incorrect, but it connotes turning away from things you should not be doing. I think Jesus had something deeper in mind. By the end of Jesus’ mission many of his first followers turned away from him because he was not living up to their expectations. They were not so much interested “in the blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.” (Matthew 11:5) They wanted a Messiah who would form a great army, drive out the Romans and establish Israel as a great nation. To those people, Jesus said repent. Repent from your agenda, repent from your idea of how God should rule His Kingdom. Repent and believe in God’s Good News.

My Takeaway: I need to give up my agenda because my life does not belong to me. By creation and redemption my life belongs to God.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2023 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.