It was a part of Jesus’s central message. “From that time Jesus began to proclaim, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near,’” Matthew 4:17 NRSV. 

The kingdom of God (Matthew’s gospel uses the term “kingdom of heaven”) was the central focus of Jesus’s teaching and preaching - at least, that’s what the gospel writers said. (Which raises the question: why isn’t the kingdom the central focus of our churches? Why do we, his followers today, know so little about the kingdom or talk so little about it? But I digress.)

The good news Jesus proclaimed was that the kingdom “has come near.” The language he used means “here, now.” Jesus said the kingdom was a present reality, not something in a far-off future. It was here, now, in their midst. It was something those who were listening to him could experience in their own lives. They could be a part of it. He called people – and he calls us - to be a part of the kingdom.

Jesus’s invitation to be a part of the kingdom was contained in the word “repent.”

What did Jesus mean by the term? How does repentance help us experience the kingdom and be a part of it?

The common, popular understanding of repentance focuses on behavior. Repentance is described as “turning around,” an about face. According to this understanding, to repent is to change the way we live. This changing of our behavior is generally accompanied by a sense of sorrow or regret, i.e., the acknowledgement of wrong. In this understanding, repentance involves recognizing our wrong and resolving to change. This understanding of the word repent is based upon the word in the Hebrew Scriptures that is translated as “repent.” That Hebrew word is the word “turn.” Thus, to repent is to turn around or do an about face.

The word Jesus used in his invitation to be a part of the kingdom was a different word, not this Hebrew word meaning “turn.” The Greek word used by the gospel writers, also translated as “repent,” is a word that refers to thinking, not behavior. The word literally means “with the mind.” The word suggests that repentance is about thinking with a different mind.

This difference – repentance as a matter of the mind rather than behavior - is significant. How we think and what we think determines what we see and what we do. For example, how and what we think about another person determines how we treat them. When we think of someone as a friend, we joyfully welcome them and open our hearts to them. When we view someone as a stranger, we are reserved and distant in how we treat them. When we think of someone as an enemy, we avoid them. Our thinking determines our behavior. Changing our behavior requires a change in our thinking.

In calling people to be a part of the kingdom, Jesus called them to think with a different mind. A change in how they thought was the key to their being able to experience the kingdom and be a part of it.

This call to change how we think is rooted in a truth proclaimed about the ways of God by an unnamed prophet associated with the exile. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts," Isaiah 55:8-9.

Our default way of thinking is at odds with the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 2:6-10). Consequently, our ways are at odds with the ways of God that Jesus taught – the ways of the kingdom. (Notice how the prophet links thinking – “my thoughts” - with behavior – “my ways.”)

Our thinking is a factor in our experience of the kingdom. As long as we think the way the world trained us to think, we will not recognize the kingdom even though it is here, now. More than not recognizing the kingdom, as long as we live out of our default way thinking, we will resist the kingdom.

We see this reality in the criticism of Jesus by the Pharisees. On more than one occasion, Jesus healed people on the Sabbath – a man with a withered hand (Matthew 12:9-14), a woman who was crippled (Luke 13:10-17). The reaction of the Pharisees to these healings was to criticize Jesus for violating the Sabbath. They attacked him for breaking the laws governing the Sabbath. The Pharisees reacted out of the way they had been taught to think by their religious training. That training focused on rules, laws, and religious norms. It emphasized conformity to those rules and laws and religious expectations. Their thinking blocked their ability to feel compassion for the individuals Jesus healed. It prevented them from recognizing the presence of the kingdom in the work of Jesus.   

The way the world has trained us to think is merit-based thinking. This kind of thinking, like that of the scribes and Pharisees, focuses upon behavior as prescribed in rules, laws, and social norms. It judges people based upon their conformity to or violation of those rules, laws, and social norms. It uses the language of “should, need to, ought to, must” along with “deserves” and “doesn’t deserve.” Merit-based thinking produces us-them thinking which, in turn, leads to better than-less than thinking. It results in hierarchal relationships in which some enjoy greater standing, value, significance, and power than others. It produces transactional, if . . . then relationships.

This merit-based way of thinking blocks our ability to recognize the kingdom that is here, now. It blocks our ability to experience the kingdom and be a part of it.

Experiencing the kingdom and being a part of it requires us to repent, that is, to think with a different mind. It calls us to learn from the Spirit the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 2:7-16) and the ways of God that Jesus taught (John 14:25-26; 16:12-15). It calls us to take on the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). Experiencing and being a part of the kingdom involves learning a different way of thinking – the way of grace and forgiveness, the way of viewing and valuing, accepting and embracing every person (without exception) as a beloved child of God, the way of using power the way God uses power – in life-giving, life-nurturing ways that address the needs of others (to serve), the way that focuses on the transformation of the heart and mind rather than the conformity of our behavior to rules, laws, and social norms. 

The apostle Paul spoke of learning to think differently as the heart of being a follower of Jesus. “Stop letting the world press you into its mold. Rather, be transformed by the renewing of your mind,” (Romans 12:2, personal translation). The world, Paul said, has already shaped our thinking. It trained us to think in terms of merit, of earning and deserving, of us-them, of better than-less than. The good news is the Spirit is at work in us, teaching us the ways of God that Jesus taught. Learning to think differently is the key to a transformed life and to being a part of the kingdom.

The kingdom is a present reality We can be a part of it today by living as the followers of Jesus, learning and living the ways of God he taught. 

Repentance – learning to think differently - opens the door to the kingdom.