(I handled this sermon more as a Bible study.)
Luke
3:1-2
Luke
starts off with a Who’s Who of political and religious leadership. Everybody who’s anybody relevant gets
mentioned. He’s doing this to not only
root the ministry of John the Baptist into history but he’s also making a
theological point. Or perhaps I should
say he’s making a theological jab.
I
think it is supposed to come off as cynical that after listing all the high
people and places the word of God comes to… John son of Zechariah. Of course we the readers know who Zechariah
and John are but no one else does – least of all the people listed before.
And
does the word of God come to some important or holy place? Does it come to Rome, or to a capital city,
or to a great school, or to the temple in Jerusalem? No. It
comes to an otherwise unknown man in the wilderness. It comes to noplaceville. Just like Jesus growing up in Nazareth- which
was basically no place.
It
is an easy trap for us to think that the word of God would somehow appear more
clearly in a holy place, a church, and be spoken through a religious
expert. But this is not the case. God can speak anywhere and through anyone;
perhaps even through someone we consider to be an enemy. It does not do to restrict God’s word to
where you expect it and from whom you expect it.
My
first year in seminary I had to take a systematic theology class. Systematic theology is all about developing
your religious ideas and putting them into an understandable order. I didn’t like the class. I’m no philosopher but I know that all
philosophical systems are ultimately circular.
Where you begin already determines where you’ll end. The same goes for systematic theology. Still though, I admit it is necessary to have
one’s belief make some sort of sense. One
of our papers was to write the system behind our own beliefs. I pounced on a line from Karl Barth, who was
a theologian we had studied. He wrote,
“Theology is a free science because it is based on and determined by the kingly
freedom of the word of God; for that very reason it can never be ‘Systematic
Theology.’ (Dogmatics in Outline, Harper
Torchbooks, 1970, Pg. 5) I then went on
to explain why I didn’t think forcing your every belief into an orderly system
was good. Not surprisingly the professor
didn’t like that! My grade reflected
that as well! And to this day I have a
love-hate relationship with systematic theology. I recognize its value but I also recognize
that much of basic Christianity resists systematition. The truth is you just can’t put God into a
box. With John the Baptist God was
acting outside of all of the people and places of power. The same will be true with Jesus.
Luke 3:3-6
Here
Luke is loosely quoting from Isaiah 40.
You may remember from our summer series on the prophets that Isaiah 40
comes from the time of the Babylonian exile of the Jews. The Babylonians would have these parades of
their gods along straight smooth highways.
The Jews were picking up on this idea to speak of preparing a highway
from Babylon back to Jerusalem for their own return. Thus Luke is pulling out an old image of
restoration to talk about God doing something dramatic and new.
Luke 3:7-14
The
New Revised Standard Version Bible translation that we use leaves out an
absolutely important word to describe John’s message. It is the word, “therefore”. Verse 7 should read, “Therefore, John said to
the crowds…” Without the ‘therefore’ we
are given no sense as to why John has such a harsh message to those who are
seeking him out.
The
prophet Isaiah, who Luke just quoted, regularly criticized people’s hollow
religious rituals. John is calling that
out. He is pointing out that now is the
time to act. Their priorities need to be
a genuine commitment to living the principles of God, not just lip service.
Consider
this quote from Joel Green in his commentary on Luke, “By labeling the crowds
as a “brood of vipers,” John underscores their hopeless position apart from the
way of repentance he presents to them.
Indeed, his choice of words seems deliberately to contrast with their
supposed self-identification. They are
the offspring of poisonous snakes, not children of Abraham. As elsewhere, to be born of something or
someone is to share its character by nature.
For John, the crowds may claim to be children of Abraham, but their
behavior deviates radically from that of Abraham; their actions suggest the
influence of the viper… poisonous, hostile to life, evil.” (New International
Commentary on the New Testament, Luke, Pg. 175)
Those
are harsh words. They are especially
harsh given that John gives them to the common people who are coming out to
him. The gospel of Matthew records a
similar message from John. However
Matthew applies it to the religious leaders.
They are particular enemies and the people are okay. In Luke’s gospel the message is for
everyone. We have to remember that we do
not have to have great power to be capable of great harm and destruction.
On
hearing this message the crowds ask, “What then should we do?” Again, these are the ordinary people who have
come out into the wilderness who John has called a brood of vipers. What horrible evils are they doing against
God’s will?
John’s
words come across as almost common sense.
“Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none.” Having two coats was a great luxury in those
days. “…and anyone who has food must do
likewise.” When all are working hard in
an agricultural subsistence economy all must share. It is a mistake to directly apply this
teaching to the modern industrial world with our potential for welfare systems,
generational poverty, and the exploitation of the goodness of others. However, what John is calling for does apply
in principle. We should live such a way
that we are aware of the dynamics and the needs of others. We should not live and gather only for
ourselves. We need to live in light of
the community around us and the whole community of humanity.
Tax
collectors come to John. You’ll remember
that tax collectors were generally hated people. They were Jews who had sold themselves out to
the Romans. They were collecting money
from their own people and giving it to their oppressors; to at least in part
fund the ongoing oppression! Shouldn’t
it be obvious that they should stop this and live as honorable Jews? But John just says they should only take what
is their due. John is not creating
racial or national party lines. He is
only calling on everyone to live in fair community. The truth is that despite their many
oppressive flaws the Romans were also capable of great good.
The
same goes for Luke’s advice to the soldiers.
It would be easy to say they should stop what they are doing. It would be entirely consistent with the Old
Testament to tell them to lay down their weapons and radically depend upon God
for protection. But that is not the
case.
Again,
John’s message is highly practical. He
calls on people to work hard, live fairly, and be in community with
others.
Luke
3:15-20
Luke
portrays the adult John as following that which was prophesied at his
birth. He does not see himself as the
messiah. He is not competing with Jesus
for attention. He is doing what he is
called to do. Through the Spirit he knew
the time was at hand. He was pointing
towards Jesus who would soon be coming.
He was subservient to Jesus. He
was a servant of what God was doing.
In the final verses we see John exit
the stage. He is imprisoned. We will hear from him again in chapter 7, but
now the stage is set for Jesus to take over.
We know the stories well so what
happens is no surprise, but we do get a foreshadowing of the trouble Jesus will
get in when we read that John is imprisoned by Herod. It always seems to be the case that when
power systems are threatened they get to work neutralizing the threat.
Jesus will face many challenges
during his ministry. We’ll be reading
them throughout. But none of them are
real threats until Jesus goes to Jerusalem.
Then his ministry directly challenges those who are invested in the
status quo. Then is when he really gets
into trouble.
We leave the story here for
today. Next week we look at Jesus’
baptism and the real beginning of his ministry.
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