Luke 3:1-6
Lesson Focus
Like Israel, we often want salvation without repentance. John calls us to prepare the way of the Lord through our repentance.
Lesson Outcomes
Through this lesson, students should:
Understand that there is no salvation without repentance.
Understand that our repentance is important for God’s mission in the world.
Be encouraged to regularly spend time reflecting on their life for the purpose of confessing and repenting.
Catching Up on the Story
This year, we’ve traveled straight through Luke’s gospel, reading each story leading up to and including Jesus’ birth. We’ve met Zechariah and Elizabeth, an elderly couple unable to have children. We’ve watched as God has promised them a child. We’ve also met Mary, a young girl who was engaged to a man named Joseph. As an angel visited Zechariah, so too does an angel visit her with news no less significant. We’ve watched as she’s pondered all the things the angel said to her. Without hesitation, she allows herself to be used by God for the salvation of the world. In a way that you and I should, Mary bears God in her very being. She is an instrument of God’s good work.
We’ve witnessed the birth of John, Zechariah, and Elizabeth’s child and the birth of Jesus, Mary’s son. Both children’s birth elicits songs of praise from their parents. Praise is the only legitimate response we have when God works in our world.
The story fast-forwards a bit to when Jesus is 12. While his family is on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Jesus finds himself right at home with the rabbis in the Temple area. He is so engrossed in these conversations that he fails to join his parents when it’s time to leave. Mary and Joseph get halfway home before they realize Jesus ‘s been left behind!
If we haven’t figured out by now, the story we’re listening to is no ordinary story. Every detail matters and seeks to communicate something about who Jesus is and what he’s come to do. This week, however, we have one last glimpse at John. He’s a baptist or a baptizer. We’ll find that as much as we might not always like John’s message, he’s too important to overlook.
A Voice from the Wilderness: 3:1-6
Luke is good about giving us temporal markers to help us situate the narrative he’s telling within the larger political and cultural milieu. In fact, a little less than half of the words in this week’s pericope are given to describe who was in power at the time.
Other than helping us set the stage for both John and Jesus’ ministry (and perhaps, the pronunciation land minds present for the poor soul assigned to read this lection), what homiletical good are verses one and two? Should we skip over the Emperor Tiberius and Philip, the ruler of Ituraea, and Luke 3:1-6.
Perhaps not. While there might be a few in our churches who would enjoy a rousing explication and description of each ruler and what they accomplished during their reigns, it would be ill-advised to do so. We must, however, grant that verses one and two have significance for today’s passage, beyond being mere markers of time and based solely on the fact that so much space is given to them. Biblical writers were not in the habit of wasting space on a page.
It may be that verses three through six can offer us some clarity. It has been a while since Luke mentioned John, the baby whose birth was foretold at the beginning of the work. Last we saw John, he had just been born, and his father, again able to speak, offered us a song of praise. Zechariah has faded from view, though, while John comes rolling toward us like a locomotive from the wilderness. We’ll have to wait until next week to get to John’s proclamation, but Luke tells us what John is and will be doing: baptizing people for the forgiveness of sins.
Baptism was not unknown in John’s day; it would have been one of the rituals a gentile would need to go through to convert to Judaism. As such, it was seen as an outward ritual signifying the washing away of sins. Like other similar Jewish ritual washings, the symbolic action would have been deemed ineffective without a corresponding change in inward attitude and external behavior.
The way that Luke frames John’s baptism gives it a bit more heft. By quoting Isaiah 40:3-5, we’re transported back to the turmoil of exile. The context of Isaiah 40 is the hope of Israel’s return home from living in a land not their own. The past was bleak, and the future was uncertain. Safety and stability were not a part of the general mood.
Yet, there was hope for Israel. God promises to prepare the way for Israel to return home. The path shall be straight and even. The journey will be long, but it will not be filled with potholes. This is God’s promise and proclamation to Israel; homecoming is on the horizon.
Luke modifies Isaiah’s beautiful picture of return to suit John’s preparatory function. The voice in the quote isn’t God’s; now it’s John’s. John cries out for the people to participate in preparing the way for the Lord, for the Messiah, the one who will lead them home once more. Salvation is coming, the salvation which all flesh, not just Israel, will see.
The Names
Let’s turn our attention back to the opening two verses, paying close attention to the names of the rulers mentioned. We’ll notice they aren’t very Jewish-sounding—Emperor Tiberius is not a Jew. Neither is Pontius Pilate. Herod, half-Jew, perhaps, but the memory of his family’s reign is not pleasant and is still fresh in Israel’s memory. Of course, we have Annas and Caiaphas, but at this time, the Jews did not have complete autonomy in who the high priest would be. The Romans could reject any candidate not docile enough to pose a threat.
The picture Luke paints is one of exile at home. Israel may reside mainly within the bounds of the Promised Land, but so much of their lives are out of their control. Israel aches and longs for God’s salvation to come again. And John is here to proclaim it.
Since we know the end of this story, we know that Israel’s ache for salvation will lead them to hope that Jesus, as the Messiah, will undo the grip those foreign rulers have and make Israel great again. Consequently, the crowds will easily mobilize to participate in making the paths straight for the Lord. But when Jesus fails to fulfill their expectations, the masses will turn on him.
So What?
I wonder if these brief verses serve as a warning for us. The language of exile has been freely tossed about to describe the church in North America. Protestant political power isn’t what it once was. America isn’t “Christian” anymore. You’ve heard this same song sung in every imaginable key. And, I dare say, there have been modern-day John the Baptist who has called the church to participate in preparing the way for the coming of our modern-day messiah(s). As a consequence, the crowds are easily mobilized.
As we ache for God’s salvation in our world, it is easy to concentrate on the powerful movement of God to radically change the landscape to bring about homecoming without emphasizing enough the fact that the way we participate in our own salvation, as well as God’s mission in the world, is through repentance.
I think this is what those who rejected Jesus did. They wanted salvation without repentance. I believe this is what many in our congregations wish for, too. We want God to remake our land into something moral and upright again, but we don’t want to repent of our own complicity in its decline. So, as we continue to anticipate the coming of our salvation this Advent, as we ache for God to move in and among us, let us first confess that our exile is our own doing. Let us repent and walk in a different direction. Let us begin to bear the fruit of our grateful response to God’s constant love and fidelity.
Discussion Questions
Read the text aloud. Then, read the text to yourself quietly. Read it slowly, as if you were very unfamiliar with the story.
Luke starts by giving us a list of those who were the civil leaders of the day. Why would Luke start this part of the narrative this way?
What do you notice about the ethnicities of the names and places mentioned? Why might the ethnicity of those mentioned matter?
Luke tells us that John went about proclaiming a baptism for repentance and the forgiveness of sins. What does repentance mean? Who do you think John’s main audience is? Why would they need repentance?
Luke quotes Isaiah 40:3-4. The context for this part of Isaiah is Israel’s exile. Why would John use a quote that was written to exiles? Who do you imagine is the speaker in Isaiah 40?
Does the part of the speaker change as Luke quotes it? How might Israel’s situation in John’s day be similar or different from the exile? What might the connection be between Israel’s exile and the coming of Jesus the Messiah?
While some in Israel accepted John’s message, others did not, yet they were still hopeful for the coming of the Messiah. Is it possible to reject John’s message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins and still accept Jesus’ offer of salvation? What makes you think that?
Since we know the end of the story, we know that Israel ends up rejecting Jesus because he does not bring the kind of salvation they were looking for. What kind of salvation were they looking for? What kind of salvation does Jesus bring?
Israel seemed to want salvation without owning the fact that they needed repentance and forgiveness. Do we ever do the same thing? If so, how? If not, why?
How might our repentance help prepare the way for the Lord? How is our repentance tied to God’s mission in the world?
This week, spend time each day reflecting on your life. Ask God to reveal to you the things of which you need to repent. Then, spend some time in confession and repentance.
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