Luke 3:1-6
1 In the fifteenth year of the
reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod
was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and
Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, 2 during the high
priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah
in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the
region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the
forgiveness of sins, 4 as it is written in
the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, "The voice of one crying out
in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be
filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be
made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; 6 and all flesh shall
see the salvation of God.' "
In the fifteenth year of the reign of
Emperor Tiberius… the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the
wilderness.
·
I mean, who cares, really? Does it
make any difference when, where, and under which crazed emperor of the practical,
powerful, and repressive Roman Empire that the word of God came to John the
Baptizer? Couldn’t the word of God have come just as easily and as powerfully
to some person in Rome or in Damascus or in some other city?
·
As far as caring goes, we should
care about a number of these things. Whether John began his ministry under the
reign of Tiberius, or Augustus or even Nero does make some difference. The
difference is time. All of the three mentioned were emperors of Rome, but at
different times. To say that John began to preach in the fifteenth year of
Tiberius’ reign gives an exact year. Tiberius was emperor from 14 AD to 37 AD,
which would put the beginning of John’s ministry of preaching sometime in the
year 29 AD.
·
Suddenly this becomes very real, doesn’t
it? Many people don’t think about God’s action and God’s grace taking place in
the so-called “real world.” So much of what we read in the Scripture appears to
take place in some misty past without an anchor in our conception of time.
Hearing that John the Baptizer began his mission of preaching repentance in the
year 29 AD might be something new to us.
·
When Luke wrote this, he was telling
Christians the story of the Good News as he had heard it, including the time
frame based on the rulers of the area and the service of the high priests of
the Temple. These were people that were celebrities of a sort and whose lives
and actions might be common knowledge. To say John began his preaching at that
same time places all this in a specific point in time. We also know the Jesus
began his mission soon after John was arrested by Herod, the same Herod Luke
told of. Why was John arrested? For taking Herod to task for marrying this
brother’s wife, his brother being the same Philip that Luke mentioned. There
seem to be a lot of hooks on which to hang this story.
·
Another hook is where this all takes
place. Luke says the word of God came to John
son of Zechariah in the wilderness. The wilderness he mentions is a
certain place, actually the desert to the east of the Jordan River or the
barren places around the Dead Sea, the place where John is believed to have
been living in a communal and almost monastic situation among exceptionally devout
Jews. He preached to real people about real things in a real place. Of course, the
idea of “the wilderness” is a loaded one, carrying hints and memories of the
wandering years in the desert following the Exodus from Egypt, a time of
special dependence on God and of special closeness to God.
·
Real times… real people… real places…
·
When Luke’s Gospel comes down to us,
all these references – dry history as they might appear to be – serve to remind
us that in Jesus, God entered into God’s creation. Note that God “entered” into
creation, not simply “intervened.” There are many who see the power of God in
storms, in floods, in the events of the day, any or all of which could be taken
as divine intervention in the every-day doings of the world and the people of
the world. However, in Jesus, the Creator becomes part of creation, becomes a creature
within the world as we know it and experience it.
·
It’s quite a different thing.
Intervention is temporary; entrance into (or in a more theological term for it,
incarnation) is permanent. As John
the Evangelist says in the first chapter of his Gospel: And the Word became flesh and
lived among us… (John 1:14a)
·
For us, this means that God, who
entered creation in a most intimate way, remains in his creation. For us, this
means that God acts in the real world and more often than not acts and works
through what and, more importantly, through people who have been created. The
time is right and the time is real, all indicated by the listing of the earthly
powers. The place is right as well, and John’s preaching in the wilderness
calls the people back to their original relationship with the God of the Exodus
and the God who brought them back from their exile in Babylon.
·
There is one last thing to be seen
here. Luke lists the rulers and governors of the area, all of which have been
imposed by a foreign power, and the high priests of the Temple, who were
collaborating with the Roman occupiers for their own purposes. This listing
does place John’s ministry (and Jesus’!) in time and space, but it goes beyond
that. The names and places and dates are convenient milestones but neither
honoured nor given much power. They are contrasted with the word of God that
came to John in the wilderness, the word that heralds the Kingdom and Reign of
God, where the real power is found.
·
In our own time, in this Advent and
in this time of trouble, when we hear of atrocities and massacres almost daily,
the message of Christians is that God is still present and active, often in and
through his people.
·
I’m sure you’ve seen the news reports
about the shootings in the United States. I mourn all that is happening in the
land of my birth. You’ve probably seen some reports or editorials about the
futility and ridiculousness of prayer in these situations. I for one think we
should pray, especially for those suffering from these attacks. And we need to
roll up our sleeves to work to end both terror and injustice. Maybe our
greatest prayer would be to ask for the strength, the courage, and the wisdom
to go out and act in such a way so as to heal the suffering and to find real
solutions in this all-too-real time. Well, that’s just my opinion.
·
In any event, Luke places God’s
action in our world and in our history. Real times, real people, real places,
real grace, real faith, and it all gets more and more real until we see the
star over the manger… and all flesh shall see the salvation of
God.
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