Luke 3
Luke begins this chapter by again
dating the material with mention of the Caesar, the governor and the king. He also identifies who the high priests
were. These foreshadow what will be
happening throughout the gospel. What is
interesting is that the word of God does not come to these supposedly important
people but comes to an unknown prophet in the wilderness. John the Baptist calls on people to change
their lives through baptism and wanting God to forgive their sins. The redemptive work of which Mary sang in the
Magnificat is under way: “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones/
and lifted up the lowly.” Luke 1:52. In
all ages God’s work proceeds among the poor and the disposed. This is not just a metaphorical or spiritual
sense but Luke is insistent that this is what is true.
Luke quotes Isaiah a number of
times in the gospel. In all the gospels
Isaiah is often quoted to describe the ministries of John and Jesus. This forms the basis of Jesus’ message to
us. It is often turning things upside
down. From Gonzales, “The words in the
context of Isaiah convey a message of hope.
The people who are in exile are to be led back home through the
wilderness, where the voice of one who cries announce that the Lord will
prepare a highway over the desert.”[1] Luke does not portray John as an unheeded
prophet but rather as one who, like the prophets of old, announces the opening
of the way to freedom and salvation.
What John announces is a baptism of repentance, but it is more than
that. The baptism is more than the water
but is also a time of transformation.
John’s preaching contains three
emphases: a prophetic warning against the coming judgment, a call to justice
and compassion in our dealing with others, and a confession of the coming Messiah. Today we continue to need to hear his words
in our churches and in our lives. From
the Wesley Study Bible, “Wesley suggested that modern Christians may gain false
confidence from their participation in the ‘visible church’ just as the ancient
Jews gained false confidence from being children of Abraham. Any such false confidence is worthless; the
‘ax is already at the root’ of those trees.
John’s message emphasizes judgment, but even news of judgment can be
good news if it brings people to genuine repentance and moral transformation.”[2]
“Repentance has consequences. If a
genuine change of mind and direction in life occurs as a result of repentance,
then one should see the fruit of repentance.
Wesley call it ‘fruits meet for repentance’ (Sermon 43, iii.2). He anticipates that truly repentant believers
will, for example, cease ‘from doing evil…and learn to do well.’ Such good works do not merit salvation, of
course. Wesley does not advocate works
righteousness. The only condition for
salvation is the provision of God’s gracious gift through Jesus Christ, which
people receive through faith. Spiritual
changes, however, result in other changes in how people think, speak, and act.”[3]
So how do those changes
appear. John points out in concrete ways
how one’s repentance will produce fruit.
“Those have to do with justice and the well ordering of society. Those who have food or clothing must share
them with the needy. Greed must not rule
even in tax collectors and soldiers, among whom extortion is customary. They are satisfied with what is rightfully
theirs on the basis of their work.
Repentance requires obedience, correction, and—in those cases where
others have been wronged and compensation is possible—restitution.”[4]
Because John is standing up to injustice,
he attacks King Herod and his marriage to his brother’s wife whom he had
killed. Luke does not go into a great
deal of the history so as to not take away from the contrast between John and
Jesus. John’s “good news” is not good
news to everyone especially those who are in power and are unwilling to
repent. In some ways, it will foreshadow
what will happen with Jesus later. Luke
does want to contrast that John was important as a prophet but was not the
Messiah. So when Luke talks about Jesus’
baptism he says very little detail that one would find in Mark or Matthew. Who baptized Jesus is not revealed. What is revealed is what happens when Jesus
is baptized and begins to pray. Then we
have the message from God as heaven is opened and the Holy Spirit descends as a
dove upon Jesus. We hear “You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I find
happiness. (CEB).”
The chapter ends with a
genealogy. Only two of the Gospels have
a genealogy, Matthew and Luke. There are
significant differences in names and order between the two. Rather than spend so much time thinking about
these differences, the importance is that Jesus is the fulfillment of the
promises to Abraham and also to all of humanity. “Genealogies were common
within the OT and ancient Judaism. Luke’s
genealogy begins with Jesus and traces his ancestry to Adam; Matthew begins
with Abraham and traces his descendants to Jesus. Luke emphasizes Jesus’ role as savior to all
people; Matthew emphasizes Jesus’ fulfillment of the promises to Abraham.”[5]
There is a final note on Luke’s
genealogy. “At the very end of the
genealogy, when he has gone back to the very beginning with Adam, Luke adds a
final touch: ‘Adam, son of God.’
Significantly just before the genealogy, Luke reported on the voice from
heaven proclaiming Jesus as ‘my Son, the Beloved.” Thus, there is a particular connection
between Adam, who in a sense is also a son of God, and Jesus, who is the Son of
God. This immediately brings to mind the
connection Paul makes between Adam and Jesus as the ‘second Adam.’”[6]
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