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The Gospel of Luke Chapter 3:1-20 John’s Ministry Begins 3:1-2 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. Luke is always specific in dating the times of the events he records, although as Green correctly observes, he is not merely interested in the chronology of the events he describes. He rather wishes to depict the socio-historical climate in which John was to operate, and his naming of characters such as Pilate and Caiaphas introduces the reader to important actors in the later drama. Since Tiberius Caesar had been Roman Emperor for fifteen years, Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea and Herod Antipas tetrarch of Galilee, historians believe the year to be either A.D. 28 /291 or A.D. 26/27 – the latter option is interesting since it is known to have been a Jewish Jubilee year.2 Annas and Caiaphas could not have been both High Priest at the same time; Annas had been removed from office by the Romans in favour of his son in law Caiaphas, but the Jews would have still referred to both as High Priest. It was in this setting that a revelation of the Word of God came to John the Baptist in the wilderness, as it had to the Old Testament prophets before him, disclosing to him God’s will and purpose for that time. It may be that Luke wants us to see how important John is, and how universal his message would eventually become by locating his ministry within the framework of these political leaders.3 It is perhaps also significant that this coincided with Jubilee, a year in which debts were cancelled and slaves were released; for John’s message dealt with forgiveness for sin and liberation from corruption. Those who felt themselves oppressed by Rome may have expected a message to bring them liberation from Roman rule. Ironically, John’s preaching of the kingdom of God has long outlasted the rulers listed here. Rome may have ruled Palestine, the priesthood may have been 1
So Green, Luke, p. 167 August Strobel, “Plasdoyer fur Lukas: Zur Stimmigkeit des Chronistischen Ramens von Lk 3.1,” NTS 41 (1995):466-69 cited by Garland, Luke, p. 151 3 So thinks Joel B. Green, Luke, p. 166 2
profaned, yet God was on his eternal throne and was still working out his purposes for the world; purposes which continue to this day, long after the demise of Roman power. 3:3 He went into all the region around the Jordan River, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. John went into the entire region bordering the river Jordan preaching that people should repent and be baptised as a sign of their turning from their sins to God. Since the area was not densely inhabited, many commentators suppose that God’s sending John there was in order to make a ‘prophetic gesture’.4 It was here that God said he would bring Israel to speak comfortably to her (see Hosea 2:14-15, where Achor is symbolic of the place where sin was put away in Joshua 7:24-26). But in particular, as far as Luke is concerned, John’s ministry in the wilderness was in order to show the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy, detailed in the following verses.
Preaching True Repentance 3:4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, "The voice of one shouting in the wilderness 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make his paths straight." This quotation comes from the opening of Deutero-Isaiah (Isa. 40:3-5), which is largely believed to have been written during the period of exile. In that context the prophet may have been seen as announcing the return of the Jews from exile to Judea; and that God would make a highway there for his people to return to the land, and in this sense all the nations would witness God’s salvation through what he had done for Israel. Whilst that interpretation is entirely valid, there was to be an even greater fulfilment of this vision in the days of John. For rather than God’s people returning to Judea, John announced that the Lord himself was coming to visit his people (see Luke 1:68). So now it was not God making a way for the people, but the people preparing a smooth way for the Lord, in other words preparing themselves to encounter him. 3:5-6 Every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be brought low, and the crooked will be made straight, and the rough ways will be made smooth, and all humanity will see the salvation of God.' " The description is not meant to be taken literally; rather every obstacle which hindered the people’s fellowship with God was to be removed by repentance so that everybody might see the salvation sent from God (John 14:6). The Isaiah text itself provides a useful homiletic for preaching about repentance. Straight paths of righteous behaviour must replace the crookedness of dishonesty. Valleys representing defeats in the attempt to pursue a life of godliness can be filled by God’s enabling grace; whereas mountains speak of human pride is assuming independence from God. The rough ways of malice and violence must be smoothed by the ways of peace and good will. Only by such repentance would the people be ready to welcome their Messiah when he came (Malachi 3:13).
4
Jerome Murphy O’Connor, “John the Baptist and Jesus: History and Hypothesis” NTS 36 (1990) pp. 359-374. Cited by Garland, p. 154
John’s Engaging Prophetic Message 3:7 So John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, "You offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? There were many Scribes and Pharisees that were among the crowd that came to hear John. Matthew 3:7 tells us that it was these whom John referred to as ‘a brood of vipers’ – the offspring5 of poisonous snakes (Psalm 140:3). His words are ironic--‘who warned you to flee’--for they were not, as others, coming in repentance, and seemingly had no fear of God’s wrath.6 John was revealing his knowledge of their hypocrisy, for he knew that they had not come to receive his message but to spy on him; perhaps jealousy occasioned their prejudice against John because of the great crowds flocking to hear John preach (Matt. 3:5-6). By alluding to ‘the coming wrath’ he was also announcing the imminence of ‘the Day of the Lord’ a time when God would come near to his people for judgment (Zeph. 1:14-15). 3:8 Therefore produce fruit that proves your repentance, and don't begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones! John’s message for the religious leaders was the same as it was for the common people. He calls them all, in view of God’s coming judgment, to repent and show by their changed lives that they had turned from their evil ways. True, they were the descendants of Abraham to whom God had given numerous promises, yet they were not to depend on this fact alone without exhibiting the kind of righteous life of faith which Abraham had. It would be a simple matter for God to create children for Abraham out of the stones that lay on the ground around them if need so required; after all, Abraham and Sarah were both as ‘good as dead’ like stones of the barren wilderness when Isaac was born (see Gen. 17:17).7 The people too were spiritually as dead as the desert in which John preached–and only a revivified spiritual life could produce in them the fruit God required. It is an overarching theme in Luke that Jewish natural descent and ritual observance, whilst not a being hindrance to someone becoming part of God’s renewed people, is nevertheless not a requirement either. In view of the fact that Jews at this time are thought to have practised baptism for Gentile converts, as a symbol of washing away their uncleanness, John’s calling Jews to undergo such a ritual was a requirement for them to acknowledge that because of their sin they had become no better than Gentiles.8 Placing this text (together with the earlier reference to a light to the nations in 2:32) at the start of his gospel serves the programme which Luke progresses in both volumes (Luke & Acts) that both Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews) who repent and believe in Messiah will be included in the renewed people of God. 3:9 Even now the ax is laid at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire." John’s warning is clear – the Pharisees might well be descendants of Israel, but if they fail to repent and heed the words of the coming ‘prophet like unto Moses’ they will be cut off from among their 5
ϒέννημα – ‘fruit’, ‘what is born’ see Green, Luke, p. 175 Morris defines wrath as ‘divine hostility to all evil’ Leon Morris, Luke, p. 105 7 Green sees here an echo of Isaiah 51:1-2. Green, Luke, p. 176 8 See Morris, Luke, pp. 104-105 6
people – no longer part of God’s people (Deut. 18:18-19). The axe was taken as a symbol of God’s judgment in Isaiah 10:33-34 and Amos 2:9. Green points out that the ideas of cutting down and burning are combined in Malachi 4:1,9 a passage which itself has Messianic connotations. So it is not out of place to mention the coming of Messiah at this point; for that the imminence of judgment is linked to the imminence of Christ is made clear in 3:16, which is part of the same discourse. It was because Christ was at hand that the time had come for the axe of God's judgement to cut off all those who did not repent and produce the fruits of repentance in their lives; they would be cast into the fire, which is probably a reference to hell (see also Luke 3:17; 10:15; 12:5; 16:23), where those who rebelled against God would remain (Isaiah 66:24). 3:10 So the crowds were asking him, "What then should we do?" Those in the crowd whose hearts God had touched asked John for details of what they had to do to get right with God. Not all the crowd, the Scribes and Pharisees among them, would have responded in this way because they had hardened their hearts. 3:11 John answered them, "The person who has two tunics must share with the person who has none, and the person who has food must do likewise." The first thing John teaches them is that they should have a loving care and concern for one another. If they had enough for themselves then it was right for them to help others with the basic necessities of clothing10 or food. This was entirely in accordance with the teachings of the earlier prophets (see for example Proverbs 22:9; Isaiah 58:7; Ezekiel 18:7 and Daniel 4:27); and it is noteworthy that even in the Old Testament thinking, such righteous acts were not the means of entrance into a right relationship with God, but the means of expressing the reality of such a relationship.11 3:12-13 Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they said to him, "Teacher, what should we do?" He told them, "Collect no more than you are required to." Green points out that Δε χαί is intensive, thus ‘even tax collectors’ sought repentance and baptism; and they asked John what they should do in their situation. Private contractors were engaged by the Romans to collect ‘indirect’ taxes such as tolls and levies across Palestine. They were to charge the people what the law required plus a percentage for their own lawful commission. The tax collectors referred to here were paid by these contractors; but it seems that they were taking extra commission for themselves. It is this John calls them to stop, and instead collect only the correct amount of tax demanded by their employers.12 3:14 Then some soldiers also asked him, "And as for us — what should we do?" He told them, "Take money from no one by violence or by false accusation, and be content with your pay." The soldiers (we cannot be sure if they were Herod’s men or Roman soldiers) asked him a similar question; to which his response was that they should refrain from enforcing their own will on people
9
Green, Luke, p. 177 A tunic—χιτών—was the most basic item of clothing, worn next to the skin, as opposed to an over garment or cloak. See Green, Luke, p. 178 11 See Green, Luke, p. 178 12 Green, p. 179; Morris, p. 106 10
by violence, stop making false accusations and no longer extort protection money. Instead they should be satisfied with the wages they were paid for doing their job.
Foretells the Imminence of Christ 3:15 While the people were filled with anticipation and they all wondered whether perhaps John could be the Christ. As discussed in chapter two, the Jewish people were at this time living in expectation of the coming Messiah, and many wondered whether John’s ministry was that of the Christ. 3:16 John answered them all, "I baptize you with water, but one more powerful than I am is coming — I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. John told them that he was not the Christ but that he had been sent ahead of him to prepare his way. Although he baptised the people in water to show their repentance and readiness for his coming, the Messiah himself would soon appear, and would be so much more powerful and more worthy than John that he felt himself beneath the role of being his slave (a role implied by the untying of his sandals).13 This great one will baptise the people with the Holy Spirit and fire; a motif which Luke explains in greater detail as his two volume account develops (see Acts 1:5 and Acts 11:16). 3:17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clean out his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his storehouse, but the chaff he will burn up with inextinguishable fire." The winnowing fan or fork was used to separate the chaff from the grain; that which was of no use from that which was good. So John refers to the Lord Jesus Christ as the one who would separate the hypocrites from the real, those who sincerely sought God from those who made pretence of doing so. Again John warns of punishment in the form of fire which would never be put out, whilst the true worshippers would be gathered to the Christ. And in this way, with many other exhortations, John proclaimed good news to the people, but did not refrain from serving them with dire warnings for rejecting that good news. 3:19-20 But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of Herodias, his brother's wife, and because of all the evil deeds that he had done, Herod added this to them all: He locked up John in prison. John had rebuked Herod the tetrarch for taking his brother Philip’s wife, Herodias, for his own wife and for many other (unspecified here) evils which he had done. Herod, like the common people, was here given opportunity to repent, but did not take it, preferring to silence the voice of God to his conscience by putting John in prison. © Derek Williams & Mathew Bartlett 2013 Bible Studies Online UK www.biblestudiesonline.org.uk You may copy, print or distribute our studies freely in any form, just so long as you make no charges. Sign up today for our FREE monthly Bible study magazine “Living Word” Scriptures taken from the NET Bible www.bible.org
13
Morris notes this service was thought beneath the usual role of a disciple, p. 107