Luke 3:1-9

     We shift from the pleasant story of Jesus as a boy in the temple. Suddenly we are about eighteen years in the future. John the Baptist is out in the wilderness Luke sets the stage by giving dates. It is the fifteen year in the reign of Tiberius. Pontius Pilate is the Roman governor of Judea. Rome allowed Herod (son of Herod) some status as ruler of Galilee. Herod’s brother, Philip, had the same status over Iturea and Trachonitus. Lysanias ruled Abilene. On the local front, Annas and Caiaphas were High Priests in Jerusalem. These are mostly players on the stage of the story to be told. Only Lysanias is little known and Philip is . Tiberius is a presence because he represents the authority of Rome, and Jesus would be crucified by Roman authority mediated through Pontius Pilate. Luke’s dating is not as precise as it might seem because it is unclear whether the fifteenth year it he reign of Tiberius is from the time he succeeded Augustus (A.d. 14) or from the time Tiberius became joint emperor with Augustus in a.d. 11-12. So John the Baptist began his ministry some time in 26-27 a.d. or about 29 a.d.
     The Cambridge scholar, E.J. Tinsley points out that Luke’s presentation of John the Baptist is more as a prophet, rather than a second Elijah (the emphasis of Mark and Matthew). The popularity and importance of John is unmistakable. He came proclaiming God’s word, using the words of Isaiah about preparing the way of the Lord. He baptized people as a symbol or token of repentance.
     We see in John no trace of encouraging self-pity on the basis of being an oppressed people. John is not a liberation theologian, but an equal opportunity haranguer of sin. Isn’t this empowering? This is not the powerful pointing at the powerless and say ‘you have to repent.’ It is a man among the oppressed crying out, “We have to repent.”
     John’s message, harsh as it was, was surprisingly popular. Crowds came to be baptized and were met by more berating. He may have recognized a tendency to pat themselves on the back and think that they were descendants of Abraham and therefore secure. John points out that God could children for Abraham out of stones. It sounds almost as if the people had some vague sense that God needed them, or was dependent upon them because of their heritage from Abraham. (‘what’s God going to do, start all over?’) The situation is familiar in other aspects in the world today. Many of us suffer from a sense of entitlement. John told the people that feeling of entitlement was just an illusion. Instead they needed to demonstrate repentance by the fruits or behavior of repentance.
     Repentance is different than simply being penitent or just saying, ‘I’m sorry.” Repentance includes these, but calls upon the penitent to change direction and begin behaving in a different way. In the same fashion a boy kept bugging his sister, then when she cried, would say he was sorry to get her to stop from alerting their mother. After one episode, she cried again, and he said he was sorry and didn’t she believe he was really sorry. She said what she wanted to know was when he was sorry enough to quit. John was asking the same kind of question. “Are you sorry enough to quit?


John’s message is harsh. Why do you suppose people came in such large numbers to hear him and seek baptism?


In what way might Christians in the church today suffer from an illusion of entitlement?


As Lent begins next Wednesday, what do we need to repent?


In what ways are we called to prepare for Jesus?