Luke 3:15-38
John’s Twofold Message:
As we noted last time, John’s preaching is twofold:
1) to proclaim repentance and bearing fruit in keeping with that repentance – to prepare hearts for the arrival of their Saviour and Lord
2) to point the people to God’s Messiah, Jesus, to get our eyes not on the prophet but on the Lord he is the forerunner of, to put all our expectation and hope on Jesus.
3:15
Where Do We Place Our Expectations?
Yet again we have the excellent example of a thinking, wondering, heart-pondering people, urging us to be the same way as we are faced with these amazing revelations and proclamations.
Here we have the added note of ‘expectation’ in the people. They want to know: where should we place our hopes and yearnings and longings? What or who should we be looking forward to, expecting, putting all our hopes in?
3:16
John’s own answer does just what Luke has been doing all this time in his opening parallel narratives of John and Jesus: it shows the differing roles of the two men, thus demonstrating their differing natures. Here John points to the fact that he is a Baptizer, but that his element is mere water. His baptism is symbolic and preparatory. But there is One coming, arriving on the scene, soon approaching… And he begins to point the people’s expectation to its proper Object.
The Picture of Jesus in Luke So Far
As we begin to look into John’s fiery portrait of Jesus here, let’s remember what we’ve heard about him so far in Luke’s Gospel:
1:32-33 (35) – the Holy Divine King whose kingdom never ends
1:50-54 – mercy to the humble, judgment to the proud
1:72, 74, 78 – deliverance from enemies because of God’s mercy
2:10, 14 – good news and great joy for all people, peace on earth for those who receive God’s grace
2:30-32 – salvation in the presence of all peoples, light for Gentiles
2:34 – appointed for the fall and rising of many
John’s Fiery Portrait of Jesus: A Wake-Up Call
So we see that John’s fierce picture of Jesus here is consistent with what we’ve seen already, but emphasising the mighty king and warrior and judge elements to the point that the merciful saviour elements are very muted for the moment. The rest of Luke’s Gospel will fill out those portions of Jesus’ character (merciful and saving) in great detail and even show how his warfare and rule and judgment are very surprising in their manifestations.
But John’s urgent, fiery, fierce portrait is entirely in keeping with his role of preparation. He gives a sharp warning in no uncertain terms so that the people will listen up. He wants to wake them up to their danger and their only hope of rescue and escape.
The Mighty One Is Coming
In his portrait of Jesus John first tells us that the Coming One is far Mightier than even this great and final OT prophet himself. This is an important theme in the Gospels and the NT. Jesus is greater than the prophets because he is the fulfilment of all their prophecy.
Jesus is so much greater than John that John is not even worthy of doing the most menial, subservient task for him: untying his sandals. John says ‘I am less than a slave to the Coming One’.
Symbol and Reality
What will this Coming One do that’s so different and so much greater than John?
Jesus will, like John, baptise, but he will, unlike John, baptise with two new elements: the Holy Spirit and fire. Whereas John’s baptism points to someone and something else, Jesus is the very one that John’s baptism pointed to. John’s is symbolic, and Jesus’ baptism provides the spiritual reality that John was pointing to.
3:17
The Fork and the Fire
Jesus is pictured here as an agricultural workman, a thresher. Indeed, this is the owner working his own produce, for he gathers the wheat into ‘his barn’.
This is again in keeping with the organic picture of humanity and themes of fruitfulness. Here we have the thought of harvest, a time when fruit must be gathered in and the fruitless thrown out.
The Sifter
‘The idea of the Messiah as judge as well as saviour is an important part of mainstream Jewish expectation; the Messiah would bring God’s justice to the world, and this would involve naming and dealing with evil. John speaks of him in terms of the fork and the fire: the farmer’s fork, to separate the wheat from the chaff, and the fire that burns up the chaff once it’s been separated. It’s not exactly the picture of Jesus that many Western Christians want, but unless we are to step right outside the biblical witness it’s one aspect of the truth we have to take seriously.’ (Wright, 36-37)
Jesus is going to make the call on us depending on our relationship to him. Again, we have the ‘Aslan is not a tame lion’ or ‘Of course he isn’t safe, but he’s the good king’ effect going on here.
3:18
The Good News of the Just Judge
This was evidently just a sample of John’s preaching as we’re told he had ‘many other exhortations’ in his repertoire.
But it’s important to see that even this fiery message can be summed up as preaching ‘good news’, the gospel. Why? It is good news first and last because it above all and centrally points us to Jesus Christ as the one with whom we have to do. That is where the focus of our repentant and open hearts needs to be. He is the one in whom our hopes and expectations must be placed.
Even in pointing to Jesus as a mighty, threshing, fiery judge is good news, because this means the true Lord of the world is bringing real justice to his world. That is part of the salvation he brings. The rest of the Gospel will show us how he can make a perfect marriage of both justice and mercy. And one thing we’ll see is that he doesn’t diminish his justice in order to provide mercy. Rather, he satisfies justice in his own person and thereby offers mercy to all who will receive it.
In order to see the good news of Jesus as our Saviour, we must see the good news of Jesus as the just Judge of the world. He is the ultimate ‘Good Guy’ who will defeat evil fully and finally. He is the ‘Knight in Shining Armour’ who will slay the Dragon of Sin and Evil once and for all. And he is fierce in this capacity. All evil shakes in terror at his name. It is good to know there is Someone who is Good that is greater and stronger than the most feared and awesome powers of darkness, that our worst and scariest enemies are scared of meeting him!
FURTHERMORE, this is good news about Jesus because we must realise that even in this fierce and fiery portrait we have a Saviour who comes not only to judge but to rescue. We must see his baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire as gracious GIFTS to us. He is the Giver of Life as ever, even in this picture. The Spirit’s fire cleanses and purifies those willing to be sanctified (made holy), washed, transformed, and made new by him. Jesus is coming to give us the cleansing, guiding, empowering presence of his Holy Spirit upon and within us. That is what he does as Messiah, Saviour, and Lord of this world.
‘John baptizes in water to picture cleansing, but Jesus brings the Spirit to wash away sin, to bring God’s presence into people’s lives and to guide them into the way of peace.’ (Bock, 78)
3:19-20
Silencing the Convicting Voice of Prophecy
Herod is attempting to be Israel’s true king (even building a new temple like Solomon did). But just as John points people to the real and pure King of Israel, Jesus, he must critique this flawed and false pretender to the throne according to God’s standards. The true King would never be self-serving and compromising in the way Herod is. The true King comes to fulfil God’s law with integrity and self-sacrificially serve the world. The Herods could not have provided better contrasts to Jesus. Indeed, Jesus himself will continue to subvert their dubious power base with his own ministry and the community he establishes in his person and work.
‘His vision of God’s kingdom differed radically from Herod’s: for him, God’s justice would be displayed not through riches and royalty of worldly style, but through the love and justice that would finally be combined on the cross.’ (Wright, 37)
But speaking the truth has its costs and John pays up. His was not an easy road, but he was faithful to God’s task and God used him mightily to bring salvation to the world through Jesus. John’s reward was not in this life (except the huge reward of a good conscience and the joy and peace of fulfilling your calling), but in the next.
As we noted last time, Herod also provides a perfect contrast to the people in responding to John. These are the two ways we can all respond to the convicting voice of prophecy in our lives that calls us to rend our hearts and mend our ways in repentant preparation to receive the salvation God graciously provides in Christ. We can humble ourselves and ask ‘what shall we do?’ Or we can harden ourselves and shout ‘you can’t tell me what to do!’ We can even seek to permanently shut up the voice of the Spirit and thrust his word out of our lives. This latter approach is the one taken by Herod.
3:21-22
A Glimpse of the Dance of God at the Outset of Jesus’ Ministry
Jesus is baptised by John too, not in repentance for his own sins, but to identify with the sins and repentance of the people he came to save by his sinless sacrifice.
Prayer was a huge characteristic of Jesus’ earthly life and here the very first instance of the commencement of his ministry finds him doing so, depending totally on God.
Then the heavens open!
The Holy Spirit comes down – descending, bridging the gap: God with us.
Dove = God’s brooding, creative presence (Genesis 1, Luke 1), Israel (e.g. Hosea 11:11). Jesus is God’s true Israel, living fully by his creative, guiding, empowering Spirit.
Voice of the Father: the dear, beloved, loved Son in whom the Father delights – we have had the testimony of angels, prophets and prophetesses, faithful Israelites, the child Jesus, John the forerunner, and now no less than God the Father in an audible voice from heaven (presumably in Aramaic).
There are echoes here also of Is. 42:1 – The Servant (cf. also Gen. 22:12, 16).
Here we catch a glimpse of the Trinitarian life of ‘mutual orbit’ – what ancient theologians called ‘perichoresis’ (where we get our word ‘choreography’): the Divine dance at the centre of reality. (See the chapter ‘The Dance of God’ in Tim Keller’s The Reason for God.)
The gospel of Jesus Christ ultimately invites into this Trinitarian life!
But as usual, this vision is withdrawn and the down to earth narrative will recommence at an everyday level, building the picture of Jesus slowly but surely, filling out this incredible testimony.
1:23-38
The Son is Rooted Also in True Humanity
Family roots were hugely important in ancient cultures and we feel our need of them today as well. We feel they really say something about who we are. They explain something about how we got here and why we are what we are today. When we see the historical figures in our line we sometimes think ‘no wonder I am who I am!’ We see that here with Jesus’ human lineage through his ‘adoptive’ father Joseph.
He is of God’s chosen people who are meant to represent him but have fallen so short, but also of the whole human race, who are also meant to represent him but have fallen so short. He comes to redeem the latter through the former. He is a true Israelite, descendent of king David and the patriarch Abraham. He will be God’s true Israel, God’s true king, and God’s true humanity.
The last words before the temptation narrative are ‘son of Adam, son of God’. Note Luke’s ingenious artistry! (And how like a filmmaker are the writers of the Gospels.)
Right in the midst of affirmations of Jesus’ divine Sonship, we also see the clear connection to our humanity, that he truly became one of us, that he is the Second Adam who will start a new humanity in himself.
Thus he is the Saviour not only of Israel but all the peoples of the earth.
‘Together the baptism story and the family tree tell us where Jesus has come from, who he is, and where he is going. As we make his story our own in our own prayers, and indeed in our own baptism, we too should expect both the fresh energy of the Spirit and the quiet voice which reminds us of God’s amazing, affirming love and of the path of vocation which lies ahead.’ (Wright, 41)Darrell Bock, Luke
Joel Green, The Gospel of Luke
Tom Wright, Luke for Everyone
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