Repentance at the River

Luke 3:1-14

1-2

The Updated Geo-Political Address

Luke gives a fresh geo-political & religio-cultural address to this new phase of the unfolding story.

Caesar – Roman Empire

Pontius Pilate – Rome’s governor of Judea (the people of Israel) in particular

Herod, Philip, Lysanias – ‘Jewish’ local rulers under Rome, sons of the Herod of 1:5

Annas & Caiaphas – Jewish religious leadership

These accurately signify not only the time and place (all these characters are mentioned extensively outside the NT), but once again set a scene of foreign and corrupt domination over Israel.

God’s Word is On the Move Again

Like many prophetic books of the OT, this begins with the statement that during the reign of a certain king or kings, ‘the word of God came’ to a prophet by name – in this case, John. This is the first time this has authentically happened in hundreds of years.

Luke has already emphasised the reliability of God’s word coming to pass several times in his opening birth narratives. Now he begins another favourite theme that goes on throughout the book of Acts: the word of God is on the move, spreading, triumphing. This ‘word’ for Luke is the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, and it begins with a fresh word of prophecy—indeed, the last word from the last OT prophet to prepare for the Messiah’s coming, which is now truly and literally immanent.

Little baby John, Zechariah and Elizabeth’s special child of promise, has grown up to be that prophet. He now emerges from his strict, wilderness time of training (1:80) and begins to play his divinely assigned role.

3

Repentance at the River

So this is what he does. He seems to be a river prophet, doing all his public speaking within sight of the waters of the Jordan. He is a proclaimer, a preacher, a herald, an announcer. The content of his preaching is a call to action to the people. He urges them to ‘a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.’

He urges the people to identify with God and what he is doing by coming into the water for a symbolic ritual of immersion. He tells them plainly that this act symbolises their ‘repentance’ toward God. It is an outward sign of an inward state of the heart. This is a baptism of preparation for the approach of God’s Messiah.

Later, Jesus will commission a baptism into the Trinity as a sign of new life in Christ, joining his church of disciples (Matt. 28:19):

1 Peter 3:21 – baptism is ‘not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ’. (See also Romans 6:3-4.)

That later baptism is more like a ‘baptism of belief’ (often called ‘believer’s baptism’), a symbol of a person’s new relationship with God through faith in Christ, a person’s new identity in Christ as a member of his church. Whereas John’s baptism is clearly more preparatory in nature, a symbol of humbling oneself before God and turning back to him in trust and obedience.

Repentance = a contrite heart leading to a change of direction; an intentional, deliberate change of heart attitude in turning around, away from sin and back to God.

Just as the angel said of John: 1:16-17; and just as his father Zechariah prophesied of him: 2:76-79.

This is a baptism of openness to God. ‘Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts’ (Mal. 3:7).

That this is ‘for the forgiveness of sins’ continues to point to the central problem with the world and humanity before a holy God. Repentance is God’s gracious gift to prepare us to receive the salvation he provides in Christ.

4-6

Make Way for God’s Approach – A Geological Eucatastrophe!

Here Luke is explicit with his reference to how the OT is being fulfilled in these events. Isaiah’s prophecy gives us a bold, dramatic, cataclysmic picture for what is happening in Christ. John is a prophetic voice crying out an amazing message in the desert: Prepare for the coming of God! All the surfaces of the earth are levelled and smoothed to make a straight and clear path for the approach of a saving God (a geological eucatastrophe!). This approach of the Lord is obviously cataclysmically huge enough for the whole world to see.

7-9

The Poisonous Snakes Are All Slithering Out from Under Their Rocks!

John is a fiery preacher! That’s his role. This is extremely serious business and God has made him the man for the job. He doesn’t mince words. He is direct and confrontational and urgent. Even his poetic, pictorial imagery packs an immediate and unmistakable punch!

The sinful human condition is seen as one of a having a snake-heart! Cf. Rom. 3:13 (Ps. 140:3). We still speak this way today when we say there is ‘venom’ in someone’s comment, or that someone has a ‘poisonous’ tongue, or that someone is a ‘snake in the grass’.

Warning! Danger!

This snake-condition is the doctor’s painful-to-hear diagnosis. But it is the truth that can save our lives from the terrible danger they’re in. The Day of the Lord is coming when he, the Author of all that is good and thus the enemy of all that is wicked, will put an end to all evil. He desires us to be on the side of good when that day comes. That’s why he gives us warning. That’s why he provides a gracious, costly way of escape. His love lashes us to wake us up to the disastrous truth of our predicament so that we’ll receive his kind rescue.

‘The reason God brings rescue and salvation is pred’s word in our lives.

John’s ethical instruction is very plain andh his people – but, if that is so, he is bound to bring judgment as well as mercy. He isn’t a tame God.’ (Wright, 33)

The Fruits of the Heart

But we don’t have to remain snake-hearts! God can transform us from the inside out.

A religious ritual can’t save the people he’s preaching to. John’s message is not about ritual or legalism, but about the heart. To simply say that they repent is not enough. They must actually turn away from sinful rebellion to God, they must actually surrender to him and turn back to him and live by his goodness and justice. They have to let go of their sins to grab hold of his saving hand. It’s not about doing ‘enough’ good to ‘get to heaven’. It’s about their hearts being broken over their sin and attempting to live the way they know God wants them to. That is the beginning. That’s where salvation starts. That’s how they know they’re sinners in need of rescue and can thereby receive his forgiveness and transformation from the inside out. This heart-and-action message was the consistent theme of the OT prophets.

There is No Inherited Salvation

Just as there is no mere ritual or ceremonial way to be saved, so there is no national or ethnic way. God can make his chosen people out of any materials he chooses! (And indeed, as has already been foreshadowed and as will come to fruition in Acts, he does indeed make his people out of all nations, not just Israel.)

Axe to the Root

As in all the Bible (e.g. Ps. 1), we have here an organic picture of human nature (vs. say the mechanistic view of the Enlightenment).

(Cf. Luke 6:43-45, 13:6-9.)

God will eventually root out evil and he wants us to not be rooted out with it.

10-14

What do the fruits of repentance look like in practical, daily living?

Two ways to react: as the people here or as Herod does in the next passage. We can listen to the painful but true and liberating words of the prophet and seek to obey God’s word from him, or we can try to eliminate the prophet so to silence the voice of God’s word in our lives.

John’s ethical instruction is very plain and down to earth: something everyone can understand and get busy right away obeying. And it hits directly at the nerve where they were being unjust and they could make immediate changes. It applies to things like our relationships and our jobs.

Everyone has to be prepared to live a simple lifestyle in order to make sure everyone has enough. They are challenged to share what extra they have with those who do not have (food and clothing).

They are challenged to be content with enough and not try to extort abundance from others. The challenge is to not horde and thereby neglect those in need on the one hand, and to not use whatever power you have (soldierly strength or tax-collecting control of costs) to get what you want (more) at the expense of others.

These simple ways of life enable our hearts to reflect God’s heart: generous, compassionate, fair, just, using power for good not evil.

This is Jesus’ way of loving God and loving others, caring for and serving them because that’s how God is to us. How we are treating our neighbours will tell us very directly where we’re at with God, how we’re responding to his grace.

In closing: Is. 57:14-21.

NEXT: John’s message is a two-sided coin—prepare your hearts through repentance. Place your hearts upon the Messiah. Repent and Believe. He points us to Christ. God is doing this cataclysmic paving of the way so that he may come to us. And he comes to us in the person of the Christ.

Works Cited:
Darrell Bock, Luke
Joel Green, The Gospel of Luke
Tom Wright, Luke for Everyone