besquared.org Blog

Today’s Text
There is much to be said about the temptation story. For the sake of time, I will say less than much but more than a little. And I will start at the end.

It ends significantly, the devil leaves to wait for an opportune time. What wonderful literary and ethical drama. From a literary perspective we find ourselves wondering, when will that time be. (Forget for a second that you may know when that time will be.) In fact this reminds me to encourage you to look back at the first few chapters to see just how much foreshadowing has been crammed into the first few chapters.

Ethically, I find my self reflecting on how temptation works in my life. I am pretty proud of my ethics. I have been well schooled and feel like I know right from wrong. But my morals (that is my actual choices rather than my theoretical ones) are less impressive. In fact they are downright shameful. I think that is largely because Satan knows how to wait for an opportune time in my life. I remember some sermon, where Ben talked about the times we are vulnerable to temptation: When we are Hungry, Angry, Sad, Tired, and In a bar. I remember them because they spelled “HASTY” except cooler because it was with an I. Anyway, I remembered that sermon when I read this text because (all kidding aside) this is exactly how temptation works in my life. When I am in the right setting, and get plenty off exercise, and good sleep and fill my life with good people and God-honoring stuff to do, I feel invulnerable to temptation. But as soon as I am in the wrong place, or I am bored, or I am around the wrong people, or I am tired, Satan sees an opportune moment and I fall (or really -jump) off the wagon.

So that is my little reflection on the end, but what about the temptations themselves.

These have been analyzed in lots of ways but what I notice as I read them today is that in every case, Jesus is tempted to maintain the status quo. We have talked about the world changing ministry that every one in Luke seems to be anticipating. In light of that, I find myself noticing how non-changing these temptations are.

First he is tempted to eat when hungry. There is certainly nothing wrong with eating when hungry. It would be a perfectly normal use of is power. But Jesus power is not for normal use, and it certainly is not for selfish use. He will make bread of course, but it will be to feed the masses.

Second he is tempted to rule the world. He will of course rule the world someday. But his conquest will not come through his power but his weakness. He could make a deal with the devil and gain power now. Think of the good he would do if he ruled the world. Jesus could stop world hunger and fix public education. He has the power. Would he even really need to worship Satan? Jesus had the strength why wouldn’t he rule. His might could really make right. But of course he came to do exactly the opposite. He came to undo power and coercion itself, and establish love and sacrifice as the foundation for his kingdom.

Third he is tempted to prove that he is God’s beloved by staging a dramatic rescue. Again, isn’t that how the over-simplified Christian theology works. God saves, rescues, enriches, etc. those that God loves. He is tempted to prove the status quo. I can do whatever stupid thing I want because God will bail me out. Ironically, (as with each of these temptations) Jesus will one day find himself at the temple and he will be headed toward death, and no angels will come his rescue. He proves that he is the son of the Father not because he is saved, but because he shares God’s love for the world his Father made.

So there is nothing unusual about these temptations. What is unusual is that Jesus says no to each one. As he does so he proves himself to be just the one that Mary and Zechariah anticipated. He is bringing a whole new way of life. He rejects self interest in preparation for the day that he will serve others. He rejects Lordship through power in preparation for the day that he will rule through self-sacrifice, and he rejects special treatment from God and instead and lives and dies to see that God’s blessing will come to all people.

Born to Be Wild
Or perhaps reborn to be wild.

Yesterday we began a series at church about how we are (re)born to be wild. We talked about our wild God. Certainly the opening of Luke is consistent with a wild God. As I look at these temptation I realize that just as it would have been sin for Jesus to give in to these temptations, when I settle for a status quo life and forsake my call to a renewed life, I am sinning. When I let my comfort get in the way of dedication to God that is sin. When I expect God to rescue me from all suffering, that is sin. When I am willing to use the tools of power and dominion to accomplish my goals (or even what I think are God’s goals), that is sin. Instead we are called to live unconventional lives.

There is a lot more to say, but I will leave it at that for today.

-Ethan

Today’s Text

Luke introduces us to the adult Jesus with understated simplicity. When everybody else was coming, Jesus came too. He came for the baptism of repentance. Of course he was not repenting from his sins, but this baptism certainly represents a turning point. He turns from quiet carpentry to bold ministry.

And while praying something utterly different happens. We have just learned that John is the final in a long line of great prophets, but now we see that Jesus is something the world has never seen. He is the very son of God. I wonder to what degree we should connect this event with the temple scene. In that scene, Jesus calls the temple, “My Father’s house.” so he clearly knew something about his unusual birth. But then Luke says he grew in wisdom, so he clearly did not know everything. So in this scene when he hears the voice from heaven, is it news, or just confirmation? Is the voice for Jesus or for John?

What is clear is what Luke wants the reader to learn. Luke wants us to notice that this Jesus is not the Christ anyone expected. He is not merely the Jewish Messiah. He is the Son of God. Even Luke’s genealogy focus’s on Jesus descent form Adam and God not from Abraham. Luke wants us to see that Jesus os connected to the whole human race and is here for all people. We have already noticed this a strong theme in the songs of chapter one. Modern readers often miss this difference because we are focused on the more recent genealogy. Because this can be distracting – even though I don’t think that it is Luke’s main point – I will comment on it briefly.

If you compare the line from Solomon to Joseph in Matthew you will see that they are completely different. This can be pretty confusing. It is almost certain that Luke is giving Mary’s genealogy and Matthew is giving Joseph’s. Bizarrely enough is was common then to give a womens genealogy by naming their husband. So if we were giving this list we would start by saying, “the son-in-law of Heli.” We can’t be certain of this but I think that it is a pretty reasonable conclusion. If you are interested in reading more about this you can check this out. [I will warn you that much of the rest of this site is wacky so don't browse it and trust what you are reading. But on this one issue they present a pretty reasonable perspective - even if I don't agree with every detail.]

But Luke’s concern is not Mary’s genealogy vs. Joseph’s. [Although it is in keeping with his concern for women and historical accuracy that he would trace her line instead of his.] His focus is Jesus as one with the whole human race because he is a son of Adam, but also someone very different because he is the son of God is a new and unique way.

One thing to ponder. Read the words that God’s says to Jesus at his baptism. It is cool to me that at my baptism, those words became true of me as well.

-Ethan

We get to meet Satan next. Cool Huh!

Today’s Text
The world needs to get ready because Jesus is coming. We have had foreshadowing, and baby pictures, but now the fun is just about to begin. The arrival of the new king and the new kingdom is almost upon us. There is just one more thing. We need to build a highway. There are some mountains that need to be moved to make ready the way of the Lord.

But before we talk about that let’s talk about a few other cool things.

The political setting.

Luke begins chapter three by giving a a political update. About thirty years have passed since the last one so we need to be caught up. Luke tells us,

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert.

There is so much that we can learn from this introduction. But we will just focus on what we can no about the situation in Palestine. Thirty years ago, Augustus was the Emporer. Rome taxed Palestine but mostly let King Herod the Great do what he wanted. King Herod was personally very evil, but for political reasons he mostly gave the Jewish people what they wanted. Times have changed.

Late in Augustus reign (and through all of Tiberius’) Rome had a colony in Palestine called Ceasarea Phillipi. From this colony Rome directly ruled southern Israel, including Jerusalem. Even Herod and Phillip had little power and were little more than Roman puppets. Herod may have been hated and evil but at least he represented local strength. Those days are long gone.

(The naming of two high preists has some cool implications too but I’m not telling unless you ask.)

In the context of this oppressive political situation Palestine had become a region of rebellion and violence. Popular uprisings based upon Messianic hopes (hopes that God had sent an anointed redeemer of Israel) were …(what’s the word)… popular.

The scriptural setting.

I hope that you are in the habit of looking up OT scripture quotations when they occur in the NT. Occasionally our NT authors prooftext (Use an OT quote out of context), but usually the context of the quote is very enlightening to understanding its present use. This is certainly the case for the text today.

Luke uses the words of Isaiah to describe the ministry of John. Luke has already established that John is a prophet like the prophets of old.  When he says that the “word of God came to John” this is a conscious echo of the prophetic books of the Old Testament.  Luke wants us to know that John is the last great prophet of the anticipation.

More specifically, Luke wants us to that John was coming with the words of comfort from Isaiah 40.  Isaiah 40 was a message of hope to the people in exile in Babylon. Isaiah was able to proclaim that the time of their suffering was at an end, that God was coming and that God’s word of hope to them would endure and prove faithful. So there are some obvious theological parallels between Isaiah’s proclamation that God is coming and John’s proclamation (Although those parallels imply some pretty powerful things about who Jesus is). The real shock to me comes when I look back to find that Is. 40 begins this way,

Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the LORD’s hand
double for all her sins.

A voice of one calling:
“In the desert prepare
the way for the LORD;
make straight in the wilderness
a highway for our God.

Isaiah’s words are to be words of comfort. But can we say that same about John. Is he really making a straight highway or is he just throwing up roadblocks? My instinct would not be to call John’s teaching a word of comfort, but when I pause to take a look at Isaiah I need to consider that possibility. In fact, in verse 18, Luke describes John’s message as good news, so if his words don’t sound like good news to me on first read, perhaps I need to take a second look.

Finally to John

So having examined the setting both politically and scripturally, lets take a look at John’s ministry. Luke summarizes it early on with the phrase, “preaching a baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins.” Among other things I see John doing these three things:

1. He identified the crisis.

These people have come out to be baptized. These are the people who have heard his message. These are not random crowds, they are precisely the people that are taking their first steps in faith, and John winsomely calls to them, “You brood of vipers,Who told you to flee from the coming wrath?” Every other political and religious movement of the day started by saying, Rome is the problem, or Herod is the problem, or the corrupt priesthood is the problem. Not John; he starts by saying, “You are the problem, who gave you the impression that you could escape the trouble that is coming?”

If he gave them a chance to reply I suppose they would say, “You told us to flee form the coming wrath. You gave us the impression.” But of course the get no chance to reply as he moves on to his main point. He wants them to know that it is not not enough to be a child of Abraham. It is not enough to be submerged in the waters of the Jordan (There is a lot of cool stuff to say about the baptism of John reminding us of the Israelites crossing into Israel. I’ll get into that the next time I blog through a gospel) The crisis they face is so great that neither their race nor religious ritual will help them.

So John starts by showing them that the crisis is both of a different kind than they thought and it is worse than they thought. So they respond with good sense, “What should we do then?”
2. He got specific with a response.

John’s response is straightforward. Live the same but still completely differently. Live, just as you do but live right. Get dressed and eat, but share your extra clothes and your extra food. Like Jesus whose opening call was “Follow Me,” John focuses on a redirected lifestyle. I mind myself noticing that I very often teach a baptism for the forgiveness of sins but I may sometimes forget to emphasize what John does which is a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
3. He articulated his hope.

Finally he directs them beyond himself. He has warned them of this crisis and called them to repentance for one reason: So that when Jesus comes and calls them to follow them will be ready. He baptizes with water now so that when Jesus comes to baptize with the spirit, they will be ready.

And it worked!

We often forget just how effective the ministry of John was. Many were convicted, many were baptized.  John’s ministry began an international movement.  (Paul meets followers of John in the middle of Asia Minor [Turkey].)  John ministry was important enough to upset the king.  In no small part John’s ministry laid the foundation for the ministry of Jesus.

Even today an important part of accepting the gospel of Jesus to come to grips with the magnitude of the crisis.  It is greater than a crisis of political, or religious corruption, it is a crisis of personal and moral corruption.  This crisis cannot be effectively met by appeal to special status or ritual.  A crisis this big needs life change, forgiveness and something new that is about some that is unlike anything ever seen before.

The gospel of John is not the whole gospel but it remains an essential prelude to the gospel of Jesus.

-Ethan