That ministry, focused on the preaching of a message of radical social change accompanied by the symbolic act of baptism, both paved the way and provided a model for the ministry of Jesus that followed. He is the prophet of God Most High (1:76). As such, he paves the way for the ministry of Jesus by provoking a crisis around the nature of faithfulness to and identity before God and by directing popular hopes to the coming of a Messiah. He attracts hostility from the people, just as the prophets of Israel had done before him.
Luke 3:1-6 provides the setting and proclamation of the ministry of John the Baptist.
Verses 1-2 are similar to Luke 1:1-4.[1] 1In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, (suggesting around 28 AD) when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea (26-36 AD), and Herod Antipas was ruler or tetrach of Galilee and Peraea (4 BC-39 AD), and his half brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, (4 BC-34 AD) 2 during the high priesthood of Annas (6-15) and Caiaphas (18-36 or 37), suggesting that Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas, continued to exert great influence. The opening verses of this text feature one of Luke's most distinguishing authorial characteristics. More than any other gospel writer, Luke uses historical figures and chronological sequencing in ways that move narratives out of the political, economic, and sociological vacuum in which we might have some temptation to see them. Stylistically formal and rich in its detail, the narrative focuses on the historical scaffold that supports it. The reason Luke goes into such detail, however, is more of a literary question than a historical inquiry. Multiple historical dating in traditional Greco‑Roman literary style was a signal of the beginning of the main part of their narrative. The point Luke is making is not that Jesus is a contemporary of Augustus, but that they are contemporary to Jesus.[2] The writers of the Gospels distinguish their writing from myth proclaiming timeless truths by underlining the temporal limitations to which Jesus was subject. Palestine, Galilee, Jerusalem, and Rome provide a definite place in history for Jesus.[3] Thus, Luke is opening an important section of his work. It is the final preparatory step before Jesus himself begins active ministry. Luke unrolls a litany of secular rulers (he could have learned about the exact dates of Tiberius' reign by consulting Tacitus) as well as the most authoritative religious figures in the temple establishment of Jerusalem (although the wording of Luke's text implies an understanding of Annas and Caiphas as a kind of co‑high priests).
The word of God (ῥῆμα θεοῦ) came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.[4] here is a poignant reminder of the formation of Israel as a people in the exodus and hopes for restoration in a new exodus. John has received a special call, which Luke reinforces by using the traditional prophetic "call" formula. The list of the proud and powerful is in sharp contrast with the introduction of John, son of Zechariah, who was simply "in the wilderness." However, John's access to power comes from a different, non-Roman source. The urbanity of the Roman powers contrasts with the rural setting that John's power gives him. Into this secular and religious world of highly recognizable authorities, Luke introduces the unlikely figure of "John, son of Zechariah." After all the historical references, Luke's superscription enigmatically highlights the striking contrast between the perceived power brokers who occupy the political and religious mountaintops and the Lord's servant who wanders humbly in the wilderness and receives God's word. His prophetic career will have worldwide impact.
Verses 3-6, which depend upon Mark, presents John as one sent from God to prepare for the inauguration of the period of salvation.
Historical information about John the Baptist is sparse, both within and outside of the Bible. Historical information about John the Baptist is sparse, both within and outside of the Bible. The only non-New Testament reference is in Josephus, where he ascribes the defeat of the army of Herod to the judgment of God upon Herod for killing John. It was a mark of divine displeasure with Herod. This historical note leads Josephus to describe his understanding of the ministry of John among the Jewish people. Josephus describes John as a good man who called upon the Jews to exercise virtue, which he defines as righteousness toward others and piety toward God. He called them to baptism, which he understood as a remission of sin and purification of the body. He supposed that righteousness purified the soul. He notes that many people came to him and found his words pleasing. Herod feared the influence of John over the thinking of the people and that he might persuade them to rebel. His influence was great enough that the people who baptized him would do anything he advised. He thought it best to have John killed to prevent any mischief he might cause. Herod also seemed concerned that John might persuade him to repent! Herod was a suspicious man. He had John killed at a castle called Macherus.[5]
Although Luke does not now give up as many details about John's lifestyle and appearance as do some of the other gospel writers, Luke does make enough observations about John to suggest that the Baptist had ties with the ascetical Qumran community. The Baptist and Qumran had some connections. However, it is also clear at this point that the Baptist is on his own, undertaking his own ministry with its own unique agenda. Luke also emphasizes the mysterious nature of God's ways – how the word of God brings down oppressive leaders and transforms broken lives. Oblivious to the power of governments, John 3 went into all the region around the Jordan,[6] the territory of Qumran, proclaiming (κηρύσσων ‑‑ "speak with authority") a baptism of repentance (μετανοίας ‑‑ "change of mind"), a purposeful turning from sin will result in the life-transforming experience for the forgiveness of sins, (mirroring aspects of the Qumran ablution rites and imminent judgment from God).
People came from Jerusalem, Judea, and along the Jordan River, responding to the moral summons to turn away from sin (ἁμαρτίας) by receiving baptism in the Jordan, receiving washing, cleansing, and new life. Such a response requires the honesty of admitting sin, wandering, and lying. Sin is missing the mark, although at its heart, it is a refusal to become fully human. It is anything that interferes with the opening of the whole heart to God, to others, to creation, and to the self. Sin is estrangement, disconnection, sterility, and disharmony. Such honesty discloses consciousness of darkness within.
Judaism had an internal debate regarding how to respond to the challenges of its historical setting. That setting included Gentile rule. Some aligned themselves comfortably with Roman rules, represented in the New Testament by those around Herod and tax collectors. Some had a pious devotion to Torah and if they could practice circumcision, observe the Sabbath, follow dietary restrictions, and offer sacrifices in the Temple, they would wait for God to act at the end of this age to defeat the enemies of Israel. The Pharisees and the Essenes represented different versions of this thinking. Still others accepted the pattern established by Judas Maccabeus (I and II Maccabees) of violent confrontation with Rome and thereby achieving a measure of political independence. Sometimes, but not always, this view had messianic interpretations that included a descendant of King David leading the way. Zealots held such views. John and Jesus would overlap with the views of the Pharisees and Essenes.
John the Baptist came to the desolate and hilly region of Judea, stretching from the ridge of Palestine to the Jordan valley and the Red Sea. People left the comfort of the villages and cities to draw near to hear this message. Such persons joyfully participated in preparations for the coming of the Lord. The message John proclaimed, a baptism of repentance and forgiveness of sins, contains an important connection that will hold true in the rest of the New Testament. [7] His message underscores the significance of his appearance. However, this significance is not because of his call to repent, which the prophets and even King Solomon urged upon people (I Kings 8:46-53; Isaiah 1:27; Ezekiel 14:6; 18:30). Such repentance involves renunciation of sin, regret over a past life that leads to a conversion to a new way of life. It involves turning around or a change of direction. These are the pre-conditions for receiving the salvation offered through the rule of God. It also is a difference between John and Jesus, for the latter did not baptize.[8] Repentance is John’s hopeful word, pointing out our self-deceiving beliefs that we are good, worthy, deserving of our salvation and reminding us that our lives need turning around, to experiencing the washing in the cleansing waters of baptism as we anticipate the coming of the one mightier than John is. One does not experience enlightenment by simply imagining the light. One must also become conscious of the darkness.[9] Every day is judgment day. Through our deeds and words, our silence and speech, we are writing in the Book of Life.[10]
Why is John baptizing at all? Such baptism was a ritual lustration with roots already established within Jewish practice. Ritual washings in mikva'ot (immersion baths or pools) were commonplace, and people believed that this practice cleansed the body of its chronic profanity and sanctified it for worship of God. Ritual purification with water was an important feature of Israelite religion, particularly regarding the impurity associated with various aspects of sexuality (e.g., intercourse and childbirth; see, e.g., Lev 15:18; Num 19:13). Ritual practices were widespread in Greco-Roman religion also, especially in cults associated with healing deities. Immersion in water, of either the whole body or parts, was a widely practiced means of ritual purification. Such rituals were part of the daily practice of the Essene community, and other groups used them more restrictively to mark significant transitions in life. There is also evidence that other groups in the region of the Jordan Valley were practicing forms of ritual immersion during this period, as well as evidence that a Jewish practice of proselyte baptism as part of an initiation ritual began sometime in the first century of the Common Era. Josephus suggests that people understood John’s baptism as precisely this kind of ritual purification, specifically of the body, because the soul had already been purified by righteous conduct.[11] Therefore, while the practice of ritual purification with water did not originate with John the Baptist.
However, John invited the Jewish people to submit to his baptism.[12] Submitting to baptism was a concrete expression of the act of repentance. It initiated people into a new community. Such confession took place before or during baptism. It involves a form of surrender, acknowledging you are on the wrong track, and ready to start a new life.[13]Something new is happening, and therefore, we must change. Repentance involves a turning around, a radical change of direction, involving the heart and will. Repentance involved the whole being of the repentant one. Repentance is the hopeful word of John, pointing out our self-deceiving beliefs that we are good, worthy, deserving of our salvation and reminding us that our lives need turning around.
The good news as found in the preaching of John is that forgiveness of sin is already available. Thus, the first step is simple honesty. Repentance is the admission that in our sin we need to receive forgiveness. Yet, the first step has a close relation to the second step, in which we acknowledge that God forgives. The good news begins in Mark as John invites people to receive forgiveness. We can receive the gift of washing, cleansing, and new birth. We can start over, fresh, like a newborn infant. God forgives. Such is the beginning and end of the good news. For all sin, God forgives. Since John baptize Jesus of Nazareth, his baptism will always be significant for Christians. God forgives sin, brings deliverance, and gives the gift of salvation. It means acceptance of daily repentance so that a new self will arise to live with God.[14]Repentance is the journey of discipleship and the only way to continue in the path. Anything else is foolishness and self-delusion. Repentance suggests a form of both brute honesty and joyfulness that we will need for the spiritual journey.
C.S. Lewis describes the unrepentant condition as being in a "hole" where we need the help of a friend (i.e., a savior) to get us out. Into what sort of hole is it that we have gotten ourselves? It is behaving as if we belonged to ourselves. We are not simply imperfect creatures who need improvement; we are rebels who must lie down our arms. "Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realizing that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor -- that is the only way out of a 'hole,'" says Lewis. This process of surrender is what we call repentance (the underlying Greek word means "changing the mind" or "turning around"), and it is what John was calling for in his prophetic preaching. Lewis adds this important note: "... this repentance ... is not something God demands of you before he will take you back and which he could let you off if he chose: it is simply a description of what going back to him is like." We cannot be right with God without repentance; it is like asking God to take us back without going back.[15]
The writer Kathleen Norris gives us another way to understand repentance. She tells of working as an artist-in-residence at a parochial school and telling children something about the psalms. The kids are often astonished to discover that the psalmists expressed the more unacceptable emotions like sadness and anger, even anger at God. She says that because the children know what it is like to be small in a world designed for big people. They identify quite readily with the psalmists, and often do quite well when she invites them to write their own psalms.
She tells of one boy who wrote a poem/psalm called "The Monster Who Was Sorry." He began by admitting that he hated it when his father yelled at him, and in the poem, he pictures himself responding by throwing his sister down the stairs, wrecking his room and then wrecking the whole town. The poem ends with, "Then I sit in my messy house and say to myself, 'I shouldn't have done that.'" Norris concludes her account of this boy's poem by referring to the fourth-century monks who guided beginners in the faith and suggesting that those monks would have told this boy "that he was well on the way toward repentance, not such a monster after all, but only human. If the house is messy, they might have said, why not clean it up, why not make it into a place where God might wish to dwell?"[16]
Stephen Vincent Benét once wrote a Christmas play in which the wife of the innkeeper -- truly a bit part, if ever there was one -- has a memorable line. Looking on in wonder at the strange events of that holy night, the innkeeper's wife realizes that something of tremendous import has happened there in her husband's barn. Therefore, she declares:
Rise up! The loves we had were not enough.
Something is loosed to change the shaken world,
And with it we must change!
That is the message of John the Baptist. Something has happened, and we must change.
In verses 4-6, the arrival of John fulfills prophecy. Luke amplifies one distinctive aspect of John's baptism; it flows directly from the prophet Isaiah, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah (40:3-5, an important text for Qumran),[17] “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Here is where Matthew and Mark stop the quote. A straight path befits a path for royalty. A path with curves may hide lurking enemies. Isaiah describes the results of the appearance of the messianic king. He does so through a series of contrasting pairs. 5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth. The contrasting pairs describe the perfected nature of life. It describes the improvements that await the created order. Finally, the presence of the Messiah-King will influence humanity as 6 all flesh shall see (experience) the salvation of God,’ the accomplishment of the true work of God. Clearly, the baptism of John is not merely an acknowledgment of bodily uncleanness, but a recognition that the complete transformation of each person's heart, soul and mind is also required (cf. Luke 3:8-14; 7:29-30; 20:1-8). We can see that John’s importance for the writers of the gospels is prophetic, pointing the way toward the one of whom Israel’s religious tradition prophesied, of which John clearly saw himself a part. From the wilderness, he declared the word of the Lord to the crowds who came to him under the nose of the recognized establishment. What a reversal, especially given that the imperial and religious authorities believed that they controlled the people. John himself inaugurates the fulfillment of Israel's consolation that she had anticipated ever since the Babylonian exile (587-539 B.C.). This text, associated with the return of Elijah before the coming of the Messiah, itself authenticates John the Baptist's ascetic lifestyle, the wilderness location of his preaching and the message of promised salvation that he offers.
The baptism of John continues to have significance for Christians. The fact that Jesus will submit himself to his baptism should be sufficient reason. God forgives sin, brings deliverance, and gives the gift of salvation. It means acceptance of daily repentance so that a new self will arise to live with God.[18] Some Christian traditions have learned to have some embarrassment over the stereotype of old-fashioned preachers hammering their people on sin and making people feel guilty. To them, talk of repentance makes them nervous. This feeling has some truth contained in it. A French proverb says that years of repentance are necessary to blot out a sin in the eyes of human beings, but one tear of repentance suffices with God. Approached from another perspective, however, repentance is the doorway to the spiritual life and is, in fact, the only way to begin. Repentance is the journey of discipleship and the only way to continue in the path. Anything else is foolishness and self-delusion. Repentance suggests a form of both brute honesty and joyfulness that we will need for the spiritual journey. Of what in our past do we need to repent to allow God to do a new thing in us? Of what do we need forgiveness? Whom do we need to forgive to begin moving toward a different future? We might ask the question differently. From what do we need healing? The cleansing of the Baptist talked was not just a matter of what happened in the past. Such fresh and new people will receive the Holy Spirit that prepares them for ministry and mission.
[1] This confirms for some scholars that Luke had written his gospel beginning with Chapter 3, and later added Chapters 1-2. However, Luke may follow contemporary style. Ancient Jewish historian Josephus self‑avowedly imitated Thucydides' style by opening major sections of his work with lists of dates. Therefore, it is likely that Luke here is signaling to his readers the beginning of a new important section of his work.
[2]
[3]
[4] Here is a minor agreement between Matthew and Luke against Mark, where they introduce John the Baptist before the quote from Isaiah, whereas Mark famously opens his gospel with the quote from Isaiah and then introduces John the Baptist.
[5] Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XVIII, Chapter 5, Section 2.
[6] Here is a major agreement of Matthew and Luke against Mark. Matthew 3.5 has πασα η περιχωρος του Ιορδανου; Luke 3.3 has πασαν περιχωρον του Ιορδανου. This geographical phrase is relatively rare.
[7]
[8]
[9] Carl Jung
[10] Martin Luther King Jr.
[11] (Antiquities 18.117 [cf.18.5.2])
[12] (see further, Anchor Bible Dictionary, 1:584).
[13] Lewis, C.S. "The perfect penitent."
[14] Martin Luther, Small Catechism.
[15] Lewis, C.S. "The perfect penitent." Mere Christianity. New York: Macmillian Paperbacks, 1960, 56-61.
[16] Norris, Kathleen. "Repentance." Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith. New York: Riverhead Books, 1998, 69-70.
[17] Here is a minor agreement between Matthew and Luke against Mark. Matthew 3.3 and Luke 3.4 omit the quotation from Malachi 3.1 in Mark 1.2. Both use the same reference elsewhere, in the same context of the double tradition (Matthew 11.10 = Luke 7.27).
[18] Martin Luther, Small Catechism.
[19]
good article. Question? According to the way you wrote this, regarding place and purpose of baptism, are you not talking about believer baptism rather than infant baptism? Observation: I just finished Stephen Hawking's last book the "Grand Design". He states that, how one observes things, at a quantum level, decides what they are. Observation can change their whole history. For example, a particle traveling in a straight line from many light years away, may be observed as a wave. That observation then changes the particles whole history. So that now it has always been a wave. Doesn't this strike you as a great picture of salvation repentance and baptism?. Once we are observed by God as being in Christ, our whole history changes and we have always been that way. (this might say something about election as well) -Lynn Eastman
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