Reflection on Luke 3:1-6

 

Luke 3:1-6

1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,

“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord;

make his paths straight.  

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,  

and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”

Reflection

Do you know who the gospel story is not about?  It is not about Tiberius Caesar, though he is mentioned in the Bible as existing.  However, God is not particularly interested in telling his story. 

Do you also know who this story is not about?  It is not about Pontius Pilate, though Jesus’ life is definitely affected by his actions and decisions.  As a Roman governor, Pontius Pilate does send Jesus to the cross, but the story is not about him any more than your story is about the president and any actions that he may or may not have taken that raised inflation.  It affects your story, and you pocketbook for that matter, in a very personal way, but your story is not about him. 

Neither is the gospel story about Pontius Pilate.  Nor, is it about King Herod, the ruler Philip, the high priest Caiaphas or his all influential father-in-law, Annus.  The gospel story is not about any of these powerful men who resided in powerful cities.  God is not particularly interested in telling their stories.

To find out who the gospel story is all about, to find out whose stories God is interested in, we need to back away from the powerhouse cities in Rome and look in the wilderness.

We need to look in the places where the Bible says the snake slithers and waits to strike.  We need to look in the places where real people live real lives, struggling in real ways to get food and find shelter.  We need to look in the places where the Israelites wandered, with starving stomachs and struggling souls.  We need to look where Satan thrives and is ever trying to tempt.  He even tempts Jesus there.  We need to move our eyes from Washington DC and look in the woods just outside of Shunk, PA.

We need to look in the places where lineman struggle to restore power, and where trucks hauling cows struggle to keep on the road when full of ice.  We need to look where houses look lived in and where families work hard just to get by.  We need to look in the places where lots of people assume that God has forgotten, and we need to look at the people who lots of people assume are not worthy of a gaze; yet it is where God chooses to send his messenger.

“The word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3:2-3).

The all powerful and redeeming word of God skipped over the powerful and mighty and fell on a guy in the wilderness.  The word of God chooses to come to him and chooses to send him around the wilderness, speaking to the people out there near the Jordon river.  And, what was the word that God wanted to say to those people, struggling out in the wilderness? 

Well, I will tell you that it is a great word. 

It is a word that asks those everyday people struggling out in the wilderness to change their minds about how they see the world.  To those who are convinced that they have no importance, God has a word: “Repent,” open your mind to the truth that you are loved and you have a purpose. 

To those who struggle and cannot imagine that anyone really even cares, God has a word: “Repent,” open your eyes to see someone who cares and is coming to you. 

To those who have been ensnarled by the thorny brambles of this troubled life, those who have been convinced by the snake that the only way to get by in the world is to look out for yourself, God has a word: “Repent,” be freed of those thorny vines, there is a better way to live.

“Prepare the way of the Lord;” the people hear (Luke 3:4).

“Make his paths straight.

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

and all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:4-6).

Those people struggling with everyday life out in the wilderness are promised that when the junk of life is shoved to the side, when roads are allowed to be made straight and the impossible mountains that we think we need to climb to get anywhere in life are leveled, when we allow the road to be straight rather than trusting the crooked ways that the snake tells us to rely upon, and when the rough paths of this world are allowed to be smoothed, then we will see the truth. 

It is a truth that has always been.  It is a truth that has just been cluttered, not seeable.  It is the truth that God wants you to desperately see, especially when you are out, struggling in the wilderness of life. 

Your salvation is near.  You “shall see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:6).  In fact, God plans that “all flesh,” all people will be able to see God’s heart of love and salvation. 

And, the amazing thing about all of this is that God came first to you in the wilderness, to let you know that even you, especially you, are worthy of being freed from the snares and thorns found in the wilderness.  Even you, especially you, are worthy of God’s attention and salvation.

I cannot tell you the amount of people who I hear from who are genuinely surprised during this time of year when they find out that Jesus came into this world to save them too. 

So many people have somehow heard that God is distant, or God, if there is one, does not necessarily care.  How many people say, “If I stepped into a church, it would fall down.”?  Or say that it would be struck by lightning because of their very presence! 

Somehow, these people have learned a lesson that says, God is not for them, and God wants nothing to do with them. 

But, right here we find out that the gospel message is especially for them.  God jumped over all of the important people in the world so that the poor, sinful, struggling schmucks of the world might be encountered by God’s promise of salvation.  No, the church will not fall apart if they were to step their foot in.  In fact, God is trying create straight roads to those churches, and is desperately trying to unlock those door and break them down so that these very people might see that the “salvation of God” for them (Luke 3:6). 

Jesus’ forgiveness is for them.  Jesus’ life of freedom and love is for them.  The purpose that Jesus has for the world includes them.  Jesus wants desperately to speak a word of sacrificial love in their ear, and allow them to see the power of the cross with their own eyes.  Jesus wants to speak a word of love to you.  It is a word of love that would die on a cross so that you might be free of the troubles in the wilderness.

Just this week, I read the story of a young woman who, though a pastor’s kid, suddenly found herself in the thorns and threats of the wilderness.  Her name is Cindy Price.  She is not a famous Christian speaker.  She is just a young woman with a gospel story that tells about seeing the salvation of God while in the wilderness.  She is just someone who experienced God’s work to make the paths of salvation straight for her when they had unexpectedly been made crooked during Christmas time.  She writes:

“The year my dad- who was a pastor at the time- was caught in his addiction, the Church leadership asked him and my mom to not attend the Christmas Eve service. The investigation was ongoing and they wanted him to step back while it happened.

What they didn't count on, I don't think, was for me to show up at the service. I have a deep commitment to tradition so when my parents said we weren't going to the service, I resolved to go by myself.

Under the weight of uncertainty and the fear of what I had suspected might just be a true accusation, I showed up to the candlelight service.

Families were there to celebrate, it was Christmas after all.

I found my usual spot at the front and as the first carols rang out, my tears began to fall. I felt like an imposter. I was a cloud of grief and darkness amidst a cheerful celebration. I felt guilty for dampening the time of rejoicing.

As I sat I found myself talking to Jesus. ‘I'm ruining your party,’ I told him.

It was his response in that moment that changed Christmas for me forever. He told me, ‘Cassie I came to that manger as a baby not for those in celebration, but for those in mourning.

I came for you. In this moment. Right here.’

For the first time in my relatively easy life, I was tasting heartache (and oh if only I knew how much more would come). And it was there that Jesus showed me the heart of Christmas. Jesus stepped down to pursue the broken and the hurting and the lost.

If this year broke you down. Isolated you. Left you grieving or fearful or hurt. I want you to know that you don't have to muster up cheer. You don't have to feel like a downer in the midst of celebration. You can sit at the feet of a savior who came for you where you're at right now. That's how Immanuel works. It's God with us in the dirt giving us hope in the face of despair.”

She ends with a quote from Isaiah, "Those who walk in darkness have seen a great light, on those living in spaces of deepest darkness a light has dawned" (Isaiah 9:2).

Those in the darkness, those in the wilderness, “shall see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:6).  You “shall see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:6).  “Repent,” open your minds, and your eyes, to see that the word of salvation, the very saving work of God is coming to “all flesh,” but especially you.