Raise your voice
Readings: Luke 3. 1-6
Into the chaos of the world, the Baptist speaks. On the edge of a small province of the Roman Empire one man is preparing people for the one who will change the whole world.
It’s almost like Luke’s Gospel resets at the start of chapter 3. In the first two chapters we’ve heard of the miraculous births of John the Baptist and Jesus. The former to an elderly couple who thought they’d never have a child, the latter to a young virgin and her new husband, we’ll get to that at Christmas. But those first two chapters, vital though they are, are almost like the prologue, important info and background, but now the story proper begins in chapter 3.
And chapter 3 starts like many of the books of the Old Testament prophets do, in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar…the word of the Lord came to John, son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. In that day God had been silent since the last of the prophets like Malachi. There’s been a gap of a few hundred years where God has not said a word directly to his people. And yet now, walking out of the wilderness steps a prophet, the last of the Old Testament prophets, here with a vital message; the time is here. The moment you’ve been waiting for, this is it.
But the way Luke introduces John isn’t just to remind us of the prophets of old, a signpost so that we recognise from how he’s writing what’s going on; a prophet of old come as forerunner of the new, the coming Saviour. It’s also to root us into the reality and the context of what is about to happen.
Firstly the reality. As I’ve mentioned previously I love Luke’s approach to his Gospel, his searching of the facts, researching, interviewing, so that we who are reading can be assured that what we are reading is true. Luke doesn’t begin this section with ‘Once upon a time’ or ‘A long time ago in a galaxy far far away’. He roots it in time and space. Here are the rulers, the authorities who are in power when this takes place. And with characteristic precision he uses the correct titles of all these different rulers, slightly masked by our translation, and is so precise that we can date this moment to the correct year.
And when you’re being that precise you’re almost inviting people to challenge you, to push back. When you’re being that precise you’re saying that this stuff really happened, it really took place, this man stepped out of the wilderness in 28 or 29AD (depending on the exact time of year). And in this little list of names it’s like we’re slowly zooming into the events. We start pulled right back looking at earth, and then we zoom in to the Roman empire over which Tiberius is reigning, in to the province of Judea governed by Pilate, in to the territory of the sons of Herod, swing past the Temple and out onto the edge of the wilderness where we see John.
Borrowing from Rev. Ian Paul’s blog imagine an announcement in our day began like this ‘At the time when Boris Johnson was Prime Minister of Great Britain, when Joe Biden was President of the United States, Xi Jinping was President of the People’s Republic of China, Nicola Sturgeon was First Minister of Scotland, and Emmanuel Macron was the President of France, when Andrew John was Archbishop of Wales, John Williams was appointed vicar of St Muggles in the Marsh’.
Now on the one hand it’s a rather ludicrous statement, you’ve got this global list of people and it turns out you’re talking about a Vicar in some forgotten parish somewhere. It would be a bit mad if that’s how we announced new clergy to posts. But then, with that sort of introduction, you’d be expecting big things from Rev. Williams wouldn’t you. Whilst the context may seem a bit much, it rather sets you up that something vital will happen through or to this guy. That’s how we’re meant to feel about John the Baptist. This great list of names tells us that something incredibly important is about to happen.
Here in this tiny corner of the world are events which will change it forever. It’s no accident that Luke begins this section with the Emperor and ends his intro of John with the end of that quote from Isaiah ‘all flesh shall see the salvation of our God’. We might be zooming in, but by the end we’ll have to zoom out as the whole world will be changed. As he finishes his second book, Acts, we find Paul in the centre of that Empire, preaching the salvation of God to the people of Rome. Whilst Luke starts by zooming in, by the end the canvas is as wide as the earth. This stuff really happened, and its changed everything.
And secondly the context. I wonder how you feel when you’re reading your Bible and suddenly there’s a great list of names. If you’re reading from the front and haven’t read beforehand I’d imagine the answer is panic. But in your own time, when there’s a great list of names do you skip over it? Skip ahead to the next bit? Skim it until you get to the next part of the narrative? Or do you pause to read them? Every list of names in the Bible serves a purpose, they’re not simply registers of who was there. And this little list is no exception.
Because this little list gives us the context for what’s about to happen. Going back to that modern list of names I used earlier, they give us important context for the events. Boris Johnson being Prime Minister reminds us about Brexit and the challenges entailed, mention of Macron draws to mind the challenges with the borders and fishing rights and trade as a result of that. Biden points us to the period between the Trump presidencies with the increasingly divided nature of American politics. You’ve got China and it’s increasing power and threat to world security with it’s advances in military, economy and technology. Nicola Sturgeon points us to the campaign for Scottish independence. And then you’ve got the Archbishop, his tenure marked by the cementing of LMA’s, and changes to doctrine and practice. Now, depending on how you feel about the last few years that list might be a cause for celebration or misery or rather mixed. But it gives context, vital background for what’s going on when the events take place.
The same is true of this list in Luke. You’ve got the Emperor Tiberius, a reminder of the might and unstoppable power of Rome, as it does what it wants, takes what it wants. Tiberius himself had a reign marked by increased violence, including the expulsion of all the Jews from Rome. Pilate comes across rather well in the Gospels, but, as I was saying at the 4 o’clock a few weeks ago, he was a violent and cruel man, ruthless and inflexible. He doesn’t care much for those under his care, taking money from the Temple treasury and introducing the worship of the Emperor to it. Then you’ve got Herod and Philip, the Sons of Herod the great who we met in chapter 1, they’ve divided his territory between themselves and care little for the ways of the Jews. They’re modernisers, introducing practices from the wider Greek and Roman world, many of which go against God’s commands. And then you’ve got the two listed as High Priests. There was only ever one, it’s Caiaphas’ time, but his father-in-law Annas had also been high priest, succeeded by 5 of his Sons and now his Son in law. As Joel Green notes ‘Annas had…near-dynastic control of the office…As the head of the temple and its cult, Caiaphas and Annas would have exercised virtually unrivalled power and privilege among the Jewish people’
Why am I telling you all this. You know I love history but its not meant as a history lesson. Here’s the darkness into which the light comes. You’ve got an Emperor drunk on power, a governor who’s violent and uncaring, pretender kings who care more about their legacy than the people they rule over and high priests who are in it for themselves. Here’s the darkness, here’s the immense power at work in the world. And this is the world that God is born into, that he enters, not some fairytale from a Christmas card, but the night, deepest, darkest, blackest night, before Christmas. And out of the wilderness steps a man who says that the light is coming, is dawning right now. Who declares that every valley shall be filled in, every mountain flattened, in other words that everyone who is high shall be brought low, and the lowly raised up. Who declares that the crooked paths shall be made straight as he calls those whose ways are crooked back to the ways of God.
Into the turmoil of the world, God speaks through John, and declares that everything is about to change forever. In the face of all this power God declares that he is still in charge.
Back to that list of updated names. We live in tumultuous times. And I might say that we’re called to be like John the Baptist in our day, to proclaim the coming Saviour. But that would be to underplay who we are. As Jesus himself says, the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John. John comes as herald of a coming Kingdom, a coming Saviour, but we live as citizens of that Kingdom, the ones who have been saved by the Saviour. We aren’t heralds, we’re ambassadors, living outposts of that Kingdom. The Kingdom has come, it’s still coming. It is into the reality of this world, this present day, with Brexit and wars and instability and worries and power, into this world and this time that the Gospel speaks.
And so, like John we’re to lift up our voices so that all the ends of the earth will come to know the salvation of our God. The world has been changed, and we with it, and a day is coming when all shall be made right, made new. And so in the wilderness of these days, may we be voices of hope, voices heralding the returning Saviour, sharing the light and peace and joy of the Gospel. May we live as citizens of that coming Kingdom, our lives distinctive so that others take notice.
My brothers and sisters last week I challenged us to lift up our heads with hope, this week may we raise up our voices; ‘Jesus is coming, he is coming soon, are you ready to meet him?’
I want to finish with a quote from JC Ryle which seems pertinent.
‘Let us beware of slacking our hands from any work of God, because of the wickedness of the times, or the number and power of our adversaries. “He that observes the wind shall not sow, and he that regards the clouds shall not reap.” (Eccles. 11:4.) Let us work on, and believe that help will come from heaven, when it is most needed. In the very hour when a Roman emperor, and ignorant priests, seemed to have everything at their feet, the Lamb of God was about to come forth from Nazareth, and set up the beginnings of His kingdom. What He has done once, He can do again. In a moment He can turn His church’s midnight into the blaze of noon day.’
Amen.