John's Public Ministry and Message of Repentance

“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. He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.  Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all mankind will see God’s salvation.’” … The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them. But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the other evil things he had done, Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison.” (Luke 3:1-20 NIV)

Luke treats this section, dealing with John's public ministry, differently from the other gospel writers. For one thing, as he does elsewhere, he puts most of the historical, chronological and background material at the beginning instead of letting it emerge in the course of his narrative. While Mark presents John as first preaching a message demanding repentance, and which identifies himself as the voice of one crying in the wilderness; and only then describes John’s appearance in terms to remind us of Elijah: camel's hair garment and leather belt (Mark 1:6; Matt. 3:4-6), Luke doesn’t actually quote John’s call to repentance, but includes Mark’s words that he was “preaching a baptism of repentance”. Luke omits the description of John’s Elijah-like dress and diet, perhaps because he thought it would not communicate to his target audience, which had more Gentiles in it than Mark's or Matthew's.

And, although the gospel writers will later return to the Elijah comparison and include our Lord’s own comment about it, perhaps we should pause here to reflect on a few of the ways in which John’s ministry situation resembled that of Elijah. For it was not just that John looked like Elijah, or even that he lived in the wilderness like Elijah did, but that they both faced similar spiritual crises, similar kings, and demanded similar responses among the people.

Elijah faced a people of God who had been seduced into worshiping Baal, the storm-god and fertility-god of the Phoenicians. John was confronted with a people who had been seduced into the worship of twin idols:

• the idol of seeking a political independence through a violent overthrow of the Roman government without any spiritual foundation of repentance and listening to God, and
• the idol of selfish and materialistic collaboration with the Romans on the part of the high priests, Herod Antipas, and the tax farmers.

Both extremes led down the same road to idolatry: seeking happiness apart from obedience to the living God.

The parallel extends to the two kings Elijah and John faced as opponents. Elijah faced wicked but powerful king Ahab and his Phoenician wife-queen Jezebel, who together fostered Baal worship in Israel. Since it was thought that Baal could bring rain and crops and wealth through agriculture, his worship was popular in Israel, until the LORD through Elijah announced a lengthy drought, which meant crop failures and poverty. John faced Herod Antipas, an apparently successful young monarch, one of the sons of Herod the Great, who was “in” with the Romans and had a Jezebel-like wife, Herodias, who used his lusts for her daughter Salome to lure him ever deeper into opposing God’s prophet John. Both Elijah’s and John’s lives were threatened by their royal opponents, but although God spared Elijah’s life during this crisis, he did not spare John’s.

Now let us return to the gospel passages describing John's ministry. All four gospels connect the words of the prophecy in Isaiah 40:3 to John:

1 Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.

2 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.

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

4 Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.

5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
and all mankind together will see it.
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

Luke quotes more of the Isaiah passage than Mark or Matthew, including verse 4: “every valley shall be filled up and every mountain made low”, which resonates with Mary’s Magnificat themes (Luke 1:52), and the final verse 5: “and all flesh/mankind shall see the salvation of God”, which recalls Simeon’s Nunc dimittis words “for my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the sight of all people, light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” (Luke 2:30-32).

All the gospel writers alike inform us that John called for a repentance that showed itself in a clear improvement in the simple and everyday aspects of life, not just in worship practices (such as Elijah’s attack on Israel's worship of the pagan god Baal). Luke even records his answers to specific sectors of society, including tax-farmers (the so-called 'publicans', who enriched themselves through a collaboration with Rome) and soldiers (perhaps even Roman soldiers). The instructions he gave to each were not as demanding as those Jesus would proclaim in his Sermon on the Mount, but they were appropriate as signs of the genuineness of their repentance.

In Luke 3:16-18 John's message to the people is described this way:

John answered them all, "I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." 18 And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them.

Although John’s message was in many ways harsh and threatening, stressing God's judgment on sin, Luke characterizes it as “good news” (Luke 3:18), that is, “gospel”!

All gospel writers also agree that John was asked if he were the Messiah, and that he denied it, but made a statement about one coming after him, the latchet of whose shoes he was unworthy even to loosen, who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. This "One" was Jesus, whom John described as "the Lamb of God who takes upon himself the sins of the world".

John’s message reminds us today that

• through Jesus, the kingdom of God has truly become a present reality (“at hand”) in our lives and requires from each of us a decision of what to do with this Savior and King. It asks of those who accept Him, a constant repentance and cleaning up of even the simplest and most routine areas of our behavior.
  

• that it is “good news” even when God must take uncomfortable action to “clear the threshing floor” of our lives of the trash that so easily accumulates, and to burn up this "chaff" in order for the Savior to live in us and to bless others' lives through us.

May he do that in my life and yours, so that we may with clean and happy hearts worship Him this Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you!