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, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, 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, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,
Luke 3:1-6
“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.’ ”
My sermon from Second Sunday of Advent (December 8, 2024) on Luke 3:1-6.
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So last week, during my children’s message, I introduced the writer of the gospel according to Luke as someone who we don’t know much about but they seemed to care a lot about people’s healing and wholeness. He was, from the few times his name appears in Paul’s letters, a doctor who regularly used the pop culture of his time to paint a picture of who Jesus is. Luke wasn’t, I think, an eye-witness to Jesus’ ministry so what he did was collect the stories people shared around dinner tables, during worship, and through letters and other documents including the gospel according to Mark. Jesus’ life was, for Luke, rooted in a kind of recent history which is why he often began different story arcs within his version of Jesus’ life through the lens of history. For example, in chapter 1, we’re introduced to John the Baptist’s family by also identifying who was the king of Judea at the time. We’ll also, in just a few weeks, see Luke do the same thing by naming a certain Roman Emperor who wanted to know just how many people lived in his Empire. Both of those bits of Luke’s story, however, pale in comparison to the start of our reading today. When it came time for Luke to kick-off John and Jesus’ public ministry when they were both around 30 years old, Luke made it clear that when the Creator of the universe shows up, God enters into the history we create.
It’s not easy, though, to see this since the names Luke dropped lived almost 2,000 years ago. History can feel very old, abstract, and even be romanticized to the point where it becomes a fantasy no one actually lived through. We have a responsibility, I think, to recognize what Luke tried to do since each of the rulers he named had their own stories, histories, and reputations. Now Tiberius wasn’t the Roman emperor who ordered the census that kicked off Mary’s journey to Bethlehem. He was, though, in charge when Jesus’ walked along the shores of Galilee and was known as a rather “cruel, perverse, and self-indulgent” ruler. Tiberius was also the one who appointed Pontius Pilate as governor of Judea who then presided over Jesus’ trial and ordered his crucifixion. Another of the leaders named by Luke was Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great who had turned the Holy Temple in Jerusalem into one of the largest religious complexes in the ancient world. He, like Ponitus Pilate, served at the pleasure of the Emperor and he used violence to maintain his grip on power. He is the “Herod” who not only interacted with Jesus during his public ministry but who also eventually ordered John the Baptist’s beheading. Herod Antipas’ brother, Philip, ruled a neighboring region and renamed a city after himself that was located next to a mountain covered in temples dedicated to Roman gods including one that proclaimed the Roman Emperor as the Son of God himself. It was in the shadow of this mountain when Peter would declare Jesus to be the Messiah. We don’t know very much about the other ruler Luke mentioned since Lysanias oversaw a very tiny kingdom centered in modern day Syria. His reputation has been mostly lost to history. After naming these political leaders, Luke then included two who oversaw religious life within the Holy Temple of Jerusalem. Caiphas would be officially in-charge during Jesus’ trial but his father-in-law, Annas, still wielded considerable influence while Jesus was busy showing what happens when God’s kingdom comes near. Luke’s naming of these leaders doesn’t strike us in the same way it did for those who first heard his words since we don’t have the same relationship with these leaders like they did. But during this Advent and Christmas season, when the world around us demands we be happy, thankful, and full of holiday cheer regardless of what is truly weighing on our hearts, the names Luke dropped show us that no matter how much history we’ve lived through, God’s claim on our are lives and on our world is so much bigger than everything that life can bring.
When Luke the historian shows up in our Bible, it’s an invitation to remember that our God chooses to show up in the real world. God doesn’t work only in the abstract; nor does grace, faith, and eternal life only happen to other people. God works through concrete events and with real people who are experiencing history itself. Not only is Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension the example of who God is; Luke’s words also reveal how much of God’s story is lived out in our own story too. In the words of Professor Troy Troftgruben, “God saves not … ‘somewhere over the rainbow,’ but in history.” And “as corrupt, messy, and complicated,” human life can be, it’s in this place, with these imperfect people, and within the history we create through the actions and choices we make – that’s where God chooses to be. And that, I think, is why God chose to participate in our history by experiencing that history first had. It’s why God chose to feel what it’s like to grow up and how so much of our life is impacted by those who believe that having power over others is the only way we can ever feel safe, secure, and in control. It’s this same God who also discovered how our relationships with one another are full of their own history that we don’t always learn from. And when Jesus showed everyone what happens when God’s love comes near, we struggled back then – and we even struggle today – to make God’s holy history part of the lived history we get to create everyday. By rooting the story of God in the life people live, God, Jesus, and the gift of faith itself cannot be seen as something abstract or something that only matters when our end is near. Rather, the God who showed up; who lived; and who refused to let the Cross-shaped history we create be the limit of what our future will be – is the same God who, in baptism and through faith, chooses to show up in your life too. We can’t help but be as human as we are and, whether we realize it or not, we participate in the history that is unfolding around us. This history doesn’t merely happen to us; it is something we create through the ways we serve God and one another. As beloved children of God living within God’s own creation, it is easy to feel as if everything – including Christmas – only depends on us. But Luke, John, and Jesus remind us that we do not get to live through this history on our own. Our lives and our world are held by the God who chooses to make their presence known in, and through, history itself. And we are invited to wonder and ponder what it means to create history with the One whose mercy, forgiveness, hope, and love shows us what living is all about.
Amen.