11. The Weird Cousin

Luke 3:1-20

Seven very self-important people are listed in the first sentence of Luke 3. Behind those seven names was an intolerable story of oppression and misery - both political and religious - for God’s people in Israel.

God bypassed every single one of them.

Instead the word of the Lord came to John, who was Jesus’ slightly odd cousin.

It’s a standard Old Testament formula for introducing a prophet - name the ruler, name the father, then “the word of the Lord came to…” (e.g. Zechariah 1:1). Weird as he was, John the Baptiser was a prophet with a tremendous role to play in preparing the people for the coming King.

It all happened in the wilderness.

The wilderness was the place where God’s people spent 40 years at the time of the Exodus. The wilderness period started with them going through the parted waters of the Red Sea and ended with them going through the parted waters of the River Jordan.

The Exodus was necessary because God’s people were in slavery in Egypt due to a wicked leader called Pharaoh - it was not something that the Israelites brought on themselves because of sin.

However, a later event in their history, the Exile, was a result of their sin. The Exile, when God’s people were taken away from Jerusalem (and from the temple of God’s presence) and held captive in Babylon, would only end when sins were forgiven and the presence of God powerfully returned to His temple.

A new Exodus was now necessary - not from enslavement to Egypt but from enslavement to sin.

The end of the Exile was long overdue.

No one would have missed the allusions when John preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Baptism to point to a new Exodus.

Forgiveness of sins to herald the end of the Exile.

Their part was repentance. It’s a big, old, Bible word. But it simply means a change of mind, a change in how we think, a turning towards God.

John quotes Isaiah 40 as he speaks of preparing for the coming of something big. The imagery is of preparation for the visit of a king. Roads would be smoothed for the arrival of his chariot. But John is not preparing for the coming of any old king. He is preparing for the coming of the Lord. God is coming.

John’s way with the crowd isn’t too polished. He basically calls them children of the devil (offspring of snakes) and demands that their lives show some evidence (fruit) that repentance has taken place. They look to their ancestry as evidence of their relationship with God but they are mistaken if they think that family history will make them part of the family of God.

When asked, “What should we do?” John has slight variations of the same answer for the crowd, the tax collectors and the soldiers - start treating people better. Repentance will be evidenced not in how much we read our Bibles or how loudly we sing our worship songs, but in how we treat other people. Still treating people badly? Repentance has not taken place in your life.

When asked if he was the Messiah, John came out with a statement about something the Messiah would be able to do that no one else can do. Coincidentally, it happens to be in Luke 3:16 and I would urge you to make it as important in your understanding of the gospel as John 3:16 is. What John the Baptiser says about Jesus here is vital for salvation and Christian living - “He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” That happened on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2) and the presence of God did indeed return to His temple, His new temple - the Church. The Exile is over.

What do wicked kings like Herod do with powerful prophets like John?

Imprison them. Silence them. Murder them.

If we bring a radical message calling for repentance and the empowering of the Holy Spirit then we can expect to face opposition from difficult – even tyrannical – people. When the Kingdom of God comes, other kingdoms will clash with it.

Ponder

Do you reckon God couldn’t use you when there are so many more important people about? Consider who God chose to use in this passage and who He overlooked.

Consider the Exodus and the Exile. Jesus was born out of the history of the people of Israel. Do you value the Old Testament enough when it comes to understanding who Jesus is?

Is there evidence of repentance in your life? Are you moving towards God rather than away from Him? Reflect on how you treat other people and how that is the ‘fruit of repentance’.