“In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar--when Pontus 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 wilderness. He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: ‘A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ ” (Luke 3:1-4) NIV
God Thoughts:
Luke may get kudos for fact-citing the where’s, who’s and what’s of his story but to a generation of readers 2000 years later, what difference does it make to us who was caesar, who was governor and who’s brother was tetrach of what city?
A lot, actually.
Contrary to the idea that faith is blind and should stay that way, faith was designed by God to be grounded in fact. In truth. In the tangible reality of verifiable history. Because when the smallest details of fact are true, it enables us to conclude that the bigger ones are just as credible. From imprinting his existence in creation itself to offering his resurrected nail-marked hands to Thomas, God wants us to know that he is real and can be trusted.
So Luke prepares us by first grounding us in known fact. His contemporaries would have known that the men cited in this passage actually existed but we can know it too thanks to verification by an independent source, an ancient Roman historian named Josephus in his work, “Jewish Antiquities” who mentions them all. And there is physical evidence as well such as the recent discovery of Caiaph’s ossuary.
In setting the factual scene for us, then, Luke prepares his readers to accept a more difficult reality. Because John the son of Zechariah is the one the ancient prophet Isaiah foretold would come almost 1000 years earlier to prepare the people for their Messiah. And not only is John the fulfillment of ancient prophecy but his message is difficult too.
John is preaching baptism, a ceremonial cleansing ritual that was reserved for the most unclean (the diseased like lepers or those who had touched the dead) to be restored and made acceptable once more to God. The problem is, he is preaching this message to a generation of Jews, the “chosen people” of God, that have become as unclean on the inside as the unclean pariah's they avoid. Only by admitting to their unclean "condition" can they be restored to a relationship with the One they claim to follow.
Question:
Is there a challenging truth or next-step God is asking you to take that, while grounded in a series of known facts, is hard for you to trust?
Life As I Know It:
Thoughtful Spots. We all have them. Pooh’s was a quiet place protected from the wind somewhere between Piglet’s house and his own. But me? It’s wherever I walk my dog, Miley, each day. Yesterday my Thoughtful Spot turned out to be the nearby high school athletic field and while navigating my Doodle in and around exercising teenagers or scooping up the “presents” she meant to leave behind, God made me think. And what I thought about was money. More to the point, what I thought about was how I am having trouble trusting him with it.
We submitted paperwork to our mortgage companies to reduce our interest rates yesterday. We don’t know what they’ll conclude although we are praying hard that God will compel them to reduce them significantly. The problem I now realize, however, is what will we do if they give us what we want? Will we trust God enough to use it the way he wants and not just what seems “financially best”? Or more likely, what seems to just be all about us?
Yes, we cheerfully give a portion each month to groups supporting God’s work for those local and around the world. But honestly, it isn’t much. We have said often to ourselves that we want to give more and want to be in a position to be more responsible with what we have. But how do we give? Only when it seems safe? Or regardless of financial “caution” in the expectation that God will provide?
It’s tricky, this trusting business. And I know the facts. Or at least some of them. God has cared for us and demonstrated his provision for our family for the last 20 years of our marriage. I know he will accomplish his will in the world, that everything we have is his anyway, that he loves us more than we love ourselves and that scripture is FULL of words to that effect. And I know that whatever we give he wants it to be with full hearts, not fearful ones.
But I also know that material provision is not a guarantee. I have brothers and sisters around the world who love God with all their hearts, minds and souls and they, like Jesus before them, have no place to lay their heads.
“So how do I know how to trust you?” I find myself asking him during my Thoughtful Spot moments as I watch another group of teens huff and puff around the gravel track. Maybe a better question is to ask, “How do you want me to respond if you enable us to ease our current financial burden?” Will it hurt? Will it be hard? Or can you just make me joyful so following you won’t be so difficult?
Pooh’s response was “think, think, think.” I think mine will have to be “pray, pray, pray.”
