Luke 3:21-23a

21 -Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened,

Isn't it curious that Jesus waited until "all the people were baptized" before He showed up? Some translations say, "when" and "while," but the weight seems to be with the wait. The preparation John was making included preparing the people through baptism. He was tiling soil the old fashioned way - roughing it up, making it tender and vulnerable, and reminding them all the while that they were just in the beginning stages of something big - really big.

It still happens that way. God gets us ready through His Spirit and His servants and Jesus shows up, "full of grace and truth." The first requirement for salvation is an awareness that you need salvation. One reason many of us do not baptize small children as converts is because they do not have an idea of what they are converting from. We don't want to give them a false impression. They cannot repent of sins for which they have not experienced conviction. They can't be sorry and desire change from a rebellious spirit that they have not become aware of.

That is when Jesus showed up. It was during a process where people were repenting for sins through baptism and He stepped into the water with them - water defiled by the sins of humanity, being sanctified by His own holiness. He got into the middle of it with us. No wonder other recorded John's objections.

He had never sinned, but He saw fit to identify with sinners.

It was a necessary prelude to the cross, a foretaste of what would come, a preview of His full identification with sinful humanity whose sins He would bear in one great act of atonement.

It was no easy or lighthearted baptism into which He was entering there.

So, He prayed and as He prayed, Heaven was opened.

Here we see Jesus, High Priest, redeemer, reconciler, entering into the fray of our every human experience, willing to stand with us, die for us, and pray on our behalf that Heaven might be opened. Halleluiah! What a Savior!

22 -And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.

Not surprisingly God's Spirit made Himself visible and the Father spoke audibly. It had not happened often in History that the voice of God thundered for all to hear. It has seldom happened since. This was a momentous occasion. And what He said was beyond the capacity of the crowds to grasp: This is my Son. I am very, very pleased with Him.

He had nothing for which to repent. He was the first to enter those waters sinless and, in His Passion, as He entered further into the depths of His baptism (Remember, He called it a baptism), He would bring out many sons and daughters clean and sanctified as He was when He stepped into the water.

The Father was pleased with Him already. He was very pleased that at the age of 30, He had come to realize and live out His mission in the world.

23 - And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age…

Indeed, and because He did, we have hope that we never had before. Amen.

One Comes After

Luke 3:15-20
15 -And as the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ, or not;

Having engaged in a fair amount of heart musing myself, I am not surprised at this response from the people that have been listening to John's preaching. Somewhat overwhelmed with his physical appearance, coming to terms with his mannerisms, and hearing his hard-hitting, yet simple and hopeful message that life change is possible as well as mandated, they must have wondered who and what this fellow might be. He could not be an ordinary man.

In fact he was an ordinary man, a man under the authority of God and moved by the power of God. He was not the Christ, but he was the closest anyone had ever seen to him.

16 - John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:

John did not let their wonderings go unanswered. He could tell what they were thinking. In fact, they likely had verbalized their thoughts.

"I'm a water baptizer," he said. I'm the guy that gets you wet. In fact, he had done a bit more than that; he had held them accountable for meaning business by their baptism. He had challenged them that what they were doing was significant and life changing.

"I am not worthy to untie the Messiah's shoes," he said. "He is mightier than I. He is coming after me. He will get you so wet with the Spirit and so hot with fire that you will boil over with the Holy Spirit."

The symbolic actions John was officiating for pointed to something real, something genuinely heart changing and life affirming. Reality is spiritual. Water is nothing more than a reminder of what is real. Ritual points the way to what is validated by the One to come after.

17 - Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.

John's message that the people needed to mean business with their repentance/baptism was based upon his knowledge that the Christ would mean business. He was not coming to play games with people. He would not be all talk. He would sort things out decisively. What was rubbish would be identified as such and dealt with appropriately. No idle words would remain. No chaff would endure the heat of His holy fire.

John is not talking about final judgment here. He is talking about immediate judgment, the kind that gets to the heart of things right away. He is talking about a Messiah who has the authority and the will assert Himself in the world.

18 - And many other things in his exhortation preached he unto the people.

One can only imagine what those many other things might have been that John preached - but he never seemed to want for an audience. It is interesting that when Jesus did come, He did not look as much like John's picture of Him as John described. Nor did He look and sound much like John. But don't be fooled by that. With His gentle touch, compassionate deeds, and humorous stories, He was piercing the hearts of men and women with truth and sorting out the wheat and chaff. he still is.

The Word of God, incarnate and spoken in Jesus Christ is harsh to the harsh and brittle of spirit and gentle to the tender hearted. Once delivered, it baptizes thoroughly. The water of the Spirit permeates every pore of our existence and saturates us with the very presence of God. The fire that He brings energizes and consumes.

John was absolutely accurate in his description of the Christ even beyond his ability to understand how.

19 -But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, 20 - Added yet this above all, that he shut up John in prison.

Truth does not sit well with everyone and certainly not with reproved kings. People in power do not like to be questioned. Prophets cannot help but reprove them. There are consequences and John would pay dearly.

What John brought to the table of our experience of the Messiah was integrity, humility, and courage. He had the integrity to tell the truth, the humility not to take too much credit, and the courage not to modify his message in spite of the dangers to himself.

We need a little of his gumption today.

Why So Late?

Since December, I have been preaching from the gospel of Luke. A few weeks ago, I moved my preaching series to a bible study and just today, I decided to start posting the gleanings and insights in a blog. That means I will be starting well into chapter 3 with the hopes of going back and filling in the blanks at some point. I just wanted the reader to know that.

More later...