Background to the Words and Works of John the Baptizer

Luke 3 is the final background chapter to the teachings and stories of Jesus the man from Nazareth. The chapter is mostly about the work of John, Jesus' cousin. The chapter is really just a snapshot of what John was all about - in verse 2 he receives the word of God, verse three he starts preaching, and by verse 20 he is locked in prison (where he would soon die). But the snapshot we receive is a complex picture, a deep image, a many-layered vision of what God is up to in the world (at that moment...and still today) through Israel, through John, and eventually through Jesus.

To get a richer, more detailed image of John and his work/words, it is really helpful to read slowly through Isaiah 40...and on through Isaiah 61. It's a lot of reading, but it is the beautiful and potent lyrics of God's work in the world in and through Israel - and it is the lyrics that John memorized and meditated upon while in the wilderness. I'm sure John reflected upon more than just that section from Isaiah, but what we read in Luke 3 is chock full of the messages we find in Isaiah 40-61.

John and Jesus aren't making stuff up out of thin air, and they are not just speaking in a vacuum, solely filled by the Holy Spirit. They are addressing the Jewish people who have a particular history with YHWH, who are at a particular point in their relationship with him, and God is coming to them in a particular way...a way that he has laid out (albeit with some mysterious stuff wrapped into it) in Isaiah and Deuteronomy and the Psalms. John and Jesus are preaching the word of God as revealed in Torah, and Prophets, and Writings - but they are preaching it in their new context, modifying the message to hit the hearts of their fellow neighbors.

What's new is not so much the message, it's more the medium of the message. The preaching of the forgiveness of sins is not radical, what's radical is that God himself would come as a fellow human to forgive people in person. God wasn't going to just have John talk about forgiveness, God was going to come in Jesus to start forgiving people on the spot. Actually, forgiveness of sins for Jews and Gentiles is a radical idea, even if it is found way back in Isaiah 49 - it's an old idea, but radical only because most people didn't believe it to be true, or didn't want it to be true.