Luke 3:1-6
1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, 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, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5 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;6and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
Facts and Fulfillment
This second Sunday of Advent, St. Luke invites us to reflect on three inter-related and complementary dimensions:
The geo-historical map that prepared the way for Jesus’s Ministry. (Geo-historical means history interpreted on the basis of geographic factors.)
The political and religious authorities when the "Word was made flesh;" and
The beginning of the new and everlasting Covenant.
St. Luke, addressing his Gospel to western cultures, i.e. Greeks, starts with concrete realities, showing that this Gospel is not a kind of mythology created in an imaginary, irrelevant world of gods and goddesses. All it contains happened in a country known by its regions and borders, and in a period of time when the leaders are known by name, by competence and by respective authority in Judea, Galilee, Iturea, Traconitis and Abilene (regions between the Galilee and Damascus today).
All the names mentioned in these verses are historical: Emperor Tiberius, Prefect Pontius Pilate, Tetrarch Herod Antipas, Tetrarch Philip and Tetrarch Lysanias. St. Luke confirms to his friend Theophilus that he is writing to him with reference to historical events that happened in a certain time and real place! Acts 1:1-2, “In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus begin to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.“
The religious authority is also precisely mentioned according to the tradition in Israel where both Annas, the former high priest, and Caiaphas, the presiding successor, were very influential members in the Sanhedrin. They were the highest spiritual authority in Israel and are going to be mentioned on the night of Jesus’s trial in Jerusalem (John 18:13).
For spiritual input, St. Luke starts his Gospel by giving us the connection and link between the Old and the New Testaments. The New fulfilling the prophecies of the Old, completing and never abrogating as Jesus said in Matthew 5:17 that he came “not to abolish but to fulfill.”
After the birth and childhood of Jesus, we see John the Baptist in the desert proclaiming the imminent coming of the Kingdom and calling on people to repent. Reading the last verses of the Old Testament, we get a better understanding of John's vocation and ministry, realizing the promise of Elijah's return to prepare for the coming of Christ. Malachi 4:5, "Look, I will send to you the prophet Elijah before the great day of the Lord comes.”
John the Baptist, whom Jesus declares as the new Elijah, preceded the Messiah, who is about to start His ministry. Matthew 17:11-13, “Jesus replied, ‘To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.’ Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.” It is inspirational to pay attention to how John the Baptist fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah 40:3-5 as “a voice calling in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord..... and all people will see God's salvation” in Luke 3:4,6.
Are we ready to listen to this voice today? Even more, as Christians today, are we aware of the necessity to become this voice calling our society to prepare for the Coming of Christ, and to proclaim a salvation, to start with our nation, before reaching other nations?
May every one of us hear this voice calling to prepare for His coming as a personal call, receive it, live it and deliver it to others because everybody needs God's salvation through Christ the Lord!
Try to be this voice in this time and place where you live, here and now!