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If we were hearing this passage from Luke’s Gospel with the fresh ears of someone who lived at the time Luke wrote his “narrative about the events that have been fulfilled among us” (as he states at the beginning) to a fictitious addressee whom he names Theophilus which means “God-lover”, we would be struck with how political it is. He starts here by naming the political leaders who are responsible for the well-being of the people not only God’s people there in Judea, but of everybody in the world as they knew hit. Luke names the politicians and then makes the bold statement that the Word of God didn’t come to them but to a hermit prophet out in the wilderness to whom multitudes of people were flocking in desperation because their life was so bad (mostly because of these politicians) that God was their only hope. He names the leaders and indicates that God will work against them to bring salvation to all people. This was not a non-political matter of private religion.
Be mindful that to a First Century hearer of Luke’s Gospel, salvation did not mean getting your sins forgiven so that you can go to heaven when you die. Deliverance would be the better word to use here and deliverance was always a “this world” matter, an “on earth as it is in Heaven” matter. The baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins that John was proclaiming was not the message of get baptized so you can go to heaven when you die. John’s baptism was a symbolic gesture of wanting to be clean before God in order to be ready for when God comes to put things right.
There was strong sentiment among the people that due to the corruption of the priests and the money-making religion that they had made of Temple worship in Jerusalem, the sacrifices made there were unacceptable to God. So, the everyday people of the land were going to the prophet of God out in the wilderness to get washed clean in the Jordan to be ready for God’s coming. You know significance of the Jordan River, the river God’s people crossed into the Promised Land from their wandering in the wilderness after God delivered them from slavery in Egypt and also when God brought them back from Exile in Babylon. The faithful, everyday people of the land were looking for a new start in a new age in God’s land with God obviously reigning.
Repentance wasn’t so much this remorseful “I’m a sinner” thing that medieval Christianity passed on to us. Repentance was getting on board with what God was doing to deliver his people from oppression and establish them anew in the Land with leadership that would lead like King David did, leaders after God’s own heart rather than popularity and power. These people were, with desperation, anticipating as their only hope that at any moment the Messiah of God would come and bring the Kingdom of God. So, they went to John the Baptist for they knew that he, according to prophecy, was the one crying out in the wilderness preparing the way of the Lord.
This movement that was centered around John the Baptist was not a non-political matter of private religion. It was all about matters of everyday life – work, taxation, the cost of living – and the effect the political leadership in the land had on those everyday matters. The faithful in the land, those looking to God for the solution, were flocking to John because they had no confidence at all that their political and religious leadership were capable of solving the difficulties of everyday life, but were rather the root of the problem. Those in power were ruling for the benefit of themselves rather looking after the needs of the people.
I think we can relate to their lack of confidence in their political leadership. On November 21, 2021 the survey organization Ipsos conducted a poll here in Canada identifying what Canadians considered to be the top issues our newly elected federal government needed to deal with and also our confidence in Parliament to make significant progress on these issues. The biggest issue was affordability and the cost of living, the affordability of basic necessities. Only 21% of us were confident our leadership can make significant progress on keeping the cost of living in check. The second big issue was the Pandemic and we gave the government a 61% vote of confidence on that. Then came healthcare, housing, the economy, and climate change only one third of the people surveyed had any confidence at all that our elected officials can make any sort of significant progress on these issues. We're better than the Americans though. The results of a similar survey released this passed week showed that only 21% of the people surveyed had confidence that Congress can get anything done at all.
I don’t want to sound pessimistic, but it truly sounds to me that in North America we are losing confidence in our elected leadership and it appears we are heading towards hopelessness. That’s not good. I’m no political analyst, but from my armchair I really don’t see where the needs of everyday people like me and my family are being put first. I am deeply troubled that it is likely that nearly all of our members of federal Parliament made more on stock investments last year, during a Pandemic, than the combined income of my household. That leads me to surmise that our members of Parliament do not wrestle with the same economic insecurities as you and I; yet, they make decisions that affect our economic security. And then we have to listen to them bicker over their ideological differences and as they personally attack each other as if they were professional wrestlers dressed like televangelists. I would much prefer they put their politics and the twisted desire to win at all cost aside and work together to do the work we elected them to do. Sorry. I’m getting off track here. There has to be a solution to politics.
Well, in John the Baptist’s day the people were returning to the Jordan, to get on board with what God was doing and get a new start. For us today, I suggest we return to the Table of our Lord. This meal which introduces us to the One who did not spare his one life, but gave it for us all; the One who did not seek his own gain, but gave up everything that we might have the abundant life; the One who took five loaves and two fish and fed a crowd of likely 15,000 hopeless people; the One who healed people, cleansed and restored lepers, cast out demons, and held political and religious leadership accountable for their hypocrisy; the One who understood that the unity of the bond of love needs to be tended to before all else.
In this me-centred world where everybody’s their own expert and the capacity to trust is out the window and at our cores we’re just plain scared to death, I don’t think that it’s a ridiculous suggestion to say, “We need Jesus!”; to say, “Come to the table and meet and ponder the One whose way is unconditional love and sacrificial generosity and hospitality. There is a place where you are welcome; where you can rest and lay your burdens down, where the Spirit of God just might wash over you letting you know just how loved by God you are and that you are his beloved child and your life is in his hands." The place to find the solution to politics is the Table of our Lord. Come and meet the One who gave himself for you. Jesus and his way is the solution to politics. He is peace and at his table is the way to the peace of his kingdom. Amen.
