Luke 3: Refiner's Fire

John the Baptist Prepares the Way

10 And the crowds were questioning him, saying, "(O)Then what shall we do?" 11 And he would answer and say to them, "The man who has two tunics is to (P)share with him who has none; and he who has food is to do likewise." 12 And some (Q)tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they said to him, "Teacher, what shall we do?" 13And he said to them, "Collect no more than what you have been ordered to." 14 Some soldiers were questioning him, saying, "And what about us, what shall we do?" And he said to them, "Do not take money from anyone by force, or (R)accuse anyone falsely, and (S)be content with your wages."

This passage made me think that everyone who asked John "what shall we do?" already knew the answer to their own questions before John answered. In other words, they weren't asking for advice because they didn't know what they should do. John was just revealing their hearts. Related to that, John said:

16 As for me, I baptize you with water; but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

John was revealing their hearts as an outsider, with gentle water. But the living Holy Spirit was on its way to truly convict people of their hearts with refining fire, activating a change from within.

19 But when Herod the tetrarch was reprimanded by him....he locked John up in prison."

The imagery here is so clear to me: When we choose not to face the truth revealed to us by God, we end up locking it up in a symbolic prison in our heart. By doing so, Herod is preventing the gentle water of John's revelation to flow. The refining fire of the Holy Spirit has no access to that part of his heart.

Genealogy of Jesus

I think most people tend to skip geneaology lists when they are encountered in the Bible. But just about every time, I skim the list for 1) familiar names and 2) names of women. In this one I found my favorite Boaz (the land baron from the book of Ruth).

Luke's genealogy list of Jesus worked backwards; i.e. instead of from the top to bottom, he started with Joseph and worked his way back up the "tree" culminating at Adam, the son of God. I looked up several genealogies in the Bible. Though we are all descendants of Adam, only Jesus' genealogy in the Bible specifies him as a descendant of Adam, the son of God (the emphasis being on God, not Adam).

Here's how Jesus is introduced in the other gospels:
Matthew: the lineage goes as far "up" as Abraham (Matthew 1:1)
Mark: simply "Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (Mark 1:1)
John: The Word became flesh (John 1:14)

So while Luke was being extra detail-oriented and nitpicky-technical - as he said he would be - he also artistically ended the lineage with "the son of God." I also liked the touch in the beginning (Luke 3:23) where he wrote, "...He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph." I like to think that these two points, taken together, was Luke's way of saying, in his mystery novel writer voice, "Jesus was really the Son of God."

The Bible is such a beautiful mystery to be discovered!