Luke 3:1-20

 Luke 3:1-20

The great drama begins with a listing of powerful people and a reminder of how irrelevant the appearance of power can be. Luke, the careful historian, lists seven powerful people. This gives us a careful and an accurate historical point of reference. From the mighty Tiberius Caesar to local political rulers we see the might of Roman political power.  Luke also mentions two high priests Annas and Caiaphas. There were the two acting high priests.  Caiaphas was the official high priest, and the power behind the scenes was his father-in-law Annas who was the deposed former high priest. With all that power structure outlined Luke then gives us, in English, seven words “the word of God came to John”.

It is pretty easy to become confused about the source of power. It is a human condition. We should begin to paraphrase the old song “Blinded by the Light” to become “Blinded by the Might”.  The real power in this verse was not located in the seat of power. It was not in Rome or in a palace or in Jerusalem or even in the temple. The word came to a lonely figure on the fringe of society in an out-of-the-way place. In Luke 1:80 it says, “John grew strong in spirit”. There was the power.

Our temptation is to try to find a shortcut to power. We think that visible power is real power. That is not true. There is no other source, no shortcuts, and no options. The remarkable ministry of John (true of every great saint’s work) is that they were connected personally and directly to the Lord. Failure to connect to the Lord is a guarantee that we will be a failure and that we will fail in all we do.

"Lord, protect me from trying to find power in anything other than the power of living in Your will. AMEN".