I used to be the kind of Bible reader who would skim over names and places: Tiberius, Iturea, Lysanias, whatever. I would approach verses such as these* and simply read, ‘Long ago and far away, the word of God came to John…’
But reading this way misses what Luke was very explicitly trying to say: all of these events happened in a particular time and place in history. The world in which John lived was shaped by specific cultural and political forces, and these details are worth noticing. Some of the names that Luke rattles off I know – Pilate, Herod, Annas, and Caiaphus – because they are implicated, or at least complicit, in the deaths of John or Jesus. Philip is best known for marrying his niece, Salome, the one who asked for John’s head on a platter. Wikipedia confirms why I didn’t recall much about Tiberius Caesar: “He came to be remembered as a dark, reclusive and somber ruler who never really wanted to be emperor.” Lysanias was a name I didn’t recognize at all, and Googling didn’t turn up much about him – which, given his company, is perhaps a point in his favor. When the nicest thing that can be said about a group of leaders is that one among them didn’t do anything egregious enough to be remembered, it is not a good sign.
I am prone to thinking our times are uniquely bleak, that our leaders are exceptionally dysfunctional, our elites are extraordinarily sinister – but Luke’s roll call reminds me that John lived in calamitous times, too. And in that context, John’s courage to be “a voice crying out in the wilderness” is all the more inspiring. John was just one person, trying to make his voice heard – and with significantly fewer resources at his disposal than I have here and now. And yet, millennia later, his message still resonates.
Sometimes in these dark days it feels like we are shouting into the void: there is so much wrong in the world, and no one is listening to our cries for justice. But this was just as true in John’s time, and yet he followed God’s call out into the wilderness. Like John, we too can be voices crying out, we too can try to make the rough places smooth and the crooked straight. We too can be prophets.
–Erica Lloyd, Seekers Church
Questions for reflection:
- What would you say or do if you knew it would make a difference?
- Where is God calling you to claim prophetic truth?
