Senior Weekly Devotional

By: Noah Barr

Luke: 3:15-20

¹⁵ The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. ¹⁶ John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹⁷ His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” ¹⁸ 

¹⁹ But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of his marriage to Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the other evil things he had done, ²⁰ 

        The people were waiting with anticipation. They held the hope that a huge moment was about to arise. Something was about to happen in Israel! Joyful news was about to flow from the stage and would affect everyone there. All the people were in hushed silence, waiting and wondering if the man before them was the savior long awaited. Was this man the one the Old Testament had prophesied?

        John the Baptist came out of the wilderness and took everyone by surprise. His message demanded a response from the people and was so loud that it reached the whole region. He was not written off as a crazy man but was heeded as one who could not be ignored. He preached to the people that they needed to repent of their sins and turn to the Lord. His message was not timid but blatantly fierce. Those who came and repented were baptized in preparation for the Lord. John the Baptist was truly a man on fire, therefore all the people “were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah” (V.15). 

        In a moment the people’s hope was put out and reignited as John made clear that he was not the Messiah but the Messiah was coming! “John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But the one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (V.16). John’s answer to the people’s unspoken question is extremely humble. John had baptized the people with water in the river. The baptism itself did not wash away sin but was a representation of the new life that a person had by faith in God. The water was just water and did nothing to save. By this statement John was also saying that he did nothing to save them. All he did was preach the message of repentance. John did not have the saving power of the Messiah and John himself saw that he was unworthy of the Messiah.

        John declared that he was not worthy to untie the Messiah’s sandals. Now we must pause at this moment because we can’t understand the weight of this statement. We really have no issue taking someone’s shoes off or tying them. Most of us do not have a foot phobia. Therefore reading John’s statement does not seem like that great of a putdown. We even entertain the idea of washing someone’s feet in church as an act of service. However, there is a much greater call to servanthood in the words that John was speaking. In their culture, foot washing was only done by servants or the lowliest person in a home.

Most people walked over ten miles each day. Their feet were dirty, smelly, and unpleasant. Furthermore, it would have been heinous for a person who was the owner of the home, or a ruler, or a famous person to wash someone else’s feet. This job was for the low of the low. We need a stronger comparison to understand foot washing in their day.

Many of us would not be too squeamish to wash someone’s feet, but most of us would walk out of the room if we were required to clean someone’s behind. This comparison helps us better understand the dirtiness of foot washing. Most of us would be unwilling to clean a stranger’s behind. However, this is how degrading it would have been for servants and others to wash someone’s feet. They would have not known the people whose feet they washed and certainly would not have loved them. When John said he was unworthy to untie Jesus’ sandal, he was saying that he was so unworthy of Jesus that he couldn’t even touch Jesus’ feet. He considered himself the lowest when it came to being with the Lord. Therefore, it was so radical that Jesus washed His own disciple’s feet!

fire is added as an epithet, and is applied to the Spirit, because he takes away our pollutions, as fire purifies gold^[1]

“His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (V.17). Phil Ryken explains this verse saying: “At harvesttime, a farmer has to separate the wheat from the chaff. In those days farmers did this by tossing their grain up in the air. The wheat would fall back to the ground, while the lighter chaff would get blown into a pile for burning. John was saying that Christ would do the same thing with the human race. One day he would sift humanity to make a final separation between two kids of people: the wheat and the chaff. The wheat would be gathered into the storehouse of heaven, while the chaff would be burned with fire” (Ryken Pg. 131). John’s preaching and message continued for a while and he continued to preach Christ until he had a confrontation with a powerful ruler.

John the Baptist never shrank back from preaching the truth. As we will see next week, Jesus came to John and was baptized. Sometime after this John confronted the ruler Herod. Herod had been a wicked ruler and continued to lead the people astray. No doubt Herod heard the message to repent. His chief sin was that he convinced his brother’s wife that she should divorce her husband and marry him. This was a heinous sin that showed Herod’s contempt for the Lord.

When John confronted Herod, he did not listen and sinned further “But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of his marriage to Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the other evil things he had done, Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison” (V.19-20). Herod’s move to quiet John was quite successful. However, we can be sure that John was not out of God’s plan while he was in prison. It could very well be that John’s imprisonment took place because Jesus was taking center stage. John’s whole ministry was about preaching the coming Christ and he did just that. John was content to be the water boy proclaiming the coming king. John knew his life was not about his only glory but about preaching about the mighty One who was coming.

“Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk (the Word), so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” 1 Peter 2:2-3

^[1] Calvin, J., & Pringle, W. (2010). Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke