Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also bapized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.” Luke 3:21-22 (read entire chapter)
INTRO: From the end of chapter 2, the story jumps ahead, skipping eighteen years of Jesus’ early life
Verses 1-3 give us the geopolitical setting for John’s story
These names of people and places are like vectors that help us locate the story in its historical and cultural context
– a hierarchical and oppressive system and at all levels in the service of Rome
Luke isn’t writing a history as we think of it–that is to say, he isn’t marking a point on a “time line”
– he’s telling a story, so his concern is not a date, but what this situation means to the characters
– in verses 19-20 we will see how politics affect John the Baptist