Like reading a biography and creating the context for a life. Born in the Depression. Hoover was President. Many people were out of jobs. Recovering from a war. Politics was unusually depressing. Religious influence was declining. People were discouraged. Waiting for leadership.

In the same way, Luke is describing the context for John.

Tiberias was the son of Augustus who was declared a god when he died. A hard act to follow and Tiberias had no desire to rule. He had been forced to give up the woman he loved and marry a woman he despised. He thought he could simply delegate everything to the Senate and move to his villa on the island of Capri. His best friend betrayed him and Tiberius had him executed. Tiberias “plunged into every wickedness and disgrace, when fear and shame being cast off, he simply indulged his own inclinations.” He was eventually smothered to death.

Herod Antipas was the son of Herod the Great. On a visit to Rome he fell in love with his brother’s wife. She was also his niece. He divorced his wife and married Herodias. He was corrupt and died in exile after scheming against Caligula, the successor to Tiberias.

Annas and Caiphas were father and son-in-law and were Roman puppets. Technically, there was only one high priest but Luke is telling us what historians know. Annas ruled through his five sons who were installed in all the right places and Caiphas, his son-in-law made no decisions on his own.

Pontius Pilate was a career bureaucrat and the least well known of all the players. He was a deal-maker who was manipulated by lobbyists. Were it not for the Apostle’s Creed, we probably would know very little about him.

All of this is context for the coming of John and the condition of the people. They were looking for revival in the midst of corruption, heavy taxation that went to supporting lavish lifestyles of the rulers and building programs, cynicism about leadership, discouragement and resentment. They were looking for a Messiah. They were fed up with the whole system – top to bottom – religious, political, economic, secular. The word of God comes to John in the wilderness just at this time…and the people go out to the wilderness to hear him. They are looking for something or someone to believe in.

Refer to Rick Santorum’s Religious Time Machine by Lisa Miller in the Washington Post.

Santorum is a traditionalist in all things. He is a traditionalist Catholic and has said that too many American Catholics observe “uninspired, watered-down versions of our faith.” He is a traditionalist husband and father, and is “traditionalist” (if you want to call it that) on constitutional interpretations.

Santorum voters are traditionalist Americans. They yearn for an age when America was run by white Christian men, when husbands went to work and wives stayed home and raised as many children as they could handle. (One Ohio blogger, explaining his choice for Santorum, called him “a real man.”) In that America, abortion was illegal and gay marriage was a schoolyard joke. In that America, everybody went to church.

That is the answer. The people who voted for Santorum in Tuesday’s primaries called themselves “very conservative” and also “born-again Christian.” They said they voted for him because of his “strong moral character.” These voters do not share with Santorum their religious beliefs, for Santorum is a Catholic and they are Protestants. But they share with Santorum what might be called a faith-based nostalgia: They believe that things were better before, they’re going to hell right now and only a strong commitment to Jesus Christ will turn America around.

Santorum is a traditionalist in all things. He is a traditionalist Catholic and has said that too many American Catholics observe “uninspired, watered-down versions of our faith.” He is a traditionalist husband and father, and is “traditionalist” (if you want to call it that) on constitutional interpretations.

Santorum voters are traditionalist Americans. They yearn for an age when America was run by white Christian men, when husbands went to work and wives stayed home and raised as many children as they could handle. (One Ohio blogger, explaining his choice for Santorum, called him “a real man.”) In that America, abortion was illegal and gay marriage was a schoolyard joke. In that America, everybody went to church.

Santorum and those who voted for him are looking back to a time when the United States “was free and safe and prosperous,” as he said in a victory speech this week, “based on believing in free people and free markets and free economy, and, of course, the integrity of family and the centrality of faith in our lives.” That last phrase refers, of course, to Roe v. Wade, but it also refers to a conviction (which Santorum shares with his fans) that God is real and intervenes to improve people’s lives.

And in some ways, these voters’ concerns are justified. Their world did once feel better and more secure. Unemployment in Mississippi hovers near 10 percent, and in both Mississippi and Alabama, divorce and high school dropout rates stand above the national average. Mitt Romney — despite his five strapping sons and his professed love for “cheesy grits” — fails to convince these voters that he’s like them, not because he’s Mormon (though that’s part of it), but because he doesn’t share their determination to turn back time.

Romney, whatever his faults, likes to move forward. But conservative Christians’ sense of crisis is so deep, they don’t want to make a pragmatic choice. Romney wants to roll up his sleeves, organize some focus groups and apply some algorithms to their problems. What they want is to pray.

The vote for Santorum amounts to a Hail Mary pass, a last-ditch, desperate attempt to uphold values over the quotidian business of politics. It’s valiant in principle (though impossible not to note that the past that Santorum’s supporters idealize contains injustices too heinous and many to mention).

“You can’t go home again,” Thomas Wolfe said. Modernity is here, with all its progress and imperfections, and no matter how hard they pray, Santorum and his flock will never be able to turn back time.

3.  The message of John – repentance and the fruit of repentance. It is to prepare people for the coming of forgiveness. It was not what we would call pre-evangelism today. It was calling people back to values that were more than personal. John’s message was an indictment of a community and not just a message of personal repentance.

What would a community look like if people followed the preaching of John today?

– those with two tunics or extra food would share with those who have none.
– honesty in dealing with each other
– contentment with pay
– right use of power and privilege

What would it lack, if anything? It would be appealing but it would also be threatening to those who have the most to lose with the way things are.

4.  The baptism of Jesus. Why? Isn’t he sinless? Why would he be baptized?

The sinlessness of Jesus was not effortless. It was not simply innate goodness. As we’ll see, he wrestled with particular temptations all his life. Repentance does not just mean repenting of sin. It means turning from the temptations of sin and going in the other direction. His constant recognition of his turning from temptation is the source of his freedom from sin.

I think his baptism by John is just that. Not an admission of sin but a recognition of the necessity of constant turning from sin. John’s baptism was a preparation for the baptism that was yet to come. It was also preparation for what was to follow.

5.  The temptations of Jesus.

These are real. They are tailored just for Jesus. He faced them all his life – not just here.

– Turn stones into bread.

– Take care of yourself. Be self-sufficient.

Fix the problems of the world. “You have the compassion and now you will have the power.”

People want miracles. They want bread and circuses – not preaching and certainly not suffering. The Grand Inquisitor: “People will always trade their freedom for bread – bread and circuses. What you offer them is too costly.”

– The temptation of authority and glory.

He showed him “in an instant” – literally a small pinch of time. Satan always shows a glimpse. He always shows quickly while God’s view always reveals in time and slowly.

Satan promised him two things:

Authority – the liberty to act with no restraints. The right to do what you will to do.
Glory or respect – all the earth will not only do what you want but you will have the greatest reputation on earth for as long as you live.

Not a tyrant who is hated but the most respected man on earth. The best and the brightest with all the power to accomplish the good you know you want to do.

Jesus thinking “What can I accomplish without the liberty to act on my own. How can I lead people to what I know is best unless I have authority? What can I accomplish without
a reputation, a “brightness” that will attract people? What could I accomplish if I had resources that are so much greater than what I have now? I could do so much more good.”

It was a practical trade. He could play God but not be God. This is what everyone thinks it would be like to be God – not to be humiliated, to suffer and then die.

The final temptation:

Certainty – God will never be absent. He’ll be there all the time to fly in and save me. I don’t have to work without a net. “What would you do if you knew you could not fail?”
Protection from real life – the desire for special treatment from a loving Father.
No failures or setbacks – to never have a Capernaum. “He could do no miracles there.”

What does the final verse say about Satan? He went away to wait for a good time to return. When was that? The Garden of Gethsemane. All the power of evil was concentrated on Jesus and the same temptations.

Each of us have our own three. It may not be the desire for certainty or self-sufficiency or glory but it is something that requires us to repent daily and to turn back to a life of obedience that does not require happiness or success or constant rescue in order to be faithful.