From Gaililee through Asia Minor, to Greece and then on to Rome itself, Luke offers a broad sweep of history. Jerusalem had been destroyed. There had beena new civil war in Rome, a dynasty whose emperors were the very generals who had defeated the Jewish rebels.

Luke's gospel spans not only the life of Jesus, but the tumultuous foundation of the church. He embarks on an extraordinary journey: from a baby's first whimpers in a Bethlehem stable to the chancery of the greatest empire Europe had ever seen.

Luke writes for the gentile powers-that-be, for worried observers of the turmoil on their empire's eastern fringe. His Jesus recalls "ideal" figures of justice and piety in the Greek and Roman worlds. Luke airs Jesus' concern for women, the poor, the marginalized. Luke's Jesus is a Jesus who dies with faith in God and forgiveness for his enemies.