In this week's gospel text, the mantle of divine mission slips off the shoulders of one of God's servants and onto the back of another. After John the Baptist describes the distinctions between himself and the coming Messiah, Jesus himself appears on the scene. With the event of his baptism, Jesus enters into the first phase of his ministry, while John, his mission of preparation and warning now at a close, is belatedly imprisoned by the tetrarch Herod.

Luke devotes more time and space to John's message than do any of the other gospels. He goes into greater detail about the nature of John's proclamations and gives the Baptist a wider audience to preach before. Luke divides John's message into three distinct parts, adding a new layer of depth to the usual firebrand preaching we associate wi…