It'll be two weeks. Let's pray Lord. We thank you so much for your word. We thank you for the opportunity to look here at the social and economic environment of the time frame when the book of Luke was written and took place. We just pray that you would help us Lord as we discuss these things help us to understand them and remember them for when we get into the book and the details of the book and See how they relate to One another and we just pray your blessing now in Jesus name. Amen. All right so I Need to get to my paper here and we have the economic condition so we talked about last week and like the the social conditions right and we we uh covered let's see where I feel like I've got a, oh, it's stapled together, sorry. Last week we looked at the social conditions and the environment socially, and economic and social environments of that day and probably most times in history, they're intertwining to an extent, right? Who remembers the classes, the classes of that time? Well, there were there were particular classes, social classes. Yes, sir. No, no, those are there within those classes, overall major classes, very similar to what we say today there's at the top you had the elite class you had and those were typically Roman officials and the aristocracy then you had the middle class and that was pretty much everybody else and then you had the lower class and poor so middle class typically would be people who they have a trade and they might have property lower class and poor are those who were peasants and laborers for those who had trades or businesses or property. And then below that you had slaves and servants and they would be... Sometimes you could be in the military and be in any of the classes. So obviously if you're in the elite class, you're probably not in the military. You're probably commanding. yeah so military would have could have fallen under depending on what class you were in you can yeah Right, however, typically, so it depends on your rank in the military as well. I mean, that's even the same today. You know, you may be like a lower enlisted, you're treated like a peasant. A lot of ways in a lot of ways you get up into into Non-commissioned officer and now you you're you're starting to be like middle class, right? And then the way the military Treats one another a lot of times like your officers are elite your your middle classes like or your warrant officers are probably middle class and They're kind of like NCOs with attitudes, I guess. I don't know. But anyhow, so... so that those were the four basic classes now we're going to look at the economic conditions and the poverty and and how that looked and so um the first thing here roman taxation system so heavy tax burden i'm don't worry, I am not going to, I'm not going to go over like the Internal Revenue Service Code. Their tax system was much less complicated than our tax system. All right. So the Roman Empire imposed a tax system that was often burdensome for the Jewish population. Taxes were levied on land property and income. And the Roman authorities also collected tribute from the provinces. So you'll you know in the Bible you'll remember that he says what render to whom It is due, basically. We're talking about what Paul says later, not talking about what Jesus said, but later when Paul says, you know, unto whom custom is due, render that. Unto whom tribute is due, render that. Toll, to whom toll is due, you know, all of those little aspects of it. And so, you would have publicans, which would be tax collectors, and what class were the publicans a part of? Typically, they were middle class, typically. Now, some, some could be, you know, as they could use that to get into the elite class, but typically they were middle class. So, these tax collectors were often seen as corrupt as they were allowed to collect more than the required tax and pocket the difference. Yeah. No, it doesn't matter. It's, they just, so typically they would have a soldier nearby or right there with them at their post. And so you would be coming in and the tax collector would say, you'd come up to pay your tax, sometimes by force, like maybe a soldier comes and gets you and brings you to pay your tax. And then you get to the booth, so to speak, and the tax collector says, well, you owe this much. And you don't get to say why. You don't get to say, you know, and sometimes, so if you refuse to pay, the soldier can take you off to be imprisoned for failure to pay your taxes, those kinds of things. I mean, we live in a very, very, Spoiled society today You know just just a couple hundred years ago You can you can but you can also you can also get out of it You can go to prison. It depends on why and how you aren't paying taxes now because if you are if you are if you're purposely like evading taxes you can go to prison for that and If you happen to not file, you can get audited, and they can take your possessions. But they can't throw you in prison for that. If you filed incorrectly but not on purpose, and they can't prove that it was on purpose, then you just have to pay the difference, or come up with some sort of settlement to deal with it. So it's, you don't, like, back then, you'd go to prison. Now, it's kinda like, well, Unless there's malicious intent, you don't go to prison, typically. That's, I mean, unless you're trying to defraud the government, you don't go to prison for it. Yeah. So then on the other hand, there's, you know, there would be debt prisons. England had debt, we know that because we outlawed them here. Because it was such a burden on people in England, but it wasn't just England I mean debt debtor's prison was pretty common for most of human history A debtor's prison is usually work. It's kind of like work release, but it's not release. It's like work. It's basically you are a, you become a civil servant, slave. You work for either the government or a contractor that the government has hired for the purpose of working off your, you'd have like a work house or workshop that you would work in. And then your pay would not go to you. They would make sure that you're fed and had what your basic, basic needs, maybe just a tiny bit less than your basic needs. And then they would take everything that they determined you earned and pay it to your debts until your debts were paid off. Then you'd be released. So it wasn't like they just throw you in jail and say, huh, come up with the money now. No, it's it's they throw you in jail and then you work. And then instead of getting paid, they pay your debtors or your creditors. Yes, they would only. Yeah, I mean, if you were if you became if you went into a debtor's prison, you usually wouldn't spend any less than 10 years. It was a long time. Yeah. Yeah, it was, it was, it was rough. So these publicans, this practice made them despised by the common people, you know, that they would overcharge and pocket the rest as they were perceived as collaborators with the oppressive Roman system. By the way, they made Rome look bad. They made Rome look bad because Even so, if Rome was even treating them well, because the tax collectors, which were probably one of the most commonly interacted government positions, What the tax collectors did would often determine how the average citizen or subject of the empire, it would determine how they view the whole empire, how they view Caesar, how they view the government, how they view all that would be determined based upon their interaction with their daily, or their daily interaction with the government. And for them, it was tax collectors, right? And that's how we determine how we, you know, typically, how we like, whether we like the president or not. It's our daily interaction, usually, our daily interaction with the government, with any form of government. Now, in our society, we typically learn that there are all these different, Like levels of bureaucracy and different like offices of like, like, you know, you can't necessarily blame what the code enforcement people are doing on the governor, although you can ultimately, but until it becomes an issue, that is a running for office of governor issue, it's doesn't, it doesn't connect, right? Y'all remember, some of you may remember this, when you used to go to the license branch, And you would have to take an entire day off of work to renew your driver's license or to just ask a question. And then you would always be sent away saying you need more documents. Yeah, y'all remember that? I remember when it got fixed. I believe it was Mitch Daniels that fixed it. Well, he personally didn't fix it, but he said, we're fixing the license branch. And it fixed, they fixed it. Am I right? Does anybody remember if it was Mitch Daniels or? And I remember that I went in there after it got fixed, 15 minutes in and out, I was like, It's starting to, what, is it bad? Long time or pretty quick? the one at like Terrace and Madison, I think they're closing that one. Yeah. They were quick, yeah. So there's like, you know, that typically would make you think the government is slow and I don't like the government because your interaction, your daily interaction with the government, right? And so, by the way, y'all, I'm trying to like make these connections so that We're I know we may be talking about things like what what's this have to do with the scripture? Well as you get into as we get into the book of Luke You're gonna have interactions that are gonna be happening throughout the book and I want you to identify those interactions with our current society but through the lens of like what you feel and what you experience dealing with life today and Then through the lens of how it worked then does that make sense? So The whole idea of this long, drawn-out introduction is to make these connections so that when you get to that point, it makes sense. And you're like, oh, now I understand why that was such a big deal. Because a lot of times you read and you just read through the book and it's like, oh yeah, this and this. And sometimes we read through the book and we only look at it from a 21st century American perspective. And so we want to make sure that we see, try to put yourself in their society when you're reading through the book. And you can kind of see what they had to deal with. So, Jesus' association with Zacchaeus, the tax collector, you'll see in Luke 19. It highlights the tension between the Roman taxation and the Jewish, and Jewish resentment of that. No, Zacchaeus, no. No, you had... Jesus went after tax collectors. Right? You'll remember that throughout the Gospels, you hear that He had some sort of association with publicans and sinners. Publicans, not republicans, but publicans. before they were fixed. No, no, I'm just kidding. But. These publicans they they were the tax collectors and it was a shot at Jesus to say that he made that he had company with publicans with these tax collectors. They were the scum of the Earth. They were crooks and they were not to be trusted and not to be. associated with. But Jesus saves sinners. And I think publicans qualify. So. So do the Republicans, but anyhow. So the so your Roman taxation system, like I said, I wasn't going to go through like all of the you know how they figured the taxes, because at the end of the day, it was on a whim, because the tax collector could look at their, what they have, and say, and think to themselves, what can I get away with? That's typically the way it went. And you'd have a piece of paper out there, and the tax collector would look at your belongings, look at your property, your land, your house, what you own, because you'd have to have all of that registered. You know your cattle your all your livestock You're you're on your land what you're growing on your land If you're if you're a tradesman what kind of trade you're doing what kind of income you have and and then what you have available to you in your own personal stash right there there were like there were money changers. And so you would have banks to a certain extent, some slightly simpler version of a bank. And so all of that would all be considered. And so the tax collector would look at what you have and say, hmm. And then sometimes they would look at the potential in addition to what you have. and say well they have this and they are likely let's see it's certain season and you know this person's a fisherman and they're likely to go catch a lot of fish so I'm going to hit them hard so that when they catch that fish those fish then they have to come and pay their tax on it and so sometimes they would look not only at what you have but what you might have and they'd hit you with the tax, and they'd say, this much is due now, and this much is due, and they'd think about how long it might take for you to go catch those fish. Oh yeah, for self-employment, you have to pay your estimated tax amount quarterly. Yeah, you only have to do that if you failed to pay your taxes before. Yeah, yeah, I'm going through some. I'm going through some insurance stuff for more licensing and things. And I was just thinking about exactly that yesterday morning. My wife and I were talking about when we get to the age where we're starting to think about estate planning and things like that, which really the age that you should think about estate planning is like in your early 20s. We don't usually do that. We wait until what, like 50s, 60s maybe. But, you know, there are ways in our society that you can pass property without like estate taxes. Yep, that is one way to do it, yes. However, it all depends on how much I found out yesterday that until next year, it's like 16 point something million dollars can be passed on to your heirs before it gets hit with estate tax, federal estate tax, and then, or inheritance tax. That's a lot that can be passed on and then what gets taxed is the amount above that. Next year, if they don't extend that program, next year it drops to $5 million. Right. If it's a trust. Yes. If it's a trust, then it's then it's not inherited. It stays in the trust. It didn't belong to the person that passed. It's just that's what it is. So anyhow. They would tax them. And they didn't like that because we don't like having to pay taxes right but at the same time We do like some of the benefits that you get from paying taxes. You know like for your local taxes We like for the potholes to be filled We like for we like for them to be We like for we like for the you know oh, I just got a claim for Did you know that if you hit a guardrail? on the highway and it can be determined that it was your fault. The state goes after your insurance. I'm doing a claim this week for that. Yep. Yeah. yeah oh yeah yep so anyhow so that's the those are but we we like so for the roman taxation a lot of times here's the issue people don't mind being taxed if they can see what the taxes are doing for them and as long as it seems to be an equal balance, right? Now, you know, people try to get away from having to pay income tax and things like that. By the way, 112 years ago, there was no such thing as income tax. Some states have outlawed it. for the state level, not federal level. So, you know, the whole thing, you know, it's, that's that's a whole fun discussion to have. But when we look at what what comes of it, right, I'm, I just did this morning, a module on social insurance, and looking at social security and medicare and all that kind of stuff and and uh just looking at like i was told by someone who who is on medicare that uh they didn't that they hadn't didn't have to pay a premium for their medicare um I was told by someone else that they had to pay a premium for their Medicare and they, for whatever reason, they thought that that premium was for the whole package. Well, I found out this morning that part A, you don't pay a premium for as long as you qualify for it without a premium. You had to have worked for so long and this and that. Most people that are retired don't have to pay a premium for Part A. Part B is what you're paying the premium for. And then Part C is an advantage plan that you can add to it. Part D is your medication plan. And then you can add a supplement, which is a separate thing. And, and you can, depending on your income, you either pay for the supplement or it's subsidized by the government. And sometimes the supplement covers your premium for part B. And so there's like all this, all of these things. But when people look at why am I paying FICA, right? That's your, your, I forget what it stands for, but every, every person that works pays 7. I think percent right around that. And their employer pays 7.3% plus some extra fees and things like that for your taxes, for your FICA taxes, which is Medicare and Social Security. And that's not paying, and a lot of people think about this as like, oh, that pays for your, that's like I'm putting it in a savings account for my Medicare and my Social Security. And when I get there, I get it back. No, that's not what it is. You're paying for everyone else's who's currently getting it, right? That's the way it actually works. So if somebody's collecting social security and they're being and they're and they're being covered by Medicare, our taxes, those of those of us that are currently still working and paying that FICA, that is what is paying for those programs right now. And you cannot pass it on. No. What's that? Yes. So that's why it's called social security. So anyhow, I'm not endorsing or otherwise these programs. I'm just saying I'm learning how they work. But when we look at the taxation, we typically look at it from the perspective of what value am I getting out of this? for the Romans, or for the subjects of the Roman Empire, they had a hard time seeing the value they were getting. And so that's why there was a lot of animosity against the tax collectors. And so, for us, sometimes we have a hard time seeing the value that we get, right? And then we start, then they start doing toll roads, and we're like, why am I paying for a road I've already paid for? And then, you know, that kind of thing. But, you know, We have we have so economic disparities There was now this is this is a buzz term today wealth inequality Wealth inequality. So wealth was concentrated in the hands of a few elite families. By the way, that has always, always been the case. And it will always be the case. It doesn't matter if you end up with a socialist society or a communist society. There will always be an elite class that will control all of the wealth. And that's right, Jesus said the poor would always be with us. By the way, anyone with any sort of financial or economic wisdom in them, understands that the answer to the wealth inequality problem is not to tax the rich because taxing the rich doesn't just solve the problem. So the rich are rich because why? because they have something you want and you pay for it. That's why. And so let's say Brother Wilhelm has a widget shop and he makes the best widgets in town and brother and brother. Yeah, it's called Wilhelm's widgets, right? And so Brother Travis, he he wants he needs some widgets from Brother Wilhelm. And so he goes and he buys the widgets. Now, Brother Wilhelm, he's got a corner on the market for these widgets. And and everybody likes his widgets and he has produced a valuable thing for people to get and so brother Bella buys his widgets and and sister Amelia buys his widgets and brother Brother Holder and buys his widgets brother Joe buys his widgets. Everybody's buying his widgets, right? Hey and Jamar works for him making widgets and and so does brother Terry and So does Isaac they all work for him making widgets, right? And then one day they decide I don't make enough money. I and so they go out and they stand in front of brother they stand out in front of Wilhelm's widgets they stand out in front of Wilhelm's widgets and they say pay me more pay me more and so he says he's yeah you shouldn't have so much money and so after after his customers coming to him and saying hey if you don't start making these widgets real soon we're gonna stop buying them So and so he makes a deal with his employees, and he says I'll pay you more Guess what? Then brother Bella comes to get a widget next the next week, and and he says wait a minute. Why'd the price go up? It's well because I had to pay my widget makers More to make the widgets and so who pays for that does the rich guy pay for it. No the customer does And then it just so happens that the widget makers, these widgets there, they are, I don't know what a widget is, but it sounds cool. They are a necessary item for life. And so the widget makers also need widgets of their own. Now they don't make enough. Now they make more money, but the widgets are more expensive. And so they have to pay more. And so now they go back to the owner of the company again and say, hey, We're not getting paid enough because we can't afford to pay for all of our stuff and our widgets. He says, well, no problem. We'll just give you a raise this year for cost of living. Guess what? Widget price back up again. And then the government says, you make too much money. You make more money than they make. We're going to take some of your money. We're going to give it to them. You say, OK. Widget price up. Who paid for that? Everybody that buys widgets, right? That's the way economy works. That's the way that flow of funds works. That's a real simple way that economic system works. So the answer isn't always take from him, give to him, because he's smart enough to know that he's not going to pay for it. He is when he buys a widget. Yeah. How do you correct it? Well, people try to fix the price of the widget. Well, guess what? So, we've fixed the problem. He's now being squashed between the price of the widget and the price to make the widget. And his profit margin is squishing out. Guess what? And that's what happens in a socialist or communist society. And he says, huh, no big deal. You guys think you can do this thing better than I can? I'm out. Widget company shuts down. Nobody gets widgets anymore. Still didn't hurt him in the end. Because. He was he handled his stewardship responsibly. He made sure that his company was able to make a product, a valuable product for his customers. And turn a profit. And then as his company made a valuable product for his customers. He was able to provide jobs for people. To make them. And then, the more He could make, the more value He could provide. and the more he can provide more jobs and provide you know and typically people who have who do well in business like that they'll also have philanthropic aspects of their lives and they'll give they'll give to to community programs and needs and things like that and then Sometimes they'll be forced to give the government will step in and say you're gonna give to this, you know and so and the problem is it always trickles down to the customer and so the this last year i'm not trying to get into like politics but we're talking about economics we're talking about wealth inequality and things like that but y'all remember there was a big strike like for the dock workers right and they wanted like this huge increase of income now What comes into those docks? Things that people buy. Well, if you give them an increase in income, what do you have to do? You have to raise the price for the service. And then guess what? Those dock workers that buy things that come through those docks, now can't afford to buy the things that they're moving because they got their income raised to a point. That's how inflation works, by the way. You keep saying, pay me more, pay me more, pay me more, and it has to correct itself. Because if it doesn't correct itself, they go out of business, and then guess who doesn't have a job? All the widget makers and the dock workers and stuff. They don't have jobs anymore, so it doesn't matter how much they were able to win in their contract. Now, I'm not saying that, like, for example, a very close and dear brother of ours is dealing with this kind of thing right now. You know the system in which we operate can be ugly and and not function Logically sometimes and what do we do? Well, we deal with what we have for now So for for these though, you would have this the elite families including Roman officials and Jewish priestly class sometimes These elites lived in luxury while the vast majority of the population lived in poverty poverty And that's that's not uncommon to our age. Luke emphasizes economic justice in his gospel. Now, that's not to say that the gospel was a social gospel or just about that, like fixing. No. With Jesus frequently teaching about wealth and generosity and the dangers of materialism. Right. There is a balance there. Is it wrong for people to become wealthy? No, it isn't, but it's wrong to set your affection on things on this Earth. If you if you're able to produce value for other people to the point that it makes you wealthy fine, but as God gives to you through the value that you've been able to produce. As God. Brings that back to you continue to produce value, right? I was just praying this morning about something particular and and And thinking about and and you know when when you ask the Lord to provide through a certain means Typically the Lord will respond with what are you going to do with that? that's that's the fact you go to the Go to the altar and you pray, God, I need a million dollars. God's going to say, what are you going to do with a million dollars? And if your answer is, I don't know, then the answer to that prayer is no, no, you you you can't have a million dollars because you have no plan for what you're going to do with it. And what you're going to do with it needs to be according to the will of God. It needs to be profitable to the kingdom of God, to God, to God's glory in those things. And so you think about these things and you say, well, if if I could do A, B and C, then I would be able to take that and do X, Y and Z. And this over here is kingdom work. Now this is kingdom work as well, but this kingdom work provides, and when I say kingdom, I don't mean like our kingdom, I mean God's kingdom. This kingdom work provides for the opportunity for these guys over here to be able to do more kingdom work. And so that's the whole thing, right? People may say, well, why do you focus to try to get more income or more assets or equity or whatever? Sometimes it's to take care of your family, but sometimes you go beyond that and you say, you know what? I want to take care of my family, but I want to do more than take care of my family. I want to take what God is giving me in terms of talents and abilities and value that I can add to other people's lives and take that the the profit that comes from that and do for other families and for other people right and that's the idea that this this matter is supposed to be rather than just heaping it onto my own accounts and into my own things, right? That's the the rebuke that Jesus was giving to the to the Pharisee or to the Sadducees. Typically would be that because they're living lavishly, these rich people are living lavishly and what they're doing is all for self. The issue there was not that they were rich, but that they were rich for self. That's why he said to the rich young ruler sell what you have and give to the poor because here's the fact if the rich young ruler. Got what he got in by proper means then he could sell it all give to the poor and he would gain it back. It wouldn't make any difference. But if he got what he got through good means or proper means. And he loved what he's got and he loved all of the it gives to him. More than he cares about. The kingdom of God or or entering into heaven here is what he asked you know. Jesus about but. If he cared more about the things of this life than those other things, then he wasn't willing to part from it. Right? So the poor were often dependent on charity, almsgiving, and grain offerings from the wealthy. They had little political or social power and were frequently exploited by both Roman authorities and local elites. Part of the problem with the elite class was that they often had what they had by taxing the poor. They often had what they had by taking it from the poor. Yeah. And so that was part of the problem in that system. So the religious and cultural context, I know we're gonna talk about that more in the political as well, but religious and cultural context, I wanna real quick run through that because I don't wanna be doing a part five in the same subject next week. So Jewish religious life. I know we're going to talk about these in more detail as we get to the exact religious. We're looking at religious and cultural context from the perspective of social and economic. OK not from the perspective of what they believed and all of that. Temple and synagogue worship. Everyday life, religious life of Jewish people. So the temple in Jerusalem was the center of Jewish worship, right? Everybody, everybody, you got that? And it played a crucial role in both religious and economic life. So pilgrims these are not pilgrims like we would think of pilgrims you know with the the the belt buckles and the hats and you know we're talking about pilgrims people who make a pilgrimage they they come from afar and they they come to the temple there so pilgrims traveled to Jerusalem for major festivals like Passover Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles the Sadducees who controlled the temple and its operations we'll talk about them more later they were part of the religious elite and often collaborated with roman authorities they focused on the written law the torah like the first five books and were politically pragmatic now well again we'll talk about them in more detail when we get to that point but The Pharisees, in contrast, were more focused on the oral traditions and laws that extend beyond the Torah. They were popular among the middle class and believed in the resurrection of the dead and the afterlife. Again, we'll deal with them in more detail, but these folks were the ones primarily controlling the religious life of the Israelite. The synagogues, they would serve as local centers of worship. and education for Jewish people. So it would be where you would go to Hebrew school as a child and you would learn Hebrew, you would learn the law, you would learn those things. You would also go and you would discuss things of the Bible and it would be, you would learn the traditions and you would learn what the Bible says. And it would be open daily and there would be a group of elders typically from the community that would be there, they'd be called rabbis. And they were important for the community life, especially in towns and villages outside of Jerusalem. And there was typically we're not going to spend a lot of time talking about synagogues, but there was typically a certain number of Jewish families in a neighborhood or a town would. would provide the need for a synagogue. Like, I want to say it's 10 or 12 families would then establish a synagogue. And then, you know, so that's kind of how that would work. Now, messianic expectations of the time, cultural and religious, looking at it from that perspective. and social economic Jewish hope for deliverance. That was their primary concern about the Messiah was they were hoping that they would have a Messiah who would come and usher in the kingdom. That was the whole thing. They wanted to be delivered from Rome and other occupants. I mean, they had a long history since. Since they had been in the promised land, you look at the whole book of Judges under under the tyranny of some other. nation or some other group of people over and over and over again through the book of Judges then they get kings and they're good for the most part but then you get the you have the the captivity to Syria and the captivity to Babylon and then from that you know you had the Medes and the Persians you had the Greeks and then the Romans all oppressing the Jewish people and they were looking for the deliverer Um, so during the time of Luke's gospel, there was a widespread expectation of a Messiah who would deliver the Jewish people. They were probably thinking back to the Maccabean times and they're like, Hey, we had these guys who would stand up against the occupation and they would win. You have some among the zealots, you have some among the, which again, we'll deal with more detail. but you have these folks they're like look we need a a figure someone who will come and in some cases they didn't believe in a personal messiah like a single person but a an age of the messiah or a group of people who would represent the messiah and deliver kind of like the judges of israel that they would deliver israel in their time of need Many Jews believe so that they believe that they would that the Davidic kingdom would be restored and many of them believe that the Messiah would be a military leader or a king who would overthrow the Romans and establish a new independent Israel. Luke's gospel, however, emphasizes that Jesus's mission was not to deliver Israel from political oppression, but to bring spiritual salvation to all people, both Jews and Gentiles. And so that that's what you're going to find as we go through there. Man, I know we're over on time. I just want to. That's right. That's right. All right. So women and family life the role of women first century role of women in Judea generally seen as subordinate to men in the sense of their rank in that in that sense with their roles primarily centered around the home and family. However Luke's gospel includes several stories that highlight the important roles of women in Jesus's ministry. For example right you have Mary and Elizabeth are central figures in the starting narrative, like the infancy, we'd say. And then you have Mary, the mother of Jesus, and then Elizabeth, her cousin, the mother of John the Baptist, central figures at the beginning there. You have Mary Magdalene and Joanna, that are mentioned there you have Susanna mentioned as followers of Jesus also they're supporting his ministry financially you also have at the very beginning and I didn't have that in the notes but at the very beginning you have After Jesus is born, they go to Jerusalem, and you have Anna, a prophetess, there in the temple when he's dedicated, so to speak, right? And Simeon and Anna that are there. And so Jesus' interactions there with women, it was often radical for the time. Think about the woman at the well. She's like, what are you doing talking to me? Who, what, why are you talking to me? I mean, that's, that was her, that was her question, you know, what's this about? And he would break those social norms by speaking in public and including them in his mission. Right. This is not to say that he would that he would that he necessarily would have. This is not to say that he would break the declare the declaration of God from Genesis chapter three. All right. With the ranking structure that God made between men and women. He didn't break that but he recognized the equal value of women. not to say that women take, you know, it's a really delicate thing to talk about in this day and age, right? With the DEI stuff that had conquered the last four years and now is being thrown off and all of these kinds of things. Recognize that God made men and women equally valuable. But also equally different and having different responsibilities and roles and ranking in that sense And so it doesn't make either one less valuable. They just have unique roles that the other shouldn't be trying to take over on either side, so That's but Because of that, oftentimes in every age, women have been looked at as being of some lesser value. And that's one of the things that Luke that Jesus and Luke was that they were both. They were both. Just kind of somewhat radically. opposing and so you know you you see as I mentioned already that that there was a public aspect of women being involved in the ministry we believe that women should be involved in the ministry that doesn't mean that women and men have the same exact role in the ministry but they ought to be involved both ought to be involved And so there is equal value in that sense with different responsibilities. Now, number five, I know I'm probably, the notes, the outline is probably all messed up for anybody taking notes, but number five is geographic or geography and daily life. So this is probably one of the larger subsections that we were dealing with. So there was urban versus rural life. So the Gospel of Luke features both urban, you know, Jerusalem, Caesarea, and rural settings like Galilee or Bethany. While Jerusalem was the political and religious center or capital of sorts many of Jesus's key teachings and miracles took place in rural Galilee. Right. Interesting you know we. He didn't leave out the inner city OK. In fact after he after he planted the church what was the first place they were supposed to go. Jerusalem, they were supposed to focus on the inner city first, and then Judea, the region, and Samaria being another major area in the region. Life in rural areas was focused on agriculture or fishing and with most people living in small villages and towns, farming was the primary occupation and people lived in simple homes made of stone or mud brick, right? So that's their urban versus rural life. Now travel and pilgrimages. Jesus had a Camelac and a private jet. No, I'm just kidding. So Jews from all over the Roman Empire would travel to Jerusalem for major festivals, especially Passover, which is the setting of Jesus's final meal with his disciples. Now, this travel was difficult. and dangerous. Right. Luke's gospel highlights Jesus's journeys from Galilee to Jerusalem emphasizing his determination to fulfill his mission despite opposition. Now understand most of the time that you're going to see in your New Testament when they talk about going to Jerusalem it is always going up to Jerusalem It doesn't matter if you're coming from Galilee or Bethlehem. Bethlehem is south of Jerusalem. Galilee is north of Jerusalem. Nazareth north. It's in the Galilean region. There you have. Jerusalem is a mountain. Yes. And Jerusalem is the high point spiritually in the area. So it's not necessarily the highest point, but it is the high point because it is going up to God or going up to God's city. Right where the where the temple is. So when you hear when you see them say something about going up to Jerusalem, don't get all confused. They're not talking about north versus south. They're talking about elevation. whether it's physical or spiritual elevation. What's that? Sometimes you can get a topographical map. What's that? Oh, we're on foot most of the time. And so when you think about the triumphal entry, Jesus coming in, he likely came from the Mount of Olives. to the Temple Mount and through that eastern gate. So you think about that. I don't know. None of us have been there. Nobody's been to Jerusalem right. You've been there. OK. One of us has been there. The rest of us we just need to go right. But if you're coming if you're up on the Mount of Olives and you're looking at Jerusalem it's it's a mountain. You're on the mountain of olives and it's Mount Zion. Jerusalem and you're looking across to the other side of a valley I can't remember if that's the Kidron or the Kidron Valley I think runs south on the south end of Jerusalem Man can't remember the valley there, but there's a valley and there's water in there. What's that? Megiddo is over on, it's between Jerusalem and Carmel. It's a huge valley. Yeah, I forget the, I forget the name of the valley there, but it might be Kidron. Kidron and Hinnom, I think is what it was. So, there's a Kidron River that, Kishon? Yeah, that's different. Anyhow, so think about the topographical scenario. If you're going from the Mount of Olives. To Jerusalem. Now he came in riding on a donkey, right? He had to go down the mountain. On the donkey through the valley back up the mountain. To get where he was going. And now it'll be a little different when he comes for his triumphal entry and his return he'll land on the Mount of Olives and it will no longer be a mountain when he lands his feet will split the mountain and it half of the mountain will go to the north and half the mountain will go to the south and it will be a direct walk straight into, or he'll be riding a white horse, but it'll be a direct shot straight into Jerusalem. Pretty cool, pretty cool. Now there will be, during the tribulation, there's going to be an earthquake that's going to shake the city and move, I don't know if it's going to change the elevation or what, but that's not what happens in the Mount of Olives. His feet do that. He lands on the Mount of Olives and it shakes and it splits. That's, that's going to be exciting. But anyhow, maybe not his feet, the horses, whatever. When he lands, it happens. So, pretty awesome. So, um, Travel though wasn't easy. And you think about where now the Jordan River is a little bit further east of the Mount of Olives. That's where the baptisms were taking place, right? Familiarize yourself. with a map of Judea because as you're going through the book of Luke you want to be familiar with Judea because Places will be named and you want to be able to kind of like think about where that is in relation to other things, right? when you think about like Throughout the Bible a lot of the time a lot of the things that are happening in the promised land you have a lot of places that you can think about like Like Mount Carmel where Elijah and the prophets of Baal met and they had to stand off, you know with the with the sacrifices and things that that's like modern-day Haifa area if you know where that is. Anybody know where Haifa is? Or Tel Aviv, sorry. Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv area, yeah, it's over to the west, near the ocean, yeah. And then, like, you have the Golan Heights that are over, you know, and then, when you're reading the Bible, you have mention of, like, the Cedars of Lebanon. You know, that's just north there. There's a lot of all of these things that you'll find. Familiarize yourself geographically. So the social and economic environment of the time of Luke's gospel was marked by class divisions, economic inequality. political oppression under Roman rule. The elite were wealthy and had influence while the poor were marginalized and faced economic hardships and social exclusion at times. Roman taxation was a significant burden and the religious landscape was complex, and we'll get into that more later, with various religious Jewish sects offering different visions for the future of Israel. And so in this context, Luke is going to present the gospel. What Jesus did right emphasizing Jesus's ministry to the poor the oppressed the outcasts and offering hope to all people Jew and Gentile alike and you'll you'll see, you know, Jesus says, you know, I came not to call the the well but the sick right not the righteous but the center right not the well but the sick and so as we continue through we will continue to discuss these things i know that we kind of touched on political but that's going to be what next week is with more detail on the The Jewish leadership client kings those kinds of things we just touched on it we're going to go into a deeper dive on that and then after that we will begin to look at the religious environment in more detail. with probably one week for each religious group. There's four major religious groups we're going to deal with, and we'll get through. So it'll be a whole month of dealing with Sadducees, Pharisees, Zealots, and Essenes. And so, anyhow. Fun stuff. I would I would allow you to ask questions, but we are almost 20 minutes over over our time. So So we will be going late today for the morning service. I'm sorry We're gonna pray and I'll give you a break for a few minutes if you Have sugar problems or something There's some snow outside. You can go eat some snow and or something, I don't know. I don't know, get you some coffee. Fasting's good. There's some stuff back there. Can't guarantee it's good for you, but there's stuff back there. All right, let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for the opportunity to look at the environment surrounding the social and economic environment there and some geographical things surrounding the timing of the Book of Luke. We pray, Father, that this would be enriching to us and help us, Lord, to get a good vision of what's going on as we read and as we study the book of Luke. We pray Your blessing now as we get ready for our next service. We pray, Father, that You'd be pleased, that You'd be glorified among us. In Jesus' name.