In the midst of the liturgical progression from Epiphany to Lent, tradition calls the church back to the mundane details of Jesus' infancy. Luke's Chapter 2 fills in the story from birth to circumcision to presentation as the first-born son to the coming-of-age of a gifted religious leader anointed by God. In The First Christmas (HarperOne, 2007), Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan suggest that Luke's purpose was to set up the birth of the Jewish Messiah as a counter to the birth of the Roman Caesar - also hailed as the "Savior, Redeemer, Son of God." The scene in the temple in Jerusalem confirms the child Jesus as the expected one who would redeem Israel from bondage to imperial injustice and oppression.

The Year of Luke is the first in a series of commentaries on biblical scripture found in the three-year cycle of Christian liturgical