Time has moved on. At the end of chapter 2, Jesus was 12, but it is "now the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius." After this and a careful list of dating evidence (careful, see?) Luke tells us that "A message from God came to John son of Zechariah." That's how my preferred translation, the New Living Translation, puts it. Others say "The word of God came to John." Those are the words that we find so often in the Old Testament prophets: "The word of the Lord came to Isaiah, to Jeremiah, to Ezekiel etc"
Back then it seemed a pretty common place occurrence, but after Malachi, the last of the prophets, it stopped happening. All that happened from 400 BC until now happened without God's word coming clearly and specifically to one individual. 400 years of silence.
But now, prophets are back.
John sets to work, tramping the countryside up and down the course of the river Jordan, and calling people to undergo a baptism - to come and be immersed in the river as a sign they want to change their ways and receive forgiveness for their wrongdoings.
This is new. No one has told Jews to do this before, not quite like this. Some religious groups practised ritual washing, like the Essenes from Qumran (who wrote the Dead sea Scrolls). At other times a stylised bath was used to mark a transition to becoming a God-follower (a Gentile who wanted to followed Jewish observances). But ordinary Jews had never been told to do this. They were circumcised, they were sons of Abraham. That was enough.
Why?
Luke answers in terms used by Isaiah - this is a getting ready. This is building the runway - creating a level road amidst the lumps and bumps of a desert land. And on this runway, dressed in his high-vis jacket (made of camel hair) John the Baptist stands, holding those strange, reflective table tennis bats that guide a plane in to land. Because a plane is coming - a massive jumbo jet of God's salvation, and we need to get ready for it, and be prepared to jump on board.
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