Show Don't Tell: Luke 3:1-6

Instead of saying "John began preaching," anchor the moment in history. In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate is governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene—during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God comes to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. Luke the historian pins this to the calendar: real rulers, real dates, real geography. John goes into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of Isaiah: "A voice of one calling in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all people will see God's salvation.'" The word comes in the wilderness—not in the palace, not in the temple—and the prophet starts preaching.