A Passion for Government Leads to Neglect of Our Neighbor

"In ancient Palestine, under Roman rule, the Jewish people saw themselves as victims of an oppressive government. Most common folks constantly struggled to make a subsistence level living, on the one hand, and to afford ever increasing bills from tax-collectors on the other. In this setting the Gospel of Luke tells us that John the Baptist came to fulfill the prophecy of Malachi: to “turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers” (Malachi 4:6; cf. Luke 1:17)."