Following after Jesus #19

As we leave the scene of Jesus' baptism, Luke alone chooses to talk about the lineage of Jesus through His mother:
 23 Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli.

Jesus began His public ministry around age 30, which we find in Ezekiel was a common age for a prophet, or in Numbers, that of a priest, and in Genesis 41 that of a king. (and it's about the time I became a pastor.)  In other words, it was an appropriate time, which is a theme we see in Luke - that the life of Christ on earth was very proper and appropriate: Christ came at a pivotal point in History; His parents raised Him in the proper way going to the temple; He was like many people in the region part of a time of national repentance. But Jesus was different. It was the right time for the events to step away from John the Baptist to Jesus. Luke is about to trace Jesus' ancestry back to David through Mary's line. Heli had no sons, and Joseph is therefore listed to represent Mary's generation, something provided for in Jewish law.  Of course, he says, we know that Joseph was not the actual father of Jesus, because, as his account has already shown, Jesus is truly the Son of God. What Luke is showing is that Jesus is worthy to consider a good citizen of this world, acting appropriately, yet at the same time Someone like this world has never seen.