Luke 3v21-38

So it happened that, as all the people were being baptized, Jesus too was baptized, and was praying. The heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form, like a dove, upon him. There came a voice from heaven:'You are my son, my dear son! I'm delighted with you.'

Jesus was about thirty years old at the start of his work. He was, as people thought, the son of Joseph, from whom his ancestry proceeds back in the following line: Heli, Matthat, Levi, Melchi, Jannai, Joseph, Mattathias, Amos, Nahum, Hesli, Naggai,Maath, Mattathias, Semein, Josech, Joda,Joanan, Rhesa, Zerubbabel, Shealtiel, Neri, Melchi, Addi, Cosam, Elmadam, Er, Joshua, Eliezer, Jorim, Matthat, Levi, Simeon, Judah, Joseph, Jonam, Eliakim, Melea, Menna, Mattatha, Nathan, David, Jesse, Obed, Boaz, Salmon, Nahshon, Amminadab, Admin, Ram, Hezron, Perez, Judah, Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, Terah, Nahor, Serug, Reu, Peleg, Heber, Shelah, Cainan, Arphaxad, Shem, Noah, Lamech, Methuselah, Enoch, Jared, Mahalaleel, Cainan, Enosh, Seth, Adam and God.

I can't trace my family tree back very far...if I'm lucky maybe a couple generations but honestly I'm just not that interested in doing so anyway. Most people in our culture aren't. Family ties just aren't what they used to be for the Jewish people and in the New Creation genealogies don't count for much anyway because they distract from the primary focus (1 Timothy 1v3-5). So why does Luke take the time to lay this out for us and what does it have to do with Jesus' baptism?

Luke is presenting us with another contrast here; how one enters into the Kingdom by grace, by the new covenant and how one found themselves in the old covenant, by the flesh (national and racial heritage - bloodline). He is also showing how Jesus is the fulfillment of the long story of Israel, and indeed humanity, tying all of the Hebrew scriptures up and simultaneously breaking in with something new, initiating a new spiritual birth by the very Word of God coming from Heaven that will launch nothing short of New Creation in and through Messiah who would in himself contain God's very presence and nature, all this steers its way towards the Cross and the Resurrection and finally Pentecost and forward toward the final setting of all things to rights through the power that has come to rest upon Jesus, the son of God.

God declared from heaven that 'You are my son, my dear son! I'm delighted with you.' and He declares the same when Jesus baptizes us with the Holy Spirit and sends us off to begin our life of sacrificial love and service to the King and the Kingdom. This is comforting to know that YHWY remains with His children from conception to resurrection and beyond. I hear so much argument back and forth about what I don't have to do to be accepted by Father, the scriptures are clear that He has fulfilled the covenant and Jesus is crystal clear at multiple levels in his parable of the prodigal son. As a person who is absolutely confident that I am of God's elect, His child by His grace and sacrifice, I desire nothing more than for my Father to speak to me daily and teach me His ways, to guide me so WE can get on with it. I will never forget the day of visitation, the day Jesus baptized me in the Holy Spirit, I was scared out of my wits, trembling and at the same time so excited and in awe...to know the fear of our God who is an all consuming fire...I can't put it into words...but I knew immediately... I had to GO!...even if I didn't know what that looked like. Everything changed that night...but there was still something ahead of me and it would drive me to the brink of madness...it was comforting to know that my King had been there and He was with me to go through it too otherwise the wilderness is a frightening, lonely place and the enemy is vicious...relentlessly vile and constantly tormenting...madness is where I would have stayed if it were not for my King and His power, His words.

For we are God's fellow workers...We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.