Luke 3:23, commentary and pictures

Luke places the beginning of Jesus' appointed public work at about thirty years of age. He was thirty years old when John baptized Him. He did not enter His public ministry until He was thirty years old.

His first thirty years were spent in retirement and obscurity at Nazareth. Nazareth was an obscure village, and He was born of humble parentage and a poor family, living among peasants and laborers without recognition or honor. Though He was the Son of God, His divine power was hidden through thirty years of obscurity and humiliation. His childhood and youth before His public ministry were a time of comparative obscurity, yet of the highest importance.

Until then He lived in Nazareth with Joseph and Mary in subjection to parental control. He waited for God's proper time to begin His Father's work, acting only when the proper time arrived. After that His earthly relationship to His mother no longer governed His mission.

He worked for wages as a carpenter and common laborer to help support the family. His years in Nazareth were years of humble, patient labor in which He shared the daily work and hardships of the lowly, and He did not use His divine power to make His toil easier. In that time He laid the foundation of a sound constitution and vigorous mind, so that He did His work traversing the hills of Judea in the strength of His manhood, not as a man bending under the pressure of age. Before His public ministry He lived as a common laborer always doing good, with a pure, undefiled life in entire conformity to the life and character of God. His childhood and manhood ennobled and sanctified every phase of practical life, standing as a character among characters in strong contrast between holiness and obedience and unholiness and disobedience.

For those thirty years He who was Monarch in heaven, equal with God, took humanity upon Himself and preserved the level of man before making His soul an offering for sin. That thirty-year life on the human level was to work out the plan of redemption and break Satan's chains off man so that man would not perish but could regain godlike manhood. The subject calls for the deepest thought and most concentrated study. His baptism was His inauguration to His work as the great and blessed Redeemer and long-looked-for Deliverer. At that time God Himself declared Him to be the Son of God, giving infallible testimony that amply convinced all who witnessed it.

Although many expected an immediate wonderful demonstration of convincing power, Jesus instead fasted forty days and forty nights and then, after enduring that test, met Satan's temptations. When His public ministry began obscurity vanished. As the Sun of righteousness come to uplift humanity and the light and life of men, He worked with divine power to release souls controlled by demons, showing His power alone can cope with fallen spirits who take possession of people.

His faithful humble labor was part of His mission, showing that honest labor is honorable and that people can serve God in humble occupations. His example teaches diligence in work and responsibility to provide for those in one's care. Because He once stood in age just where young people now stand and had their circumstances and thoughts, He sees their dangers at this critical period, is acquainted with their temptations, and invites them to follow His example.