Luke 3:21-38 

Here’s a spot to read the passage if you don’t have access to a Bible right now:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%203%3A21-28&version=ESV

NAMES! Lots of them. This is one of those passages that I read while muttering under my breath, “All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, correcting, training…”

But before we get to all the names there is this m0ment that Luke captures.  He takes only two verses, and I really wish he had given us more, but here we are.  If he had wanted to give subtitles, “Son of God, and Son of Man” would have been a good one for this passage.

Luke is a master story teller.  He tells us the facts we need but gives us enough context to keep our focus on the point he wants to make.  He needs to provide Jesus’ human genealogy. But Luke knows that Jesus is the Son of God, so he opens with one of the times God expressly states that. 

John is baptizing, and Jesus comes also to be baptized. This baptism is a little unusual. As Jesus comes up out of the water heaven opens, a dove lands on him and a voice out of heaven draws everyone’s attention to Jesus. The words are directed, not to the crowds, but to Jesus personally,  “You are my beloved son.  I am pleased with you.”

In case you are wondering what it looks like when heaven opens, me too. I can’t really help you with that.  Luke was no uneducated naive child, so whatever happened was more than just some clouds parting.  It happens again in Acts, and there we get a little more information, so keep reading.  This is great stuff! 

I also need to draw your attention to something that is probably obvious to you here, but we can’t miss it. This is a fascinating moment in which we hear the voice of the Father coming from heaven, we observe what we are explicitly told is the Holy Spirit flying down toward Jesus in the form of a dove, and Jesus standing in the river.  If you, like me, are still trying to wrap your head around what is true and is not true of God, this passage demonstrates that God reveals himself as three unique characters who can all be simultaneously present.  When you hear the phrase, “God in three persons” this is what that is talking about.  How one God can be three unique persons is something I can’t explain, but it is the overt testimony of scripture.  I’m going to interject my own experience here again in case it is an encouragement to you.  I have been reading the Bible for pretty much half a century.  As I get older and learn more about my world, I also come to realize more and more things that have confused me in scripture actually make sense.  Archaeologically speaking, there have been so many things that were recorded in the Bible millennia ago, that science has only recently found.  Here’s what I’m saying.  When over and over again, scripture has turned out to be right when people thought it must be wrong, there comes a point where it’s more intellectually honest to approach scripture from the assumption that it’s probably right, and we are the ones who are missing something.  And that’s my two cents.  Moving on!

Luke tells us that everybody assumed Jesus was Joseph’s kid. So he demonstrates that he was raised in a family that was descended from the throne of David just like the prophecies said. In fact, Luke goes on to trace him all the way back to Adam because presumably he loves history and wants to be very precise. 

Anyways, it’s interesting to pick through and see who we can recognize in this list. I see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah – so the tribe is definitely established. And of course Noah’s son Shem – father of the Semitic peoples. I recognize Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel. I had to fact check quickly, but he was “king” of Jerusalem when the Babylonians were running the place. That was the era in which Ezra and Nehemiah lived.

The book of Ruth ties into this history as well. Salmon, Boaz, and Obed all make an appearance as they were ancestors of Ruth’s great grandson David. Ruth and David weren’t really that far apart. I wonder if she knew David. I wonder if she prayed for him when he was running from Saul. I wonder if there’s any chance she was alive when he became king. 

And then it ends with Adam, son of God. I don’t think I’ve heard him described that way anywhere else, but it’s a precious perspective. He was by no means God’s coeternal, only begotten son, but he was created specially, lovingly by God. Adam didn’t have a father.  He was formed by God himself.  If you have an extra minute or two, skip to the very beginning of the Bible and read the first two chapters of Genesis.  God creates the cosmos simply by saying, “Let there be…” but when it comes time to make Adam and then Eve he is described as forming them.  In Genesis 2:7 we are told God breathed into Adam’s nostrils to give him life.  It’s a deeply personal, precious picture.  Adam, and by inference all of humanity, is precious to God.  As the book of Luke continues to unfold we are going to witness in agonizing detail exactly how precious.