Son of Adam, Son of God

Ask a grandparent where your family comes from, and you may get a long answer. Names. Places. Stories. Luke gives Jesus' family story too. But he does not stop at grandparents. He keeps going, back and back, until he reaches the very first man.

The baby of Bethlehem has grown up. Jesus has come to the Jordan River, where John is baptising, and has been baptised himself. As he prayed, the heavens opened, the Holy Spirit came down on him like a dove, and a voice from heaven said, you are my beloved Son; in you I am well pleased. And right there, before Jesus begins to preach, Luke stops the story. He wants us to know whose son this is. So he unrolls a list of names.

Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, Luke writes, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph. That little phrase, as was supposed, is Luke's gentle reminder of what he has already told us: that Jesus' true Father is God. Then the names begin. Joseph, son of Heli. Son of Matthat. Son of Levi. Ordinary names, most of them people we know nothing else about. Craftsmen, farmers, fathers. Generation after generation of people who lived and worked and prayed, and waited.

Then familiar names appear. Zerubbabel, who led the people home from exile in Babylon. Nathan, son of David. David himself, the shepherd king. Jesse, his father. Boaz, who married Ruth. Judah. Jacob. Isaac. Abraham, the man God called out of Ur with a promise that through his family all nations would be blessed. If Luke stopped there, we would know Jesus is a true son of Israel. But Luke does not stop.

Back he goes, past Abraham. Terah. Shem. Noah, who built the ark. Lamech. Methuselah, the oldest man in the Bible. Enoch, who walked with God. Seth. And then the last two names. Which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God. Do you see what Luke is saying? Jesus does not only belong to one nation. He belongs to the whole human family. Every person who has ever lived is a child of Adam. And Jesus has come as one of us, a son of Adam, to bring all of Adam's children home to God.

Matthew's Gospel also gives Jesus' family tree, but differently. Matthew starts with Abraham and moves forward to Jesus. Luke starts with Jesus and moves backward to Adam. And from King David onward the two lists follow different lines: Matthew goes through David's son Solomon, while Luke goes through another son, Nathan. Christians since ancient times have offered explanations, but both Gospels agree that Jesus is a son of David and a son of Abraham.

Son of Adam, Son of God. You'll find it in Luke chapter three, verses twenty-three to thirty-eight. The child born at Christmas belongs to every family on earth. So here is a question to carry with you. If Jesus came for the whole human family, who might you be leaving out?