Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Matthat…the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God (Luke 3:23-38).

Well, I skipped most of the passage, as many of you probably do when encountering a Biblical genealogy. Our culture has lost its interest in history, even its own history. But most cultures, today and throughout the ages, have valued the role ancestors played in shaping in their lives. This was true of Luke’s world. There is value in this list of names.

When we think of the teachings of Christianity, we might ponder doctrines like the transcendence of God and the incarnation of Christ. Luke didn’t have such theological titles; before there were doctrines there were stories and genealogies. With this list of names, he wants us to realize something about Jesus, the main character of the story he was telling.

Luke inserts Jesus’ genealogy between his baptism and his temptations. These three panels are linked with these phrases, “You are my son” a voice from heaven tells Jesus at his baptism, “the son of God” with which Luke ends the genealogy and “If you are the Son of God…” with which Satan questions that assertion (4:3).

Literary buffs will recognize that Luke uses a common narrative devise, he gives the answer before he askes the question. Here and throughout this gospel, we are being invited to wrestle with the question, “Is Jesus really the son of God?” and if he is, “What difference does that make?”

So, what answer does Luke offer us in Jesus’ genealogy? First, Jesus’ ancestry is traced back to David, so he has royal blood and has the right to claim the kingship of Israel, and ultimately the kingship of the cosmos. Second, he is traced back to Abraham, so he receives and has the potential to fulfill the promises made to Abraham and in fact, all the promises ever made to Israel. Third, Jesus is a son of Adam, the figure through whom all of us are connected to one another. He doesn’t just represent Israel but all the people of the world. We don’t have to be Jewish to be part of what Jesus does.

Luke is underscoring a point he made with Jesus’ baptism. Pastor Anthony put it like this, Jesus was baptized to “truly identify himself with us” and “so that he might truly take on our sin”. He came not just to be human but for the sake of all humans. That is why Luke ends, “the son of Adam, the son of God.”

We might all claim to be children of God, created in his image as we are. But the family likeness was distorted through the fall into sin. Since them, no one can claim to fully bear the likeness of God, except Jesus. He is again what Adam once was. He is human as God meant humans to be, the image of God, showing the family likeness in perfection.

We may picture our present human existence as a pit, in which all of us are trapped. The sin of Adam has removed any possibility of our climbing out. Jesus is like us in that he has come down into the pit with us. That is the message of the baptism story and the family tree, if we leave out their closing verses.

Even though Jesus is like us, he is also unlike us. We are here because of a fall into disobedience. He is here because of a descent into obedience. He never let go of the rope which joins him to God. He is firmly anchored in the unbroken relation of sonship with his Father. That is why his humanity is distinctive. That is why it is only by clinging to him that are we lifted out of the pit. That is the message of the last words of the baptism story (22) and of the family tree (38).

“You are my son” … “the son of God” … Next, we will see that Jesus passes the test of sonship with flying colours. Through Christ, we all can be part of God’s family tree, daughters and sons of the king. These are the answers Luke hides in his list of names, the ancestors of Jesus.

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.