Crossing Every Boundary: The Son of God

Introduction This genealogy is a passage most of us would rather skip. Seventy-seven names. Most of them unfamiliar. Read through it and your eyes glaze over before long. And yet Luke placed this list here — right between the baptism and the wilderness temptation, at the very heart of his Gospel. He did not place it here without intention. This genealogy is not a simple record of bloodlines. It is a testimony to the journey of the Son of God — who crossed the boundary of ethnicity, the boundary of the curse, and the boundary of failure — and descended into the history of our human race to accomplish salvation. Let us follow that journey together. Point 1 — The Son of God crossed the boundary of ethnicity and descended to all the descendants of Adam Luke 3:23 contains a peculiar expression. "And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph." Why did Luke not simply write "the son of Joseph"? Why did he add the qualifier "as was supposed"? This single phrase is the first key to reading the entire genealogy. There is a gap between what people see and what is actually taking place. Luke records this genealogy with that gap fully in view. So what is it that Luke intends to show us through this genealogy? The first thing is this: this Son does not belong to the Jewish people alone. Why does Luke go all the way back to Adam rather than Abraham? Matthew's Gospel opens with a declaration: "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham" (Matt. 1:1). Matthew begins the genealogy with Abraham and traces it down to Jesus. Why Abraham? Because Abraham is the starting point of the nation of Israel. God had promised him: "In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 12:3). Matthew intends to prove to his Jewish readers that this promise has been fulfilled in Jesus. Matthew's genealogy is a genealogy that descends toward the fulfillment of the covenant. Luke moves in the opposite direction. He begins with Jesus and traces the line upward. He passes Abraham. He passes Noah. He passes Seth. And he does not stop. He goes all the way to "Adam, which was the son of God" (Luke 3:38). Why? Because Adam is not the ancestor of Israel alone. Adam is the ancestor of all mankind. What does the contrast between the two Gospels tell us? Placed side by side, the picture is this. Matthew departs from Abraham and descends to Jesus. The history of Israel reaches its completion in Jesus. It is the arrival of the Messiah for the covenant people. Luke departs from Jesus and ascends to Adam. The roots of Jesus reach beyond Israel to all of humanity. It is a declaration of a Saviour for every nation. Matthew asks: Is Jesus the Messiah whom Israel has been waiting for? Luke asks: Is Jesus the Saviour whom all mankind — every descendant of Adam — stands in need of? These two questions are not in contradiction. But Luke's question is the wider of the two. It reaches beyond the boundary of Israel. Is this the consistent vision of Luke's Gospel? It is. Luke maintains this vision from beginning to end. Simeon takes the infant Jesus in his arms and sings of "a light to lighten the Gentiles" (Luke 2:32). Jesus stands in the synagogue at Nazareth and proclaims that Elijah and Elisha were sent to Gentiles (Luke 4:25–27). The book of Acts closes with "unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8). This genealogy is where that vision begins. To ascend all the way to Adam is a declaration: this Gospel does not belong to the Jewish people alone. Then am I within this genealogy? You are. Every descendant of Adam is within it. Matthew's genealogy speaks to the people of Israel: the Messiah you have been waiting for has come. Luke's genealogy speaks to all who stand outside that boundary: you also are among those whom this salvation is for. Jesus came down not as the Messiah of the Jewish people alone, but as the Saviour of every descendant of Adam. We too are among those for whom he came. Point 2 — The Son of God crossed the boundary of the curse and entered into the tangled knots of human history, passing through them Luke opens the genealogy with a peculiar qualification: "being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph." Why "as was supposed"? Luke is sending a signal to his readers from the very outset. There is something in this genealogy that the eyes of men cannot see. Beneath the surface lies the precise design of God. Let us look into that design. Why is the father of Joseph called Jacob in Matthew and Heli in Luke? Matthew 1:16 states: "And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary." Luke 3:23 records that Joseph was "the son of Heli." Why does the same man have two different fathers? Is this a contradiction in Scripture? It is not. The oldest explanation is levirate marriage. According to the law of Deuteronomy 25:5–6, when Heli died without a son, his brother Jacob took Heli's wife and fathered Joseph in his name. Joseph was therefore the legal son of Heli and the biological son of Jacob. Matthew followed the bloodline; Luke followed the legal relationship. There is another view. Some hold that Heli was the father of Mary. In Jewish custom, when a man had no sons, a son-in-law could be recorded as a legal son. On this reading, Luke's genealogy does not trace the lineage of Joseph at all, but the actual bloodline of Jesus through Mary. This view aligns precisely with what follows. Why does Luke follow Nathan rather than Solomon? Matthew's genealogy runs from David to Solomon. Luke's genealogy runs from David to Nathan — Solomon's brother, another son of David. Why does Luke follow Nathan rather than Solomon, the royal line? Here we must turn to Jeremiah 22:30. God declared concerning Jeconiah, a king in the line of Solomon: "Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah." A curse of royal severance was pronounced upon the line of Solomon through Jeconiah. Matthew's genealogy passes directly through Jeconiah. Does this mean Matthew's genealogy is in error? It does not. Matthew included Jeconiah knowing full well what he was doing. Jeremiah 22:30 was known to every Jewish reader. Matthew's purpose was legal succession to the throne. To establish Jesus as the lawful heir to the throne of David, the royal line of Solomon — Jeconiah — Joseph was necessary. Luke's genealogy follows Nathan from the outset, and therefore has no connection to the Jeconiah curse. If Heli was indeed the father of Mary, then Luke's genealogy traces the actual bloodline of Jesus through Mary — a line in which the curse of Jeconiah plays no part. Then what becomes of the curse of Jeconiah? The virgin birth resolves this knot. The curse of Jeconiah is transmitted through bloodline. Joseph is the legal father of Jesus, not his biological father. The curse travels through blood, but the bloodline was broken — and therefore the curse was not transmitted. Yet the legal right of succession to the throne, through the legal father-son relationship, passes to Jesus in full. The two genealogies are not in contradiction. They are two aspects of one divine design. Matthew's genealogy (Solomon → Jeconiah → Joseph) → secures the legal right to the throne of David Luke's genealogy (Nathan → Heli → Mary) → the actual bloodline; the curse of Jeconiah bypassed The virgin birth → God's means of satisfying both requirements simultaneously Matthew asks: Is Jesus the lawful heir to the throne of David? The Solomonic genealogy answers yes. Luke asks: Is Jesus the actual bloodline of David, free from the curse? The line of Nathan answers yes. Only when both Gospels are read together does the full picture come into view. What does this say to us? The fact that the Son of God entered into the tangled knots of human history is something that has already taken place. The curse of Jeconiah, the tension between the two genealogies, the ordinary appearance that left people unable to recognise him — in none of these did God stand outside and clear the way. He entered in and passed through. That is the testimony of this genealogy. And so, however complex our own history may be, however full of things broken and irretrievable — we stand before the Son of God who has already entered into exactly that. Point 3 — The Son of God crossed the boundary that Adam's failure had erected, and revealed himself to be the true Son of God through his obedience The last name in this genealogy is Adam. Luke stops there. "Adam, which was the son of God." And in the very next scene, the devil comes to Jesus and says: "If thou be the Son of God." This is not coincidence. Luke has connected the first son of God — Adam — and the true Son of God — Jesus — by means of this genealogy, and then sets the question directly on that bridge: at the very place where Adam failed, what will this Son of God do? Why does the genealogy call Adam "the son of God"? Luke's genealogy ends with "Adam, which was the son of God" (Luke 3:38). Adam, as the one directly created by God, bears the title son of God. But this first son of God failed when put to the test. Through that failure, "sin entered into the world, and death by sin" (Rom. 5:12), and it passed upon all men. By ending the genealogy at Adam, Luke lays this weight upon his readers. The shadow of the failed Adam falls across everything that follows. Jesus steps forward under that shadow. Why does Luke place the genealogy between the baptism and the wilderness temptation? At the baptism, God declared: "Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased" (Luke 3:22). The very Son whom God declared with delight — Luke immediately follows that declaration with the genealogy. And the moment the genealogy ends, the wilderness temptation begins. The devil says: "If thou be the Son of God." The very thing God declared, the devil challenges head-on. Through this arrangement, Luke says to his readers: do not pass over this genealogy. There is a reason it stands between the declaration at the baptism and the challenge in the wilderness. The last name in the genealogy — Adam — was called the son of God, but failed when tested. Jesus goes out into the wilderness bound to that failed Adam by this genealogy. Adam failed in the garden. Jesus obeys in the wilderness. Adam fell over food. Jesus says, "Man shall not live by bread alone." Adam grasped at equality with God. Jesus submits to God. Between the declaration at the baptism and the challenge in the wilderness, the genealogy asks: at the very place where the first Adam failed, what will this Son of God do? What does Luke's manner of writing tell us? Luke wrote "being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph." To the eyes of men, Jesus was the son of an ordinary carpenter. But God declared at the baptism: "Thou art my beloved Son." Luke puts the question to his readers: who do you say Jesus is? Do you see him as men see him — the son of Joseph? Or do you see him as the true Son of God, declared by God himself? The wilderness temptation gives the answer. The one who appeared to men to be nothing more than Joseph's son revealed himself, at the very place where Adam failed, to be the true Son of God through his obedience. What does this say to us? Because the first son of God failed, sin and death entered in. But because the true Son of God did not fail, the way of redemption has been opened to us. Our hope does not rest in our own obedience. It rests in the true Son of God who did not fail where Adam failed. We belong to the humanity that failed in Adam — but in Christ, the new Adam, his obedience becomes ours. Conclusion This genealogy is not a list of names. It is a record that testifies to the journey of salvation. The first name in this genealogy is Jesus. The last name is Adam. The history of failure and condemnation and death that began with Adam — Jesus has reversed it by entering into it. The Son of God crossed the boundary of ethnicity and descended to every descendant of Adam. He crossed the boundary of the curse and entered into the tangled knots of human history, passing through them. He crossed the boundary that Adam's failure had erected, and through his obedience revealed himself to be the true Son of God. Therefore this long and unfamiliar list of names is the Gospel. It is the Gospel that the Son of God has crossed every boundary and descended to us.