CRITICAL NOTES
Luke 3:21.—This verse seems to imply that the baptism of Jesus was in a measure private—that He was the last to receive the rite on the particular day when He came to John. The reason why He submitted to the rite is given by Himself in Matthew 3:15, viz. that He judged it fitting for Him to conform to all the requirements of the law of Moses. Praying.—This circumstance is mentioned by St. Luke only. It is an illustration of the necessity of prayer to make any external rites effectual.
Luke 3:22. In a bodily shape.—Added by St. Luke. The dove was from early times a symbol of the Holy Spirit. “The Talmudic comment on Genesis 1:2 is that the ‘the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters like a dove.’ We are probably to understand a dovelike, hovering, lambent flame descending on the head of Jesus; and this may account for the unanimous early legend that a fire or light was kindled in the Jordan” (Farrar). A voice.—This voice out of heaven was heard also on the Mount of Transfiguration (Luke 9:35), and shortly before the Passion (John 12:28-30). This appearance of the Holy Spirit, and voice of the Father, seen and heard on the occasion of the baptism of Jesus, distinctly imply the doctrine of the Trinity of the Godhead.
Luke 3:23.—The phraseology of the beginning of this verse is very rugged; and commentators have been much perplexed by it. The R.V. is, “And Jesus Himself, when He began to teach, was about thirty years of age.” The substitution of the words in italics—“to teach”—seems somewhat arbitrary. The evident intention of the Evangelist is to give the age of Jesus at His baptism. Perhaps the simplest and most natural rendering of the passage would be, “And Jesus was beginning to be [a man] of about thirty years of age”—i.e. had nearly completed his thirtieth year.
Luke 3:23-38.—The genealogy of Jesus. For a full discussion of the many interesting and complicated questions connected with the genealogies given in the first and third Gospels, we must refer the reader to works specially dealing with that subject. Lord A. C. Hervey, Bishop of Bath and Wells, has written a very able monograph entitled The Genealogies of our Lord Jesus Christ, and is also the author of the article on the subject in Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible. From the latter we make the following extracts:
1. They are both the genealogies of Joseph—i.e. of Jesus Christ, as the reputed and legal son of Joseph and Mary.
2. The genealogy of St. Matthew is Joseph’s genealogy as legal successor to the throne of David—i.e. it exhibits the successive heirs of the kingdom, ending with Christ, as Joseph’s reputed son. St. Luke’s is Joseph’s private genealogy, exhibiting his real birth, as David’s son, and thus showing why he was heir to Solomon’s crown.
3. There can be no doubt that Mary also was of David’s descent (Luke 1:32; Acts 2:30; Acts 13:23; Romans 1:3, etc.). It is probable that she was the daughter of Jacob, and first cousin to Joseph, her husband; so that in point of fact, though not of form, both the genealogies are as much hers as her husband’s. In St. Matthew’s Gospel Joseph is said to have been the son of Jacob, the son of Matthan; in St. Luke’s, the son of Heli, the son of Matthat. There seems to be no reason to doubt that Matthan and Matthat are one and the same person. The state of matters then would be that Matthan had two sons, Jacob and Heli; that Jacob had no son (but according to the above conjecture, a daughter Mary), and that consequently Joseph, the son of the younger brother Heli, became heir to his uncle and to the throne of David. It is quite evident that, in spite of all difficulties which may now be connected with these genealogies, they are trustworthy; not a doubt was thrown out by the bitterest of the early enemies of Christianity as to our Lord’s real descent from David.
Luke 3:27.—Probably the original text had “the son of the Rhesa Zerubbabel.” Rhesa is not a proper name, but a Chaldæan word signifying “prince.”
Luke 3:36.—The Cainan mentioned in this verse is perhaps introduced by mistake. The name is to be found in the LXX. Version of Genesis 11:12, but not in any Hebrew MS. of the Old Testament.
Luke 3:38. Adam, which was the Son of God.—“The Evangelist here asserts at once the community of nature which subsists between all mankind (cf. Acts 17:26-28), and the filial relation in which all men stand to God, not merely as being the creatures of His hand, but also as being made in His image” (Speaker’s Commentary).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Luke 3:21-38
The Divine Sonship of Christ and of Man.—Nowhere else in the Gospels is the fact that Jesus Christ was in a unique sense the Son of God more plainly stated than here. And yet His true humanity is no less emphatically asserted in the genealogical table which traces His descent from the founder of our race. Nor does it seem to the author of the Gospel that there is any insuperable difficulty in believing that the Son of God became Son of man—as though the Divine and the human natures were alien to each other; on the contrary, he speaks of man as being in a sense the son of God (Luke 3:38).
I. The Divine Sonship of Christ.—To all outward seeming Jesus was simply a young man, now about the age of thirty, who had come like others to receive baptism from John. But by supernatural signs—the opened heaven, the descent of the Spirit, and the voice of God—His unique relationship with God is declared. His absolute sinlessness is asserted in the words, “In Thee I am well pleased”; and consequently there is a difference between Him and every other member of the race with which He is now connected. He is born of woman, but not of human parentage (Luke 3:23); and though akin through His mother with every member of the human race—for all are descended from a common ancestor—He has not inherited a depraved nature. No sins of His own are therefore to be thought of as having been washed away by the water of baptism. Yet by His identification of Himself with His brethren He took upon Himself their shame and guilt.
II. The Divine sonship of man.—The great distinction between man and the other creatures is that he was made in the image of God. And therefore there is a kinship between him and his Creator which the Evangelist expresses in the words, “Adam, which was the son of God.” Because of this relationship it is possible for man to know God, and love Him, and serve Him, and have communion with Him, as none of the other creatures can do. In consequence of it, also, it was possible for Christ to assume our nature and be “found in fashion as a man,” without any confusion of natures in His person. Those who were sons of God, however, differed in one marked respect from Him who was the Son of God: they had lost many of the privileges of sonship because of disobedience, while the communion of Christ with God was perfect and unbroken. And the one great purpose of the Saviour’s life was to restore fellowship between heaven and earth, between the Father and His human children. To Christ the heaven was opened that He might lead us into it, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him to pass from Him to us, and with us in Christ the Father is well pleased.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luke 3:21-38
Luke 3:21. “When all the people were baptized.”—The peculiar phrase “when all the people were baptized” may imply that the baptism of Jesus was towards the close of John’s ministry; it may, however, be St. Luke’s method of explaining the reason why Jesus submitted to baptism. “All the people,” the nation, by accepting John’s baptism, were turning to God, and Jesus did not hold aloof from the movement. By His incarnation He had become a member of our race, by His circumcision He had become a Jew, and He fulfilled the obligations which rested upon Him of obedience to the Divine commandments. If we understand why He received the rite of circumcision, we shall understand why He received that of baptism, for the same general ideas underlie both rites. So far from separating Himself from others, as One who was of a different nature from ours, and free from the necessity of seeking forgiveness, He identified Himself with mankind so as to bear the burden of condemnation and be subject even unto death. His own explanation (Matthew 3:15), “Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness,” plainly declares that He submitted to every commandment that is laid by God upon man. Hence St. Luke speaks of His baptism as a matter of course, since Israel as a nation was accepting John’s ministry. It is probable that this was the only occasion when John and Jesus mot together, although their careers were so closely connected and intervolved.
1. The birth of John preceded and heralded that of Jesus.
2. In his ministry also John acted as the forerunner of Jesus.
3. In his death by violence he offered a presage of the death of Jesus by cruel hands two or three years later.
A Private Celebration.—The narrative of St. Luke seems to imply that the baptism of Jesus was not at a time when there were others receiving the rite. John was evidently either alone or there were but few spectators. The mere fact of Jesus standing and praying after His baptism would lead us to infer that it was a private rather than a public celebration of the rite. Though He received baptism, He was separate from sinners; though He afterwards received burial, He was laid in a tomb “wherein was never yet man laid.”
Jesus baptized.—Jesus would identify Himself with His people in their most humbling experiences. So He went down into the water (not, indeed, to be cleansed by it; rather, as an old writer says, to cleanse it), and the Divine voice declared, “This is My beloved Son!” He descended into the water, just as He submitted in His early years to the Jewish law. His being baptized was part of His unutterable humiliation. Jesus pledged Himself to the fulfilment of all righteousness on behalf of the race whom He had come to save.—Nicoll.
Weighty Reasons for His receiving This Rite.—There must have been weighty reasons for this water ceremony, so solemnly observed, or He never could have found place for it among His crowded days of teaching, healing, and comforting His countrymen. Though able to set all symbols and all forms aside if He chose, He went down into the water, at the beginning of His life’s work, in order, we are told, to “fulfil all righteousness.” He “came by water,” and takes peculiar pains in His teaching that every Christian life must begin in the same way. “Born of water.” “Baptize them.” Why is this? Because one great part of our Saviour’s work is to purify men’s lives.—Huntington.
Fellowship with our Weakness and Sinfulness.—In the baptism Christ took upon Him the fellowship of man’s weakness and sinfulness; and because His brethren needed cleansing and its symbol, He, the Sinless, took part of the same.—Maclaren.
Luke 3:21-22. The first recorded Prayer of Christ and its Answer.—It was when He was praying that the Spirit was sent down upon Him, and in all probability it was this which at the moment He was praying for. He was in immediate need of the Holy Spirit to equip Him for His great task. The human nature of Jesus was dependent from first to last on the Holy Ghost, being thereby made a fit organ for the Divine; and it was in the strength of this that all His work was done. If in any measure our life is to be an imitation of His—if we are to help in carrying on His work in the world, or in filling up what is lacking in His sufferings—we must be dependent on the same influence. How are we to get it? He has told us Himself. By prayer. “Your heavenly Father shall give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.” Power, like character, comes from the fountain of prayer.—Stalker.
Christ’s Prayerfulness.—In one sense Christ’s prayers formed the truest proof of His manhood. His practice of prayer and His exhortations to it are chiefly recorded in the Gospel of Luke, which is pre-eminently a gospel of the Son of man. He prayed after His baptism.—Nicoll.
Prayer at the Baptism and at the Transfiguration.—In conformity with Luke’s psychological purpose as an evangelist, the effect of prayer upon two of the sublimest external phenomena in the Saviour’s life is mentioned by him. Prayer on His part is the psychological antecedent of the scene at the Baptism (and of the glory at the Transfiguration). To St. Luke alone we owe both notices. “While He was yet praying, the heaven was opened.” There was not a magic cleaving of the heavens, a sudden and theatrical radiance steeping face, and form, and vesture. There was a human factor, a suitable antecedent, in the perfect Man. The inward glory grew outward, coalesced with the opening sky, and melted into the light of heaven. Among human faces few, indeed, look like the face of an angel, or are touched with heavenly radiance. The only true light on any face is sure to be a light of prayer.—Alexander.
The Significance of that Prayer.—Who would not penetrate, if he were permitted, into the mystery of that prayer—that prayer between the thirty years’ seclusion and the three years’ publicity—between the calm, peaceful home of the past, and the troubled, storm-stossed no-home of the future? It was the calling in of strength for the dread ordeal of the Temptation. It was the “putting on of the whole armour of God” for that great “withstanding in the evil day.” The prayer had its answer on the instant. To it the heaven was opened, the Holy Ghost descended in visible form—visible to two persons, the baptizer and the Baptized; and a Voice was heard, audible to two persons—appointed sign to the one, comforting solace to the Other: “Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased.” That prolonged and protracted prayer has its lesson for us. Much of the blessing of sermon, sacrament, and service is lost by the want of the after-prayer of which Christ’s is the example. Too soon does the world come back upon us after the holiest communion, after the most inspiring converse with the Invisible. “Jesus also being baptized and still praying, praying still, still praying on, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended.”—Vaughan.
The Burden of the Prayer and the Answer of the Prayer.—The Gospel of the Son of man specially notes Christ’s prayers as the tokens of His true manhood. The signs following were—
I. The answer, and may help us to understand—
II. The burden of the prayer. The connection between the petition and the opened heavens may bring us the sweet confidence that for us, too, unworthy as we are, the same blessed gift and voice will fall on our hearts and ears if we, in His name, pray as He did.—Maclaren.
Our Lord’s first recorded Prayer.—We are first introduced to our Lord in prayer by Luke, who relates how He came to John to be baptized. The narrative, though it does not say so in so many words, plainly implies that as soon as the Lord had come up out of the water, He set Himself to beseech His Father’s blessing on the act. The answer, more, doubtless, for our sakes than His own, was forthwith visibly and audibly given by the Holy Ghost descending upon Him, and a Voice declaring, “This is My beloved Son!”—Markby.
Various Occasions on which Jesus Prayed.—St. Luke on eight other occasions calls attention to the prayers of Jesus—after severe labours (Luke 5:16); before the choosing of the apostles (Luke 6:12); before Peter’s great confession (Luke 9:18); at His transfiguration (Luke 9:28-29); for Peter (Luke 22:32); in Gethsemane (Luke 22:41); for His murderers (Luke 23:34); and at the moment of death (Luke 23:46).—Farrar.
The Threefold Sign.
I. The opened heavens.—Opened not only for the descending Dove, but for the ascending aspiration and gaze, symbolising the access thither which that Son had who “is in heaven” even while He has come forth from heaven and remains on earth. United to Him by faith, we too may walk beneath an ever-open heaven, and look up through the lower blue to the very throne, His home and ours.
II. The descending Dove.—This symbol recalls the brooding Spirit hovering over chaos, and symbolises the gentle Spirit of God dwelling in Him who was “meek and lowly of heart.” The whole fulness of that Spirit falls and abides on Him. It dwelt in Him that He might impart it to us, and the Dove of God might rest in our hearts.
III. The solemn Voice.—Thus was brought to Jesus Himself, in His manhood, the assurance of His Sonship, of the perfect love and satisfaction of the Father in Him. It was meant for Him, but not for Him alone. If we accept its witness, we too become sons; and if we find God in Him, we shall find Him well pleased even with us, and be “accepted in the Beloved.”—Maclaren.
Consecration to Office of Redeemer.—Three outward signs were given of the consecration of Jesus to the office of Redeemer of the world.
1. The heavens were opened—henceforth He has perfect knowledge of God’s plan in the work of salvation—the treasures of Divine wisdom are open to Him.
2. The descent of the Spirit, the source of life, endowing Him with all needed gifts and powers; given in fulness to Him and abiding permanently upon Him.
3. The voice from heaven giving Him in clearest form assurance of His Divine Sonship, and of the love of the Father to Him, of which He was to make His brethren partakers. The first two evangelists tell us that this series of Divine manifestations was seen by Jesus; John the Baptist tells us that he also saw it (John 1:32). As there were more than one witness it could not have been a mere figment of the imagination, and therefore St. Luke relates it as a plain objective fact. “The heaven was opened,” etc.
The Triune Nature of the Godhead.—Jesus prays to God, the Spirit descends upon Him, and the voice of the Father is heard. The triune nature of the Godhead is thus declared. “When the Son is baptized, the Father testifies that He is present; present also is the Holy Spirit; never can the Trinity be broken up (a se separari)” (Augustine). By Christ’s appointment the doctrine of the Trinity which was first distinctly unfolded at His baptism is set forth in the formula to be used on occasions when believers are baptized (Matthew 28:19).
“Heaven was opened.”—Heaven, which was closed by the first Adam, is opened again over the second.
“Like a dove.”—On account of the mildness of Christ (cf. Isaiah 42:2-3), by which He kindly and gently called and every day invites sinners to the hope of salvation, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in the appearance of a dove. And in this symbol has been held out to us an eminent token of the sweetest consolation, that we may not fear to approach to Christ, who meets us, not in the formidable power of the Spirit, but clothed with gentle and lovely grace.—Calvin.
The Significance of the Symbol.—The dove is used in other parts of Scripture as a symbol of
(1) purity (Song of Solomon 6:9);
(2) harmlessness (Matthew 10:16);
(3) modesty and gentleness (Song of Solomon 2:14); and
(4) of beauty (Psalms 68:13). And in the history of the Deluge it is the dove with the olive leaf that tells that the peace is restored between heaven and earth (Genesis 8:11).
The Holy Dove.—The living symbol identified with this Pentecost which inaugurated Christ’s official life was seen by Jesus and John, possibly also by a number of those of the spiritually fit who were present in the crowd. This Prophet and Deliverer who had come down from heaven could not be left to His own reviving recollections of the life passed in His Father’s bosom, nor to the unconscious momentum of pre-existent experiences which might come to put a high stamp on His moods and habits of thought and act. The God-man could not meet the duties and ordeals of His incarnate life in the strength of that majestic retrospect only. The dovelike form signifying an inward visitation from the presence of the Father, implied peace, tenderness, fidelity, holy and gentle fellowship. The messenger did not need to come to this obedient and undefiled Son as scorching fire, although it became fire when He in due time ministered the Spirit to sinful men. The Spirit came to bring new anointings, and discernments, and prerogatives to the humanity of Jesus Christ, to be a vehicle of fresh visions, fresh powers, fresh aptitudes, fresh vocations, which mighty things were by-and-by to pass from Christ to His disciples.—Selby.
The Harbinger of Peace and of the Spring.—There is rich suggestion in the form in which the Spirit descended. A great many tender thoughts cluster around the dove. The dove was the offering of the very poor. The appearance of the dove was a harbinger of spring. Remembered in connection with the Deluge, it was regarded as an emblem of peace, and a symbol of gentleness and harmlessness. All these associations made the dove a most fitting emblematic form for the Holy Ghost to assume when descending upon Jesus. Jesus came to be a peace-bringer for all, even the poorest. He came like the spring, to bring life to a dead world. He is like the dove in gentleness and harmlessness.—Miller.
“Thou art My beloved Son.”—From the time of His baptism dates the unique consciousness which Jesus had of God as His Father; it is the rising of that glorious sun which from that moment illumined His life, and which since the Day of Pentecost has risen upon humanity.—Godet.
Sonship implies Messiahship.—In the fact of His Divine Sonship was involved His Messiahship; the consciousness of His official rank was preceded by that of His special relationship with God.
The Voice from Heaven.—When He heard this Voice, “This is My beloved Son,” those thoughts and impressions which had probably long been stirring in the human consciousness of Christ were shaped into definite conviction and assurance, and He recognised the Divine nature in mysterious union with the Manhood which was to be made perfect through His sufferings. Long before this He must have learned the mysterious circumstances which attended His nativity. Now he apprehended their significance, and very naturally in the amazement, if we may not say the agitation, which was consequent on this discovery, He went under the leading of the Spirit into the wilderness.—Drew.
“My beloved Son.”—To Jesus it was the seal of Divine authentication. It was the fatherly recognition. It was the first break in the silence and loneliness of thirty years. It was, so to speak, a breath from home. If the occasion was marked by the first audible Divine intervention, it must have been one which called for it. It was a second birth to a new life; in the language of the Church of old, “His second nativity.” It was the meeting-point of the private and public life Divine.—Vallings.
Luke 3:23. “About thirty years of age.”—The period of life when physical and mental powers have attained their highest point of development; the age when the Levites entered upon office (Numbers 4:3; Numbers 4:23).
Luke 3:24-38. The Difference Between the Two Genealogies.—While St. Matthew, in the genealogy he gives, descends from Abraham to Jesus, St. Luke ascends from Jesus to God. “St. Luke’s purpose is to show that Jesus is the promised Seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15; Galatians 4:4), that He is that second Adam—the Father of the new race of regenerate humanity—in whom all nations of the earth are blessed” (Wordsworth).
The Hopes connected with the House of David.—The possibility of constructing such a table, comprising a period of thousands of years, in an uninterrupted line from father to son, of a family that dwelt for a long time in the utmost retirement, would be inexplicable, had not the members of this line possessed a thread by which they could extricate themselves from the many families into which every tribe and branch was again subdivided, and thus hold fast and know the member that was destined to continue the lineage. This thread was the hope that Messiah would be born of the race of Abraham and David. The ardent desire to behold Him and be partakers of His mercy and glory suffered not the attention to be exhausted through a period embracing thousands of years. Thus the member destined to continue the lineage, whenever doubtful, became easily distinguishable, awakening the hope of a final fulfilment, and keeping it alive until it was consummated.—Olshausen.
Luke 3:38. “Adam, the son of God.”—“The last word of the pedigree is connected with its starting-point. Unless the image of God had been stamped on man, the Incarnation would have been impossible. God could not have said to a man, ‘Thou art My beloved Son,’ if humanity had not issued from Him” (Godet). “All things are of God through Christ; and all things are brought back through Christ to God” (Bengel).
The Divine Root of the Human Pedigree.—There is no bolder word in Scripture, none that strikes us with a deeper surprise and awe than this—“Adam, who was the son of God.” Some may wonder why such a long and “barren list of names” is given here; but in reality the pedigree is of immense value. It connects the second Adam with the first Adam, and places a son of God at either end of the list of names; it makes us out to be the children of God both by nature and by grace. There is a Divine element in our nature as well as a human element, a capacity for life and holiness as well as a liability to sin and death. This is the secret of that double or divided nature of which we are conscious. It is this which explains how it comes to pass that even in the worst of men we find something good, and something bad even in the best. That which is good in us we derive from God, that which is evil from all our earthly parents. It is because every man is a child of God, because the Divine name stands at the top of the human pedigree, that even the worst of men feels a Divine constraint laid upon him at times, yields to a Divine impulse, and so does that which is just, pure, lovely, and kind. It is because even the best of men is but a man at the best, and forgets that he is a son of God, and refuses to yield to the Divine influence, that he falls into sins, which, as he himself is the first to confess, render him guilty before God, and even move him to account himself the chief of sinners. If we keep the fact in mind that Christ is the eternal Word, by whom all things were created and made, and by whom, therefore, Adam or man was created and made, the teaching of the New Testament as to the salvation of the race is made much clearer. Because we all spring from Christ, whatever He has done or does as surely affects us as what Adam was and did affects our nature and position. The second Adam, He was nevertheless before the first Adam, and called Him into being. Hence He could die for all. Hence He lives for all, and we all live in and by Him. Hence if by the offence of one death came on all, much more did life come to all by the obedience of One. Our text makes it clear that we have not to persuade God to enter into a fatherly relation to us and to love as. He is our Father. The change to be wrought is a change in ourselves. We need to realise and believe the fact that we are children of God, and to be true to the responsibilities it brings with it.—Cox.