Whose Son is He?

12 Mighty Orphans is a non-fictional movie based on the book by Jim Dent. It’s about an orphanage in Fort Worth, Texas, that valued the orphans and started a football team with them, who ended up playing for the Texas state championship. The coach for the football, who himself was an orphan, often called the orphans “sons.” In one scene, a runaway and upset orphan says, “Don’t call me son. I am no one’s son.”

Luke placed a heavenly scene and an earthly law adjacently, making Theophilus guess whose son Jesus was.

“When all the people were baptized, Jesus came to be baptized. At that time, the heavens opened, and the Holy Spirit, in the bodily form of a dove, descended on him, and a voice came from the heavens: ‘You are my son, the beloved. I am pleased with you.’

Jesus was beginning his thirty years, legally being the son of Joseph.” (Luke 3:21–23)

As in 12 Mighty Orphans, a person can be called a “son” without any biological relationship. Matthew called Jesus “Son of David” and “Son of Abraham” (1:1). Jesus couldn’t have been the immediate biological son of Abraham, David, Joseph, and God! In truth, he was none of their biological sons except Mary’s.

When David wanted to build a temple for God, God appreciated his thought and made a covenant with him to adopt his descendants, the kings and queens, as his sons and daughters. He would be their Father. At Jesus’s baptism, God acknowledged his sonship as the king of Israel by saying, ‘You are my son, the beloved. I am pleased with you.’

Luke, however, was quick to refer to another father – Joseph. He was the legal father by adoption since he wasn’t a biological father to Jesus. Then he stated a genealogy. He didn’t trace Joseph’s lineage through his father, Jacob, as did Matthew (1:2–16). Instead, he traced Joseph’s lineage through his father-in-law, Heli, Mary’s father (Luke 3:24–38). That genealogy extended to Adam, who was of God (3:38), unlike Matthew’s genealogy which terminated with Abraham (Matt 1:2). Most likely, Luke wanted Theophilus to see Jesus’s genealogy extending to the entire humanity (descendants of Adam) and not just to the Hebrews (the descendants of Abraham).

The Greek text says, “Joseph of Heli, of Matthat, of Levi, of, Melki, etc.” English translations added the phrase “the son of,” confusing the readers that Luke was talking about Joseph’s father-in-law’s or Mary’s genealogy. We can distinctively see this difference in David’s sons. Whereas Heli and Mary were born through David’s son Nathan (Luke 3:31 [perhaps named in honor of David’s friend and prophet, Nathan]), Jacob and Joseph were born through David’s son Solomon (Matt 1:6). Joseph and Mary were descendants of David but through different sons.

This was significant because God had given two contrary promises. To David, he promised that one of his descendants would always sit on his throne (2 Sam 7:14). When Jaconiah – a descendant of David – sinned, God promised that none of his descendants would sit on David’s throne (Jer 22:28–30). Both prophecies came through in Joseph and Mary. Joseph was Jaconiah’s descendant, and he didn’t have Jesus biologically, fulfilling Jeremiah’s prophecy. Mary was David’s descendant, and she gave birth to Jesus, who would sit on David’s throne and fulfill God’s promise to David.

Only our God can give contrary promises and fulfill them. That’s why we trust him and his promises.