We’ve seen thus far in Luke a glimpse of who people are. What about Mary? Or Simeon? Or John the Baptist? We’ve gotten good looks at who these faithful people are. Today, we get a beautiful look at who Jesus is. When we look at who Jesus is, what do we see? Well, we first look at the baptism. We see Jesus being faithful, setting for the example of what all those who follow Christ are to do, be baptized. But notice what happens when Jesus is baptized. We see (or rather, the people heard) a voice from heaven. And what does that voice say? This is my son, the beloved. Of whom the Father is well pleased.
We see who Jesus is. He is the only begotten, beloved Son of the Father. He is the second person of the Holy Trinity. He is, as John would tell us in his Gospel, the Word made flesh, the logos, the very nature of God, in human form. God incarnate. God with us. Fully God. And here’s the thing, we kinda get that. That makes sense to us. As believers in the 21st century, we don’t really struggle with the divinity of Jesus. What we struggle with comes next.
For after the baptism, what do we see? The genealogy. We see the humanity of Jesus. Those imperfect scoundrels that make up His family tree. Yes, Jesus was fully God. We get that. We can’t wrap our minds around the fact that He was also fully human. If He was not fully God He could not have been sinless. If we were not fully human, He could not have paid that perfect price for our sin. And through His humanity, God has tasted our hurt, our pain, our loss, and through Jesus’ death and resurrection has redeemed even them.
Fully God and fully human. I don’t “fully” understand it. But I “fully” believe it. And that is the beauty of faith. Sometimes, it’s just that. Faith.
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