GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LUKE 3:37-38
The Genealogy of Jesus Christ – From Creation to the Flood
37 the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son of Kenan, 38 the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
In this part of Jesus’ genealogy there are nine generations, taking us backward something like two thousand years from the Flood to the sixth day of Creation.
I will not line these men up in a chronology, but instead I would like to point out the remarkable story of Enoch. According to the fatherhood chronology given to us in Genesis 5, Enoch’s translation into heaven (his ascension, that is) took about 55 years after Adam’s death. Enoch was not rewarded for a sinless life, since like his father and his son, he was a sinful man. However, Enoch demonstrated his faith. We even have a record of a sermon he preached, or part of it, condemning unbelievers as those who reject authority and who even slander celestial beings. “See, the Lord is coming,” he said, “with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him” (Jude 14-15). Although the Law was not yet given through Moses in Enoch’s time, Enoch’s sermon touched on both tables of the Law, condemning the rejection of authority (Fourth Commandment) and attacking the very name of God, speaking against him (Second Commandment). The “ungodly acts” aren’t given in detail, but they certainly weren’t committed out of love. Paul said, “The commandments, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not covet,’ and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Romans 13:9).
Enoch’s faith was certainly approved of by God, but why single out this one man to be taken into heaven in those early days of the world? Perhaps there is an explanation in his ancestor, Adam, and in Adam’s curse. When Adam fell into sin, he was condemned to death by God (“you will surely die,” Genesis 2:17). Yet Adam did not die in the moment when he ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He lived more than nine centuries and continued to father many children with Eve. Those were children who were born without the image of God. That image (God’s holiness and righteousness, his sinlessness and ability to say no to temptation and sin) was lost.
Centuries passed by. Dozens of children were born to Adam and Eve and tens of thousands were born to their descendants; all of them, presumably, knowing Adam and Eve as “grandpa and grandma,” or whatever titles they gave to those first people. Then, Adam died. He was old, incredibly old (more than nine hundred years), but his death was the result of his sin. Now, what was going to happen? Was death the end? Was there no more to life than living a life, even a very long life, but then, in the end, having nothing but death?
We can imagine, perhaps, that there was a crisis of faith. It took a while for the news of Adam’s death to circulate, but the population of the world learned about it. What we know for certain is that sin was running wild. It was so bad that in Enoch’s only recorded sermon, 13% of his 35 words (in Jude’s Greek text) are the word “ungodly.” The picture we have is of a world panicking about the hereafter; about whether or not there was any reason at all to care about God or his plan for mankind.
Then, all of a sudden, Enoch was no more. Like Elijah three thousand years later, Enoch was taken up from the earth. Was it in a whirlwind? Was he removed by angels? In a fiery chariot? That detail we don’t know. What we do know it that his disappearance was known. It was an event that was witnessed, and the story was handed down from father to son just like the details of the Creation, of the Flood, and of the Tower of Babel. Enoch’s ascension into heaven was a sermon all in itself: There is something more to life than eventual death. There is a reason not to be ungodly. There is a purpose for mankind. God’s will is that we would trust in the promise of the Seed of the Woman, who will rescue us from our sins.
The Savior, the child of the promise, is both the son of Adam and the son of God. We have seen why it was necessary for him to become human, so that by assuming our humanity he would redeem all of humanity—all who trust in him. He is also the Son of God, so that his atoning death has value to cover over the sins of all mankind. If there are some who reject him (and there are), it is their own tragedy. He doesn’t force or coerce our faith. He invites us. And for all who are invited and who simply do not reject him, there is healing at last. The power of death is defeated by Jesus. Death took even Adam, but God showed through the miracle of Enoch that there is something more for us than death. There is resurrection and eternal life in heaven. This gospel promise, which is proclaimed throughout the Old Testament in hints, poems, and songs, was preached in clear, unmistakable words by Jesus Christ. What follows now in Luke’s Gospel is the account of those words and that ministry.
Behold, the son of Adam, the son of God! He came to take away the sin of the world!
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota