Son of Adam - Son of Man

Son of Adam – Son of Man

“The third living creature had a face like a Man.” 
( Revelation 4:7)

Luke, as a master storyteller, is always looking for ways to pull his readers into the narrative of the life of the man Jesus. His gospel is the most complete narrative. It records over twenty miracles, seven of which are unique to Luke. Twenty-three parables are recorded and eighteen of them are also unique to Luke.

Luke was a Gentile and a physician, and he wrote more about Jesus’ healing ministry than Matthew and Mark put together. “He used more medical terms than Hippocrates, ‘the Father of Medicine,’ and included the obstetrical details of the nativity.”

Luke throughout his Gospel, writes broadly and plainly the memoir of the Son of Man. He goes to great length to show forth the Lord as very Man, One who is not so much supporting and propagating a particular kingdom, but rather as one linked to all the Sons of Adam. Luke presents Jesus to us as fully human, the Second Adam, the One who sympathizes as a Man intimately linked to the children of Adam.

Luke’s very Preface is distinctive and characteristic of his account, as he begins with an address to his friend Theophilus (See Luke 1:1-4). The narrative begins by addressing a friend with human affection, and then pulling that friend, along with all the other readers into a greater narrative regarding another human whom Luke had been an eyewitness, human companion. Luke begins by referring to his own personal knowledge of his subject, “having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first.” By stating such, Luke brings something human into his written account, this humanness is the very emphasis this Gospel presents to us.

Once Luke has made an intimate and human connection, the narrative begins, like a simple tale touching the hearts of the sons of men. “There was in the days of Herod the king a certain priest…” (Luke 1:5). “As it proceeds,” writes Andrew Jukes, “we are introduced to human sympathies and relationships, in a way perfectly unlike anything we get in the other Gospels; with all the circumstances of the birth and infancy of the Holy child, and of him who was sent as His forerunner. Here too, and here only, do we find the three inspired Songs, which, as speaking of mercy to Gentile as well as Jew, have for ages been the chosen utterance of the Church taken from among all nations.”

Time and time again throughout this narrative, Jesus is portrayed not so much as the One who has claims to rule, rather He is portrayed as One who is coming down perfectly on that ground which man as man then occupied. A slow and acute reading through this Gospel cannot help but to notice how continuously and meticulously Luke weaves this reality through and through his account. Luke doesn’t present to us the baby Jesus as the One “who is born King,” as Matthew does, rather He is shown to be the “Savior…the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger (a smelly feeding trough for the animals).” The detail of the baby Jesus being wrapped in cloths and in a barn is a one that Luke repeats three times in a few short sentences (See Luke 2:7-16). Do you think he’s trying to get our attention to something? Jesus is real! He’s human! Moreover, His human experience is more-human than most of ours – he’s a baby, wrapped in cloths, lying in a manger. Luke desperately wants his readers to see everything that’s about to unfold in his chronicles of the Savior through the lens of the real, the living, the breathing, the crying, the dependent baby lying in a manger. Luke wants us to see, hear, touch and feel the humanness of the One who can come – the Person and Man Jesus.

After we get the story of the infancy of “the Child,” we see how “the Child grew;” how “the grace of God was on Him;” how “when He was twelve years old, He went up with His parents to Jerusalem to the feast;” how “the child lingered behind, and His mother did not know it;” how “she said, Son, why have you done this to us?;” how “He went down and was subject to them;” how “He increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man;” – “these and points like these, as they are peculiar to this Gospel, distinctly mark our Lord as Man, personally entering man’s lot, and Himself fully tasting it; joining Himself to us, in birth, in childhood, and in youth, that, being very Man, He might in His own blessed Person bring humanity near to God.”

“The mystery of the humanity of Christ, 
that He sunk Himself into our flesh, 
is beyond all human understanding.” 
Martin Luther

Portraits of Jesus


As you read through Luke’s Gospel pay careful attention to:

The subtle descriptions used to describe Jesus that serve to emphasis His humanity.

The frequent use of the phrases there was “a certain man,” “what man…,” “what woman…,” “all flesh…,” “all people” and phrases like these are distinctive to Luke’s narrative and are frequently and consistently employed to emphasize the kingdom of Heaven being expressed here on earth through flesh and blood.