He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, – Luke 1:32 (ESV)

There is a lot packed into that one statement. Jesus is born of a virgin so technically he doesn’t have a father. But he will be called Son of the Most High and so God is his father. But Gabriel tells Mary that David is Jesus’ father. We don’t know Mary’s lineage but just a few verses previous Luke tells us that Joseph is of the house of David.

So how do we process all this? Who is Jesus’ father? What you have to keep in mind is that Luke isn’t interested in a simple genealogy like we are. We’re used to fairly static family relationships. Father & son, step-father & step-son, adoptive father & adopted son, foster father & foster child. But in Luke’s time father and son went beyond mere genes. There was an identity that went beyond genetics. A father and son were identified because they were alike. The son did what the father did. This is what Jesus is driving at in John 5:19 “For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.”

So now lets unpack that brief statement. Since Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit, he is the Son of God. ¹Of course there is a lot more to that simple statement. Jesus is the eternally begotten son. But let’s stick with the text at hand for now. This is what he meant in the John passage I just cited. Later Jesus pits the fact that the Messiah is supposed to be David’s son against the fact that he’s the Son of God when he cites Psalm 110 ²Look at how that phrase is used throughout the New Testament. Man, is that confusing! It is like a text doesn’t have just one, obvious meaning or something. and asks “If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” in Matthew 22:45, Mark 12:37, and Luke 20:44.

Jesus’ point isn’t that he isn’t David’s son, his point is that the promised son of David, the Anointed one ³‘Messiah’ is a term denoting the king. It means ‘anointed’ and David referred to Saul as God’s anointed repeatedly in 1 Samuel. Also, when the elders of Israel haul Jesus before Pilate the accusation is sedition and they say that Jesus says of himself “that he himself is Christ, a king.” (Lk 23:2) , the Messiah, the Christ would be more than only David’s son. Even in the establishment of David’s covenant this truth was articulated. God promised “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.” (2Sa 7:14a)

The significance is that if the Messiah were only David’s son then he could not be exalted to the highest place. The author of Hebrews appeals to the Messiah’s divine sonship to prove that he is greater than the angels in Hebrews 1:4-14. The Messiah was always intended to be more than an earthly ruler, he was to be the cosmic ruler.

So then where does that leave poor Joseph? It leaves him in an important position. Mary was betrothed to Joseph and that means more than simply “intended to marry.” For Joseph to break the betrothal would mean that he would have to divorce Mary not just ask for the ring back (cf Matt 1:19). As mentioned above, Joseph was of the house of David and since Jesus was to be born of a virgin (the Son of God part) there had to be some connection to David’s house. That is where Joseph comes in. Yes, Jesus was not physically his son but Jesus was born into his household and therefore was of his lineage. By not putting Mary away Joseph ensured that the promise of the Davidic covenant would be fulfilled!

It is amazing how God works in the lives and affairs of men to accomplish his purposes.