Now
when all the people were baptized, Jesus also had been baptized, and was praying. The sky was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form like a dove on him; and a voice came out of the sky, saying “You are my beloved Son. In you I am well pleased.”
Luke 3:21-22
Luke 3 [15.] As the people were in expectation, and all men reasoned in their hearts concerning John, whether perhaps he was the Christ, John answered them all, “I indeed baptize you with water, but he comes who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to loosen. He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire, whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor, and will gather the wheat into his barn; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Luke 3 [18.] Then with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people, but Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things which Herod had done, added this also to them all, that he shut up John in prison. Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus also had been baptized, and was praying. The sky was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form like a dove on him; and a voice came out of the sky, saying “You are my beloved Son. In you I am well pleased.”
Luke 3 [23.] Jesus himself, when he began to teach, was about thirty years old, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli,
Meaning:
Luke describes the baptism of Jesus in just two verses, yet his account has its own emphasis. He tells us that Jesus was praying, that the Spirit came in a visible, bodily form, and that the Father spoke directly to the Son. These verses open Jesus’ public ministry and reveal the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit together.
- Jesus Among the People:
Luke has just recorded that Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee and Perea, shut John up in prison for rebuking his marriage to Herodias. Luke finishes John’s story first so that the spotlight now falls fully on Jesus. “When all the people were baptized, Jesus also had been baptized”: Jesus does not stand apart from the crowd. He joins ordinary people at the Jordan, identifying Himself with those He came to save, as Mark and Matthew also record (Mark 1:9-10; Matthew 3:16-17).
- And Was Praying:
Only Luke mentions that heaven opened while Jesus “was praying.” Prayer is a thread running through Luke’s Gospel. Before choosing the twelve apostles Jesus spent the whole night in prayer (Luke 6:12-16), and He taught His disciples that the Father delights to give the Spirit to those who ask: “how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” (Luke 11:13).
Jesus had grown up in Nazareth, increasing “in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:52). Now, at about thirty years of age, the age at which priests began their service and David began to reign, He steps into His public work in an attitude of dependence on His Father.
- The Spirit in Bodily Form:
“The sky was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form like a dove on him”: Luke stresses that this was a real, visible event, not only an inner experience. The Spirit came upon Jesus to anoint Him for His mission. Soon afterward Jesus “returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee” (Luke 4:14) and announced in the synagogue at Nazareth, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor” (Luke 4:18; Isaiah 61:1).
- You Are My Beloved Son:
“You are my beloved Son. In you I am well pleased”: The Father speaks directly to Jesus. The words echo Isaiah’s description of the Servant “in whom my soul delights,” on whom God puts His Spirit (Isaiah 42:1), and the royal language of the Son of David. Jesus is both the beloved Son and the servant who will suffer for His people.
Immediately after this, Luke gives Jesus’ family line, tracing it back through David and Abraham to Adam. The one declared God’s Son at the Jordan is the true Son who succeeds where Adam and Israel failed, as the temptation account that follows shows.
The Significance of Luke 3:21-22 for Believers
- Prayer and the Spirit:
If Jesus prayed at the beginning of His ministry, how much more do we need to pray. The Father gives His Spirit to His children who ask, and He empowers ordinary believers to serve Him.
- Beloved in the Son:
The Father’s delight in His Son becomes the foundation of our own relationship with God. Through faith in Christ believers are adopted as children: “God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father!’” (Galatians 4:6). We live from His love, not for it.
Cross-References:
Mark 1:9-10: "In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Immediately coming up from the water, he saw the heavens parting, and the Spirit descending on him like a dove." Mark’s account of the same event.
Matthew 3:17: "Behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”" Matthew records the Father’s voice from heaven.
Luke 4:18: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor." Jesus explains the purpose of the Spirit’s anointing.
Luke 11:13: "how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?" The Father gives His Spirit to those who pray.
Conclusion: Luke 3:21-22 shows Jesus, after being baptized with the people, praying as heaven opens. The Holy Spirit descends on Him in bodily form like a dove, and the Father declares Him His beloved Son. The passage reveals the triune God, marks the beginning of Jesus’ Spirit-anointed ministry, and invites us to pray, to depend on the Spirit, and to rest in the Father’s love found in His Son.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible