Lk. 3:16. John answered them all: I baptize you with water, but One mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
The virtue of John was so great that everyone thought about him, whether he might be the Christ himself. Dispelling such an opinion, he says: the difference between me and Christ is, first, that "I baptize... with water," but "He... with the Spirit... and fire," and the other is that "I am not worthy even to untie the strap of His sandal." What the words "baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" mean is perfectly clear, for He sent the Spirit to the apostles, and divided tongues of fire appeared over them (Acts 2:3–4). And the words "not worthy to untie the strap of His sandal" clearly mean that I am not worthy to count myself even among the least of His servants. In a more hidden sense, the sandals of both feet of the Lord are His appearing from heaven to earth and His descent from earth to Hades. The manner of these two appearings no one can explain, even if he were like John himself. For who can say how the Lord became incarnate, or how He descended into Hades?
Lk. 3:17. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.
The words "His winnowing fan is in His hand" mean that although He baptizes you, do not think that you are already exempt from punishment; but if in the life that follows you do not keep yourselves blameless, He "will burn you with unquenchable fire." The chaff is the one who has a barren mind and devotes great care only to worldly matters.
Lk. 3:18. And many other things in his exhortation preached he unto the people.
Good teaching is truly consolation and is rightly called the Gospel.
Lk. 3:19. But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias, his brother's wife, and for all the evil things which Herod had done,
Lk. 3:20. added this also to all the rest, that he shut up John in prison.
Lk. 3:21. When all the people were baptized, and Jesus, having been baptized, was praying:
The Evangelist aptly inserted here the account concerning Herod. He speaks as if to say: although the people thought very highly of John, Herod, "being reproved by him," to all his evil deeds "added this also, that he shut him up in prison." He narrates as if with deep sorrow and strong compassion that Herod dealt so unjustly with John, while the people held him in high regard.
Lk. 3:21. The heaven was opened,
In order for us to show that baptism opens heaven to all, which was shut by Adam.
Lk. 3:22. And the Holy Spirit descended upon Him
The Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus so that we might learn from this that upon us also, when we are baptized, the Spirit comes. For the Lord had no need of the Spirit, but He does all things for our sake and Himself becomes the firstborn in all things (Col. 1:18) that we were to receive afterward, so as to be the firstborn among many brethren.
Lk. 3:22. in bodily form, like a dove,
so that we might learn that we need to be meek and pure. And just as in the time of Noah the dove depicted the abating of the wrath of God (Gen. 8:8–11), so here too the Holy Spirit, having drowned sin, reconciled us with God.
Lk. 3:22. And there was a voice from the heavens, saying: Thou art My Beloved Son;
And the Son hears the voice uttered by the Father, in order to show that to us who are baptized He also granted the adoption as sons.
Lk. 3:22. In You is My good pleasure!
In You I found rest.
Lk. 3:23–38. Jesus, beginning His ministry, was about thirty years old, and was, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, of Heli, of Matthat, of Levi, of Melchi, of Janna, of Joseph, of Mattathias, of Amos, of Nahum, of Esli, of Nagge, of Maath, of Mattathias, of Semei, of Joseph, of Judah, of Joanna, of Rhesa, of Zerubbabel, of Shealtiel, of Neri, of Melchi, of Addi, of Cosam, of Elmadam, of Er, of Jose, of Eliezer, of Jorim, of Matthat, of Levi, of Simeon, of Judah, of Joseph, of Jonam, of Eliakim, of Melea, of Menna, of Mattatha, of Nathan, of David, of Jesse, of Obed, of Boaz, of Salmon, of Naasson, of Aminadab, of Aram, of Esrom, of Phares, of Judah, of Jacob, of Isaac, of Abraham, of Thara, of Nachor, of Saruch, of Ragau, of Phalec, of Heber, of Sala, of Cainan, of Arphaxad, of Sem, of Noe, of Lamech, of Mathusala, of Enoch, of Jared, of Maleleel, of Cainan, of Enos, of Seth, of Adam, the son of God.
The Lord was baptized, being thirty years old, because this age is the most perfect, and in it a man appears honorable or unworthy. Luke presents the genealogy of the Lord in reverse order, compared to the evangelist Matthew (Mt.1, 1–16), to show that the One born now according to the flesh is from God – for look, how the genealogy ascends to God – and also so that we might know that He became incarnate in order to raise all the intervening fathers to God and make them sons. I can say it differently: the birth of the Lord, as being without seed, encountered unbelief. Therefore the evangelist, wishing to show that at another time also man was without seed, ascends from the lower to Adam and God. He speaks as if: if you do not believe how the second Adam was born without seed, then I ask, turn your mind to the first Adam, and you will find that he was created by God without seed, and after this do not be unbelieving. Some ask: how does Matthew call Joseph the son of Jacob, and Luke – of Heli? For it is impossible, they say, for one and the same to be the son of two fathers. To this they answer that Jacob and Heli were uterine brothers, but from different fathers, that after the death of Heli, Jacob took his wife in order to raise up children from her, and that therefore Joseph is called son of Jacob by nature, and of Heli by the Law. For Jacob truly begat him by nature, and he was his own son, but he was the son of Heli only by the Law. For the Law commanded that the wife of him who died childless should be united with his brother and that the child born of this union should be considered the child of the deceased (Deut. 25, 5–6), although by nature it was from the living. Therefore the evangelists speak truly and do not contradict each other. Matthew recorded the natural father of Joseph, and Luke the one reckoned to him as father according to the Law, that is Heli; and both show that the Lord was born in order to sanctify nature and the Law.