Baptism of Jesus by Leonardo da Vinci
“You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.” These are powerful, life-changing, live-saving words.
In our Gospel reading this morning, Jesus comes to baptized by John when he is around 30 years old. In Mark’s Gospel this is the first we see of him. From the other Gospels we know that he was born in Bethlehem, immediately fled to Egypt to escape Herod’s slaughter of the first born sons of Israel, and that, according to Jewish custom, when we was twelve years old he was presented at the Temple in Jerusalem, where he stayed late to school priests on the fine points of theology. That’s all we know about the first 30 years of Jesus’ life.
So, when Jesus comes to the Jordan, he is an unknown. He hasn’t done any teaching, healing, nothing else the Gospel writers thought it was necessarily to chronicle. This is his first public event and the inauguration of his public ministry.
Jesus wades into the water, is plunged down by John. When he emerges from the water, the heavens break open, the Holy Spirit descends and rests on him, and a voice, that voice, comes down from the sky,
“You are my Son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.”
This one sentence, these twelve words are a big deal. God, Jesus’ Father, claims him – “this is my child,” in front of everyone declares his love for him – “my beloved,” and says how proud he is of Jesus, “with whom I am well pleased.”
God says, “Everyone, this is my child, whom I love more than anything in the world. I am so proud of him.”
How To Save A Life
These are powerful words. And you know that if you ever had someone say them to you. When you hear words like this, you know you are safe, loved, secure, that you belong. It is a foundation from which to dream dreams and pursue them. There are many of you who never heard those words from a parent – and you too know how powerful these words are (perhaps even more so) – because they are words you have longed to hear, but haven’t. You know how much it would mean to hear these words – and I hope you have heard them from an aunt or uncle, spouse or partner, sister or brother, friend. (And, if from no one else, hear them from God this morning. “You are my child. My beloved.”) Continue reading
