Mark 1:4-11

… John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And the whole Judean region and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him and were baptized by him in the River Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

Sermon Text

            Jesus began his ministry, not with a triumphal entry into the city, but by humbly submitting to be baptized. He came to John, he asked to be washed in the dirty water of the Jordan, and he – as the Gospel continues – was immediately chased into the Wilderness to face temptation. The start of Jesus’s ministry was a lot like his birth, easy to miss if you were not already looking for it. We are blessed, as inheritors of our faith, to know that this moment is of great significance, something that only Jesus and John knew about in the moment that the Heavens opened and Water and the Spirit poured down upon Jesus.

            Baptism is something we have talked about recently. We looked at how John the Baptist’s ministry was focused upon God’s grace being opened for all people to receive a new start. Today, we are not gathering to focus on the ritual of Baptism, but on the recipient of Baptism in our story. Jesus Christ, our savior, received the waters of Baptism and modeled our own reception of the Spirit’s grace through the sacrament. In this way, Jesus’s baptism greatly resembled our own. The difference comes in that heavenly voice calling out, “You are my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Today we are going to try to understand each of those terms and understand why we begin our year, and why Jesus begins his ministry, with these words resting upon him.

            Words have weight, even if sometimes we treat them carelessly. I do not think “proper” English is some vaulted virtue we all must aspire to, nor that dictionary definitions are the end all and be all of language, but it does matter what we choose to call other things and ourselves. If we speak well of things, they will often flourish, if we speak poorly toward them, we find them suffering. Likewise, if our language is vague, the stuff which we are referring to may seem like some other thing entirely.

            One of the first major conversations most serious relationships will have between its members, is what each person in the relationship means by certain things. For example, if someone tells me that they are “Fine,” I assume something is deeply wrong and they are either deathly ill or on the verge of a meltdown. To me, the word “fine,” carries a connotation of veiled negativity. Grace now knows, four years into our marriage, that if she says she is “Fine,” I will be trying for the rest of the day to fix a problem that may or may not exist. For my own part, my choice of words have made it so I will often confuse people as to whether I am complimenting or insulting them. Words, thrown about without thought, are a dangerous thing.

            God does not carelessly use words, thankfully, and so each of those applied to Jesus at his baptism matter a great deal. We should begin with the first, “You are my Son…” For Jesus to be God’s son does not mean that Jesus is God’s biological child in the way that I am my father’s son. God the Father and God the Son are both the same being – God – in two persons, a concept we can wrestle with when we get to Trinity Sunday later this year. This means that Jesus is not just God Jr. but is entirely God, albeit only a single person of God’s larger self. So why does God use the term “Son,” anyway? Just to make ministers have to tangle their words on a Sunday morning?

            The Sonhood of Jesus is many things – a statement of his willingness to follow the Father while on Earth and a general way of describing his relationship within the Trinity to the Spirit and the Father – but it is primarily a statement of Kingship. For someone to be the Son of God is for them to be a Davidic King. In Psalm 2, God speaks to the King and says, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you.” This is not meant to make the King into a demi-God or to elevate them beyond mere human status, but to say that God cares for the King, and the King for God. Jesus, in being called the Son of God, is being established as the King, not just of Judea, but of all the world. Up to this point, only a few Magicians from a far off country and a mad tyrant ever gave Jesus this title – but now it is confirmed from Heaven.

            The second title, Beloved, reflects two realities. The first is that Jesus is loved by God, obviously, but it also connects to Jesus’s sacrificial nature. The word for “Beloved,” is “Αγαπητος,” (Agapetos,) and it means exactly what you would expect “One who is loved.” However, Biblically, this interaction calls to mind another Heavenly voice, one that Abraham had received long ago. When Abraham was called to offer up Isaac on the mountain, the Greek version of the story shows God calling out, “Take your Son, the Beloved, the one you love…” language so similar to the naming we see of Jesus here. Jesus, like Isaac is someone who, from obedience and from a greater love than self, is offered up. Unlike Isaac, however, Jesus is the one offering himself, freely, no one makes that decision for himself.

            Finally, God describes Jesus as a recipient of his approval. The Father is “Well pleased,” with the Son, approving of him in the plain sense, but perhaps we see something more in here. God the Father is happy with God the Son. There is a pleasure shared simply from being in proximity with one another, something that only comes from the kind of intimacy that comes with knowledge of one another. The final declaration, that God is pleased by Jesus, is a summary of what has been stated previously. God, who has placed Christ in rulership over all Creation, loves Jesus, and because of that love and through that love, enjoys being a part of Jesus’s life.

            The Son, The Beloved, The One who Pleases God. Three titles given to Jesus all in a few lines of scripture, but each worthy of their due consideration one after the other. The Baptism of Jesus in one way establishes all the ways that Jesus is like us, but there are three specific things that sets Jesus apart from us in the same moment. Christ alone carries each of these titles to their ideal, but perhaps there is not so great a separation between what God says here of Jesus and what Jesus allows us to become in ourselves…

            We are not Kings, nor should we aspire to rule. I exclude myself and all Christians from aspiring toward this aspect of God’s declaration toward Jesus. However, we believe that those who have faith in God become adopted into God’s family. We become siblings of Christ, and in so doing, we know the love and care that God shows to those God calls family. We are able to enjoy a relationship with one another, with Christ, with God the Father, because in Baptism we declare a faith that makes us all one family.

            This family relationship makes obvious the love that God showed for us in the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Christ – indeed in all the work of God in all ages. God loves all people, with a passionate love that overcomes all obstacles. We are Beloved by God, and as the Beloved of God we, like Jesus, enjoy God’s good pleasure. This love is expressed long before we embrace our faith, before our baptism, but it is confirmed in both through the transformation that only grace can bring about. The Incarnation, Baptism, the Eucharist, and so many more statements of love are carried out by God’s continual work in this world.

            We as people of faith are called to embrace all that is revealed to us through participation in God’s economy of grace. We grow as beloved members of a divine family, we know what it is to feel God’s goodness well-up inside. We too are called to live sacrificially in every way we can. Though we are not the uniquely existing Son of God, brought into the world to redeem it through our unique existence, we are still called to be a part of its redemption. Christ, in being Baptized, gave an example for how we ought to live. What a blessings that the word of God can convey so much in just three little phrases. As we start our year, let us remember Christ’s baptism and our own, and live fully into all that we are called to take part in through it. – Amen.