Beloved Son

(Scriptures: Isaiah 42:1-9, Psalm 29, Acts 10:34-43, Matthew 3:13-17)

** Due to snow, Emanuel UCC has cancelled worship for Sunday, January 9. Worship will resume on January 16**

We continue in the season of Epiphany, the season in which Jesus is revealed to the world at large. Last Sunday, we remembered the visit of the Wise Men, who represented those outside of Jesus’ community coming to pay homage. This Sunday’s text lifts up the baptism of Jesus, at which we receive a further revelation of Jesus’ identity. And perhaps in understanding Jesus’ identity, we can come to a greater understanding and appreciation, not only of Jesus’ identity, but of our identity as disciples of the Risen Christ.

We also see Jesus stepping forward for the first time into his public ministry. Remember that we’ve read the birth narrative, the visit of the Wise Men, the flight to Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod, and the return to Nazareth. At this point, Jesus drops out of the narrative for a short time, and the focus shifts to the ministry of John the Baptist. John the Baptist, out in the wilderness, preaching repentance, and baptizing in the river Jordan. He’s preaching about repentance, and God’s wrath, and fire, unquenchable fire. And then Jesus comes to John for baptism. While John had no hesitancy in chewing out the Pharisees and Sadducees who came to see him, he is much more deferential to Jesus. John says, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus responded, “Let it be so for now.” So John baptized Jesus. As Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descend like a dove and rest on him. All present heard a voice from heaven, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

It is striking that immediately following this story, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted by Satan. Do you remember the temptations? Satan tempted Jesus, who had fasted for forty days, to use his powers to turn the surrounding stones into bread, to make a public display of himself by leaping off a cliff and letting God bear him up, and to worship Satan, in exchange for power over all the kingdoms of the world, and all worldly glory. Each of these temptations – to use his power for his own self-gratification, to make his ministry about public spectacles, to seek worldly power – each of these temptations was ultimately about what Jesus’ ministry will look like, and, ultimately, about who Jesus is. And Jesus was able to resist these temptations by remembering who he was, by remembering the identity proclaimed at his baptism: “God’s Son, the Beloved, with whom God is well pleased.”

In our tradition, most who are baptized do not come of their own choice, but are brought as infants to the church to be baptized – though some do come as adults. For many parents, having their child baptized is sort of like checking off a box on a list of “to do’s” for raising their child. Perhaps it’s done in the same spirit that parents take their children to the doctor for childhood vaccinations; the baptism may be seen as a sort of one-time, lifelong vaccination against sin. And that may come close to capturing part of the meaning of baptism, in which our sinful nature is drowned in the water of baptism. But it is far more: it is taking on – or having conferred by the actions of our parents in bringing us as infants for baptism and taking our baptismal vows on our behalf – it is taking on an identity as “child of God, disciple of Christ, member of Christ’s church.” Just as the voice from heaven claimed Jesus as God’s son, the beloved, through baptism the church claims each of us as beloved sons and daughters of God – and this becomes our central identity.

Like Jesus, we may find ourselves tempted to base our identity on other things. After all, each of us plays many roles throughout the day – spouse, parent, child, sibling, employee, producer, consumer, taxpayer, patient, leader, follower, supporter, opponent….on and on. As Jesus was tempted to distort his earthly ministry by becoming a miracle worker, a creator of spectacles, a worldly power-broker, so the world tempts us to distort our identity by basing our self-esteem and self-worth on looks, our physical stamina, our job, our family ties, our position in the community, our level of education. And ultimately, all these things will let us down: our looks will fade, our physical stamina will plateau and ultimately decline; the knowledge represented by our diplomas will grow outdated, unless we commit to be lifelong learners. Many who base their identity on their employment or status in the community have no idea who they are after they have retired. When everything else passes away, it is ultimately our baptismal identity: “child of God, disciple of Christ, member of Christ’s church” that marks who we are, and whose we are.

Jesus’ identity as God’s beloved Son did not shield Him from all harm; instead, it put Christ in the midst of spiritual battle. In the same way, our status, our central identity as beloved sons and daughters of God will not guarantee us a calm, carefree life. But we have the promise of God’s presence through whatever comforts and afflictions life offers us.

I’ve told the story before of Martin Luther’s passionate insistence on his baptismal identity. Luther was often beset by periods of overwhelming depression. In these “dark nights of the soul” – and he had many – he would say to himself, “But I am baptized. I am baptized. I am baptized. When Luther was tempted to tell himself that all was lost, it was Luther’s baptismal identity that sustained him through the worst his society and even the worst his church offered him.

In our moments of despair, we, too, can cling to our baptismal identity. Through baptism, we are marked forever as God’s beloved children. May we say, in the words of the old Heidelberg Catechism with which many of us grew up, that our only comfort, in life and death, is that we belong, not to ourselves, but to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who through the waters of baptism has claimed us for his very own. Amen.