You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
-Luke 3:22 We don't talk enough about belovedness. This past Sunday is historically the day that we remember Jesus' baptism. I was teaching from Luke 3 this year and spent my time on the wild and weird witness of John the Baptist, so I didn't focus on the final lines of the narrative when Jesus himself goes under the water: "When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: 'You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.'" First off, I LOVE that Luke just has Jesus embedded in the crowd. A man of the people, waiting in line with the others, probably listening to people talk about this powerful prophet, John. Maybe Jesus leaned over and whispered to someone, "That guy's my cousin!" Jesus doesn't need to get baptized, but he chooses to anyway. Jesus is simply among the others, validating this beautiful action of making a fresh start and receiving God's forgiveness. It's a super humble thing to do, and it gives us a glimpse into the humanity of Jesus and how he never felt the need to prove himself to anyone (keep that in mind for later). And that's where the holy moment comes in. When Jesus gets baptized, God's voice emerges from the heavens. And we might expect to hear something like what we hear 6 chapters later during the transfiguration, when the voice of God proclaims,"This is My Son, whom I have chosen. Listen to Him!" That's a solid use of the moment, in my opinion. Make sure everyone around hears it and get's it. This is God's guy, listen up everyone!!! But in this baptism moment, the voice doesn't come to the rest of the crowd. It's spoken directly to Jesus. And God speaks only one thing: belovedness. You. You are my child. And I love you. And I'm so happy with you. God could take the opportunity to make a booming declaration. But what the Father prioritizes in this moment is not a message for the crowds, or a loud command, or a fresh theological statement. It's an oddly parental moment: Jesus, who has not yet done any ministry, any teaching, any healing...... Jesus is SO beloved by the one who has sent him. And what we then find in the coming chapters is a man who had learned to live out of his belovedness. A man whose identity in God was so deeply rooted, that he didn't need to prove himself, even when challenged, tempted, and falsely accused. We see a belovedness so deep that Jesus' message to people would mirror the message of that baptism. Fear not. You are worth so much to God. God loved the world so much that he sent his son to redeem it. As the father has loved me, so I have loved you. That's why we can read this story and hear God's same words whispered to us. "I love you. You are my child. You delight me." We are in a belovedness drought right now. Maybe it's because there's so much division. Maybe it's because it's hard to talk about love when lives are being destroyed by fires and people are afraid for their future. Maybe it's hard to feel beloved when you can't pay your utility bills and yet there seems to be a new billionaire in the news every day. Maybe when others have harmed you, it's hard to remember that you are so much more valuable than how you've been treated. It might be hard, but we are people of truth. So let's choose to echo the voice of God in each others' lives this year. You are beloved. You are beloved. You are beloved. Lift up your eyes and sense the Spirit of God reminding you that you are loved before you've done a thing. Find ways to speak belovedness to others this week. Send a text, speak a word of care, remind someone that they are valuable beyond what they produce or contribute to the world. And let's start normalizing a reality where we live deeply from the love we have already received, rather than spending our lives trying to be worthy of it. Jesus, thank you today for your preemptive love. Peace, Keith *Artwork: Baptism of Christ by Vladimir Zagitov
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