Day 5: For Sunday, 18 February, Mark 1.9-15

At two points in Jesus' own Lenten journey from the carpenter's workshop (we presume) in Nazareth to the open tomb in Jerusalem God the Father gives God the Son massive words of encouragement:
 "You are my wonderful son; you make me very glad." Mark has recorded this incident at Jesus' baptism, and at His transfiguration.

So often words like these massive affirmations are never exchanged between fathers and sons. Instead, in the words of one sighing onlooker to a broken relationship between a highly successful but emotionally needy son and his dad: "It was all about an ungenerous father and a son looking for affirmation and love."

According to NT Wright the whole Christian gospel could be summed up by this: that when God looks at us, us being every baptised and believing Christian, he says to us what He said to Jesus at Jesus' baptism. God sees us not as we are in ourselves but as we are in Jesus Christ. Especially for those who have not had good relationships with their biological fathers this may sound unlikely, but it I suggest that God looks at us and says, "You are my dear, dear child; I'm delighted with you." As professor Wright himself suggested, "Try reading that sentence slowly, with your own name at the start, and reflect quietly on God saying that to you, both at your baptism and every day since." Let that be your Lenten discipline for today. I suspect that it will be a pleasant one!

It will take the whole Jesus story, particularly his death and resurrection, to explain why this is so. But this is what the Christian good news is all about. As Jesus is the Messiah He represents his people. What is true of Him is true of them. So it is because Jesus was and is the baptised Messiah that our baptism identifies us with Him as His people. And it is because Jesus was and is Messiah that God said and says to the baptised what He said to Jesus at his baptism.

There is, of course, the whole discussion within the Christian church about infant and believers' baptism. It cannot be right to baptise those who otherwise have no involvement as people of the Messiah and never show any interest in becoming involved, argue whole traditions within Protestantism. Besides, of all the baptisms mentioned in the New Testament, not one is explicitly described as being to a child.

But I would like to think that God is as generous-spirited as this passage describes.

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