The baptism of Jesus in the Jordan by John the Baptist
He said to me, ‘You are my son;
Today I have begotten you.’ Psalm 2:7
Read Mark 1:9—11
John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. As I look back on this day I can surely see reason why I should have been brought to this baptism. Every day gives me fuel for repentance. But there is no day of Jesus that requires repentance. So his baptism is his ultimate identification with me, not merely in my flesh, not merely in my humanity, but in my sinful humanity. Here he embraces me. Here he takes me into that river and washes me. Here is his claim upon me, the commitment of himself to me that leads him to the cross. His whole life, lived between his baptism and his death, every part of it, he lived for me. And in the beginning place, this union with me in baptism, the voice comes from heaven, ‘You are my own dear Son, my child,’ and, as daring as it is, I can hear myself included in this, too. It’s as though God’s voice is spoken to me now. I’m in Christ. So I am God’s darling.
Triune God, Father glorifying your Son at the point of his identification with helpless sinners; Son, submitting yourself as sinner to the vast need and fate of the human race; Spirit, descending as a dove upon him, opening earth to heaven, in whom I can now say along with the Son, ‘Father, dear Father,’[1] this night I thank and praise you for revealing yourself. No longer am I cut off from you. My sins and my shames are no longer mine to bear alone. Nor do they define me. Nor do they have the final word. They can embarrass me as I remember them at the end of this day. And I confess them. But much more I confess Jesus Christ and his baptism with me and for me. In him I say, ‘I am yours.’ In the Spirit I say, ‘You are my dear Father.’ You open to me all things you have given to the Son.
[1]Romans 8:15—16