Beloved
Matthew 3:13-17[1]
I have a confession to
make. I sometimes have a hard time believing what I preach. It’s not that I
don’t believe it’s true. I’ve always viewed preaching as a sacred duty. And I’ve
worked hard to preach the truth as I’m able to understand it. I don’t have any
problem believing that what I am preaching is true. I’m convinced that it’s
true for you. What I have a hard time believing is that it’s true for me. I
firmly believe that God’s grace, mercy, and love include each and every one of
you. But I sometimes have a hard time believing that they also include me. The
problem is that I struggle with feeling “unworthy” of God’s love. I’m keenly
aware of all the ways that I fall short. That makes it hard to think that God
might be “pleased” with me. As is often the case, I suspect I’m not alone in
that difficulty.
There are so many
reasons for us to feel “unworthy.” Some of us grew up with the message that no
matter how hard you try, your best is never good enough. Even though we may
receive compliments from our friends, we may find it impossible to take them to
heart. When we look around us, we can always find someone who appears to be
“better.” Regardless of the category—whether it’s who we are, what we have, or
what we do—when we play the “comparison game,” we always come up short. Many of
us just can’t get past the fact that we’re convinced in our own eyes that we’re
“unworthy.” And it’s not far from believing that we’re “unworthy” in our own
eyes to believing that we’re “unworthy” in God’s eyes.
You may be wondering
what this has to do with our Gospel lesson for today. It’s Matthew’s story of
Jesus’ baptism by John. All the Gospels make some mention of it, but they don’t
all tell the story the same way. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all describe the
experience of “the heavens” being “opened” and the Spirit “descending like a
dove” upon Jesus. But they differ slightly in the way the heavenly voice is
worded. In Matthew, the voice says, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with
whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17). But in Mark and Luke, the voice is addressed
to Jesus: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well
pleased.” To me, that sounds more personal, like an affirmation given to Jesus
by God.
I’ve raised the
question before whether Jesus would have needed that kind of affirmation. When
you read John’s Gospel, it certainly doesn’t seem like it. Jesus begins his
ministry knowing full well not only who he is but also that he had come to die
on the cross. When you think of Jesus as “fully divine,” that makes sense. I’d
say, however, that the other Gospels may present this aspect of Jesus’ life
more from the perspective that he was “fully human.” There are statements in
the other Gospel from Jesus about who he was, but you have to look for them. He
doesn’t clearly announce that he must die on the cross until he is well into
his ministry, perhaps even near the end. Maybe, just maybe, Jesus needed to
hear that he was God’s beloved son as he was about to launch the kingdom of God
that would turn over all the tables of the religious beliefs in his day.
The wording of this
affirmation takes its cue from Isaiah 42. There God affirms his “servant,” the
one who would carry out his saving purpose by saying, “He is my chosen one, who
pleases me” (Isa 42:1, NLT). When you look at what Isaiah says about the
“Servant of the Lord,” you can understand why there was a need for this kind of
affirmation. The Servant was going to undergo suffering, rejection, and even
death. But these kinds of experiences have been true of those whom God chose to
carry out his saving purposes from the beginning. Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah, and
many others needed assurance from God, and affirmation of his support for what
they were doing because they faced such hardship from those who opposed them.
Given the kind of hostility that Jesus faced, it makes sense that he may have
needed God’s affirmation as well.
That’s all well and
good for Jesus, and for other “servants” of the Lord like Moses and Elijah. But
it may not be clear to us how this applies to us. I certainly wouldn’t put
myself in that company, and I’m not sure many of us would! But I’m taking a cue
from one of my favorite authors here. Henri Nouwen was a Roman Catholic priest
and a pioneer in pastoral care. He struggled all his life with feelings of
unworthiness, a topic he writes about in many of his books. I recently picked
up a copy of a daily reader composed of excerpts from his writings called, “You
Are the Beloved.” In the reading for January 2, he takes this statement, “This
is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17) and reminds us that
this is true of all of us as God’s beloved children, daughters and sons with
whom he is “well pleased.”
Again, if you’re like
me you may be asking how we can presume to take something God said to Jesus and
apply it to ourselves. It’s not hard to believe that God loved Jesus and was
“well pleased” with him. But it may seem inappropriate at the very least to
think those beautiful words relate to us. And yet, the great Reformed
theologian Karl Barth insisted that when God chose Jesus Christ before the
foundation of the world, he chose us all in him (cf. Eph 1:3-10).[2] That statement rests on and implies a great deal of theological reflection. But
the bottom line is that we are chosen not because of anything we’ve done or
ever could do, but rather simply because it was God’s will to choose us as his
“beloved” sons and daughters though Jesus. And this has been the truth about us
from “the beginning,” it is the truth “now,” and it “ever shall be, world
without end! Amen, Amen!”
It’s one thing to for
us to hear that message and believe that it’s true. It’s another matter altogether
to find a way for it to sink in so that we can really believe it. It can be
difficult if not impossible to get past our own “unworthiness.” It can be
difficult if not impossible to believe that God could be “pleased” with us. But
the gospel message is that we are beloved by God and God is pleased with us
simply because God chooses us as his beloved sons and daughters. Perhaps what
we need is a way to remind ourselves of this beautiful gospel truth. You may
have noticed that I wear a cross ring on my right hand. After reading the
excerpt from my new book, I’ve decided to use it as my reminder that I am God’s
beloved child. I would encourage you to pick something that can remind you that
you are all, each and every one of you, God’s beloved children.
[1] ©
2023 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 1/8/2023 for Hickman
Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2] Cf. Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics 2.2:117, where he says that Jesus’
“election is the original and all-inclusive election; … his election carries in
it and with it the election of the rest.” Much of volume 2.2 of the Dogmatics
is devoted to this theme.
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