Mark 1:9-15
Becoming Son of God
Today is the first Sunday in the season of Lent. The gospel reading for this Sunday is always an account of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness. The Presbyterian Hymnal has a number of hymns that connect Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness with our 40 days of Lent. “Lord, who through these forty days for us didst fast and pray, teach us with Thee to mourn our sins, and close by Thee to stay.”[1] And sermons on this Sunday typically reflect on the meaning of Jesus’ temptations, his forty day experience.
But in the years that we use Mark’s gospel on this Sunday, such typical sermons are not possible because Mark tells us nothing about the temptations Jesus faced. In fact, Mark manages to squeeze in Jesus’ baptism, his temptations, and the beginnings of his ministry in considerably less verses that Matthew or Luke use to tell the story of Jesus tempted in the desert. But Mark’s gospel is different from Matthew and Luke in another, significant way.
The verses we heard today are our first encounter with Jesus. Mark’s gospel has no Christmas story. He simply opens with, The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Mark then tells of John the baptizer’s ministry before introducing Jesus in our reading for this morning. Mark seems to think that these few short verses are much more important for understanding who Jesus is than any story of his origins. Mark seems totally uninterested in how Jesus was born, what he was like growing up, or anything else about him prior to this moment. For Mark, it all starts here.
I think there may be something here that is a bit peculiar to many of us. When Christians consider who Jesus is, when we think about him as Son of God, many of us tend to assume that Jesus is Son of God in a biological, deep in his bones, sort of way. But it’s not at all clear that Mark views things this way.
Now perhaps Mark doesn’t know the story of Jesus’ virgin birth, or perhaps he does. But regardless, he clearly thinks that the events of our reading this morning are much more critical for Jesus’ own understanding of who he is and what he is called to do than anything about Jesus’ biological nature.
Many of us are so used to thinking of Jesus as divine that we have difficulty thinking of him as just a guy. Yet Jesus seems to have lived a totally obscure and uneventful life up until he begins his ministry. Apart from one stray story in Luke’s gospel about a 12 year old Jesus, we hear nothing about him growing up, and know little about who he understood himself to be. But we do know that Jesus’ baptism and 40 days in the wilderness launched him into his ministry.
Mark’s gospel especially focuses in on this. He presents the events in our reading as something for Jesus’ benefit. The baptism is portrayed as very a personal moment. Mark doesn’t say specifically, but he implies that only Jesus sees the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And the heavenly voice does not introduce Jesus to the world; rather God speaks to Jesus. “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” The Spirit then immediately drives Jesus into the wilderness where he is tempted and where angels wait on him. And somehow these events prepare Jesus for what is to come.
I recently came across a story about a Presbyterian Church near
When the war ended and the people began to return to the area, many of their former neighbors did not welcome them. They were “the enemy.” However, some of those white churches had helped store their church property and even to preserve a few of their business. And they helped them get their lives back together when the returned. One white church member who was a realtor even braved death threats to help the returning Japanese Americans find homes.
These events became foundational memories for the congregation, moments that echoed down through the years, spurring the church to become one that helped refugees, that reached out to its neighbors, that became an instrumental part of its community. The congregation thrived, grew to over 600, and relocated to bigger facilities.
But more recently, this congregation has experienced significant decline. And when they found themselves having to search for a new pastor, they used that as an opportunity to set up meeting for members to recall their important stories, to remember the moments when they were most alive and vital, to recall who they were deep in their bones, who they were called to be. They began to reconnect to the foundational, formative events of their life as a congregation, and new life began to emerge.
In our gospel reading this morning, we heard some of Jesus’ foundational, formative events. His experience of God’s loving embrace and the Spirit’s presence at his baptism, along with his learning to entrust himself to God’s provision when he was tempted in the wilderness, allowed him to hone his identity and answer his call to be Savior, Messiah. Those events must have served as a touchstone, a well that he regularly returned to for strength and sustenance.
In every life of faith, and in every faith community, there are foundational moments and formative events where God helps us to realize who we are and what we are called to be and do. When we draw on those moments that assured us of God’s love and provision, that empowered us to be who God calls us to be, our lives are filled with power and joy. But when we get disconnected from them, our lives become distorted and uncertain. They are robbed of power and vitality.
In the waters, God has grafted us into Jesus, empowered us by the Spirit, and called us to new lives as disciples, as sons and daughters of God, and as the living body of Christ in the world. In key faith moments, we have been formed as disciples and as a congregation, and we have been tested and learned to trust in God’s provision.
What are the key moments in your life where God claimed you as beloved child, empowered you and called you to ministry? Perhaps you need to reconnect to those, to remember who you are and who you are called to be. Or perhaps, like Jesus, you need to come to the waters where God can claim, empower, and call you.
“You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” At the water, God speaks those words to us. “You are my son; You are my daughter, the beloved.” And true life begins.
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