"You are my Son, with you I am well pleased..."

Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record the baptism of Jesus, that moment when Jesus is baptized in the Jordan, and his messianic task is initiated. There is so much to say about this passage, and so much to wonder about this passage. In Matthew's account, the voice from heaven speaks about Jesus: "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." The voice of the Father is addressed to those around witnessing the baptism.

Interestingly, in Mark and Luke's telling, the voice speaks not to the surrounding crowd, but to Jesus himself: "You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased." (Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22).

What is going on here? One of the books I read for class (Michael Peppard's The Son of God in the Roman World) suggests that this is a kind of adoption, a kind of mimicking of the adoption-to-power of the Roman emperor (who, interestingly, was also known as "the son of God").  In other words, Mark is making clear to his Roman readers that Jesus--not Caesar--is the true Son of God.

But then, as Michael Peppard asks: "But if the voice is directed privately to Jesus, and Jesus already was the son of God, and already knew that he was, then why did the scene happen at all?" (pg 97).  It's a good question.

Well, I don't have a good answer to that question, but it reminded me of an provocative thought I heard a couple years back.  I was at a conference on children and divorce, and I heard Lisa Lickona suggest that all children need both to be both "begotten and chosen."

Or, to put it another way, all children need to be both born and adopted.  Birthed and chosen.  Given life and given love.  And so maybe part of what we are seeing here is God the Father doing to his only-begotten Son what all human fathers do (or should do) to their begotten children--not only have them, but choose them.  Adopt them.

Well, part of the reason the blog has been slow is that we've been preparing for the birth of our third child, and Liam was born on Wednesday morning.  So here he is:

My son, with him I am well-pleased.