“Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased.”
Some time ago, I attended a clergy conference that included a guided meditation. The speaker began by telling us that Christian teaching has too often focused on our sin and unworthiness. However, Chapter One of the Book of Genesis tells the story of the six days of creation; and then Chapters Two and Three tell the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the serpent, and the Fall. So, this speaker suggested, we need to spend less time in Chapters Two and Three, and more in Chapter One, where “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.”
To this end, the speaker recommended that we meditate on the words spoken to Jesus at his baptism: “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.” Omitting the word "son," or perhaps substituting the word "daughter" if appropriate, we were to repeat the sentence over and over to ourselves, like a mantra, imagining God saying to us: “You are my beloved; with you I am well pleased … You are my beloved; with you I am well pleased … You are my beloved; with you I am well pleased …”
There followed about five minutes of silence. Then the speaker “invited” us – nowadays it seems that in such gatherings we’re no longer instructed or asked to do anything, but rather “invited” – to share with the person next to us what we’d experienced. Most of those present immediately turned to their neighbors and plunged into animated conversations. The priest sitting next to me likewise told me some of his thoughts and feelings, and then asked me for mine. But, being in one of my Anglo-Catholic-curmudgeon moods, I replied, in all honesty, that I didn’t have any reactions because I rejected the premise of the entire exercise.
To start with, “Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased,” is something that God the Father says to Jesus at his baptism, but not to anyone else. Many people were coming to John the Baptist that day for baptism in the River Jordan, but God singled out Jesus, and no-one else, as his beloved Son.
Almost the same words are repeated at the Transfiguration, when on top of the mountain in the presence of his disciples Peter, James, and John, Jesus radiates dazzling light, Moses and Elijah appear, a cloud overshadows them, and a voice comes out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” Again, even though Peter, James, John, Moses, and Elijah are all present, God singles out Jesus, and no-one else, as his beloved Son.
It seems, then, that these words describe a relationship with God the Father that is unique to Jesus. The two halves of the statement, "You are my beloved Son," and "with you I am well pleased," each have Old Testament allusions that can help us understand what the voice from heaven is really saying about Jesus.
The first half of the description, “You are my beloved Son,” is probably quoting Psalm 2, verse 7: “Let me announce the decree of the Lord: He said to me, ‘You are my Son, this day have I begotten you.’” In its original context, this psalm verse speaks of King David or perhaps one of his descendants. Indeed, in the immediately preceding verse God declares: “I myself have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” It follows that when the voice from heaven addresses Jesus at his baptism as “my beloved son,” part of what’s being affirmed is that Jesus is the Anointed One, the Messiah, the true King of Israel.
The second part of the description, “in you I am well pleased,” contains an even more subtle Old Testament allusion to the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. There, at the beginning of chapter 42, verse 1 introduces the mysterious figure of the Suffering Servant with the words, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.” And in at least one of the Greek translations of the Old Testament that was in circulation when the Gospels were composed, the Hebrew phrase “in whom my soul delights” is rendered, “in whom I am well pleased.”
Isaiah goes on to describe the sufferings of the Servant of the Lord for the sins of the nations. We hear these passages in Church during Holy Week and on Good Friday:
He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that made us whole,
and with his stripes we are healed.
In short, when the voice from heaven designates Jesus at his baptism as “my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” we’re being told both that Jesus is the Davidic King of Israel, and that he's the Suffering Servant who brings healing to the nations by the punishment that he undergoes at their hands. In light of this information, we may well ask ourselves: do we really want to repeat the mantra to ourselves as though God were speaking to us?
Of course, in the early centuries of Church history, the Christian tradition came to understand this divine Sonship in even more profound terms. Jesus is the beloved Son of the Father as the incarnation of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, God the Son. Again, this relationship with God the Father is absolutely unique to Jesus. He is the only Son of the Father. He is God, and we are not.
Now, I believe that everything I’ve said up to now is true, except for one consideration: our Baptism. Today, on the Feast of the Baptism of Christ, we take the opportunity to reflect on the meaning of our Baptism, to renew our baptismal vows, and to recommit ourselves to living the baptized life. Part of what happens at our baptism is that by repentance and faith we enter into that very same relationship that Jesus enjoys with God the Father as his only Son. What he has by nature, we receive by grace. God the Father adopts us as his own Sons and Daughters.
And so we come full circle to where we started. “You are my beloved Son; in you I am well pleased,” is something that God says to Jesus and no-one else at his baptism. And yet God says the same thing to each of us at our baptism as well, because baptism incorporates us into Christ. In the words of the hymn by William Bright: “Look, Father, look on his anointed face; and only look on us as found in him.” Apart from Christ, we have no claim on God’s paternity. But reflecting on our status as baptized members of the Body of Christ, it turns out to be appropriate after all to imagine God saying to each of us: “You are my beloved Son / You are my beloved Daughter; in you I am well pleased.”
The second part of the description, “in you I am well pleased,” contains an even more subtle Old Testament allusion to the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. There, at the beginning of chapter 42, verse 1 introduces the mysterious figure of the Suffering Servant with the words, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.” And in at least one of the Greek translations of the Old Testament that was in circulation when the Gospels were composed, the Hebrew phrase “in whom my soul delights” is rendered, “in whom I am well pleased.”
Isaiah goes on to describe the sufferings of the Servant of the Lord for the sins of the nations. We hear these passages in Church during Holy Week and on Good Friday:
He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that made us whole,
and with his stripes we are healed.
In short, when the voice from heaven designates Jesus at his baptism as “my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” we’re being told both that Jesus is the Davidic King of Israel, and that he's the Suffering Servant who brings healing to the nations by the punishment that he undergoes at their hands. In light of this information, we may well ask ourselves: do we really want to repeat the mantra to ourselves as though God were speaking to us?
Of course, in the early centuries of Church history, the Christian tradition came to understand this divine Sonship in even more profound terms. Jesus is the beloved Son of the Father as the incarnation of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, God the Son. Again, this relationship with God the Father is absolutely unique to Jesus. He is the only Son of the Father. He is God, and we are not.
Now, I believe that everything I’ve said up to now is true, except for one consideration: our Baptism. Today, on the Feast of the Baptism of Christ, we take the opportunity to reflect on the meaning of our Baptism, to renew our baptismal vows, and to recommit ourselves to living the baptized life. Part of what happens at our baptism is that by repentance and faith we enter into that very same relationship that Jesus enjoys with God the Father as his only Son. What he has by nature, we receive by grace. God the Father adopts us as his own Sons and Daughters.
And so we come full circle to where we started. “You are my beloved Son; in you I am well pleased,” is something that God says to Jesus and no-one else at his baptism. And yet God says the same thing to each of us at our baptism as well, because baptism incorporates us into Christ. In the words of the hymn by William Bright: “Look, Father, look on his anointed face; and only look on us as found in him.” Apart from Christ, we have no claim on God’s paternity. But reflecting on our status as baptized members of the Body of Christ, it turns out to be appropriate after all to imagine God saying to each of us: “You are my beloved Son / You are my beloved Daughter; in you I am well pleased.”
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