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January 12, 2014
Mark 1:9-11
Pastor James Krueger
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that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10Just
as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending
on him like a dove. 11And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I
am well pleased.”
Words of A Father to His Son
1. Words the Son needed to hear.
2. Words we need to hear.
Dear fellow redeemed, grace, mercy and peace are yours this day from God our Father and from
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Some of you have fathers who are still alive on this earth. Many of you have fathers who have left
this world. Think about the things your father has said to you in his life. What words of your father
do you consider most precious? What words do you hold dear in your heart? “Let’s go fishing.” “I
bought you a present.” “Here are the keys to the car.” No, I would say that that they were most
likely some other words – simple yet from the heart. “I love you son.” “I love you daughter.” My
father wasn’t one to say those words very often but when he did, let me tell ya, I remembered them.
And maybe along with that, the words you remember from your father were words of approval over a
job well done. “Good job son. Good job daughter. Well done.”
There are many things children need to hear from their dads but none more precious than the words
we hear from the heavenly Father in our lesson. At the baptism of Jesus, we hear the Father having a
heart to heart with His Son. We hear those simple yet from-the-heart words. “And a voice came
from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
These are very personal words from the heavenly Father. I think it is amazing that the heavenly
Father let’s the whole world hear what He said to His Son by having these words recorded in
Scripture – Words of A Father to His Son. What are these words?
They are first of all…
1. Words the Son needed to hear.
Think for a moment about the words a child would need to hear from a Father as that child leaves home
and goes off on his or her own – maybe to college; maybe to take a job someplace. That child is going out
into a very dangerous world - temptations all around as we heard in our Catechism lesson today. Be alert
and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to
devour. (1 Peter 5:8) That child would need some encouragement from dad right? That child would
need to know that dad cares and the child has dad’s approval.
The baptism of Jesus marked Jesus’entry into his threefold public office of Prophet, Priest and King. In
Jesus’ baptism he begins his public ministry in which he would carry the plan of salvation. In the Old
Testament, men were installed in these offices by being anointed with oil. In his baptism Jesus was not
anointed with oil but with the Holy Spirit.
And in many ways what happened to Jesus after his baptism was like a child leaving the safety of home
and going out into a very dangerous world. It’s amazing to me what the gospel writer Marks says after the
baptism of Jesus. We hear these words, “And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I
love; with you I am well pleased.” And then the very next thing we hear is this, At once the Spirit
sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He
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was with the wild animals, and angels attended him. Just like that, from the water to the wilderness to
face the old evil foe.
My friends, these were words Jesus needed to hear in his state of humiliation. Although Jesus is true God
from eternity – God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made – these
were words Jesus, as true man with flesh and blood, needed to hear. He needed to hear these words from
His Father as Jesus took our sin upon Himself. He needed to hear these words as He Himself took our
place under the law and was sorely tempted. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to
empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet he did not sin. (Hebrews 4:15)
“You are my Son…” Jesus needed to hear those words. They would be His rock of refuge. No doubt
these words kept coming back to Jesus into Jesus’ mind. “I am my Father’s Son. I am my Father’s Son.
“…whom I love…” Jesus needed to hear those words. In human relationships, just because a father has a
son that doesn’t that father loves his son. There are many, many fathers who don’t love their children in
this world. But here we find a Father who had nothing but love for His one and only Son.
“…with you I am well pleased.” Jesus needed to hear those words. I having been thinking a lot about
this lately. I think about this as a father. My children need to hear my approval. My children need to hear
not only that I love them but that I am well pleased with them. They need to hear me say it. It does them
no good if I keep it a secret from them. Jesus, in his state of humiliation needed to hear these words. Jesus
needed to hear that His Father in heaven was perfectly pleased with His Son.
“You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” Words of a Father to His Son – words
the Son needed to hear.
Jesus would need to hear these words in the wilderness. Jesus would need to hear these words on the
dusty roads he traveled. Jesus would need to hear these words as his friends forsook him and left Him
out to dry. Jesus would need to hear these words as he was arrested and beaten. And Jesus would need
to remember these words while hanging on the cross. Jesus would need to remember these words as he
cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Seems like such a contradiction doesn’t it my friends? “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am
well pleased.” “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” A Father who truly loves His Son –
a Father who forsakes His Son in His greatest time of need. Jesus needed to hear those words at His
baptism so He would not doubt His Father’s love even while being forsaken by Him.
Words of a Father to His Son – words Jesus needed to hear but also…
2. Words we need to hear.
My friends, we too live in a dangerous and evil world. We too face temptations at every turn. As sons and
daughters of the heavenly Father through faith in Christ Jesus, we too need to hear these words over and
over. “You are my son…you are my daughter, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
There are things about the baptism of Jesus and our baptism that are different. Jesus was not baptized
to have his own sins washed away. In one way, it was just the opposite. It is as if all our sins that are
washed away in baptism were placed on Jesus at his Baptism and he carried that heavy load to the
cross. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God. (2 Cor. 5:21)
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In this way the baptism of Jesus was different. But one thing will always be the same about the
baptism of Jesus and our baptism. Jesus went from the water to the wilderness. We go from the
water to the wilderness. So many Lutherans just don’t get this. So many of our own members
just don’t get this. Sometimes WE don’t get this!
Baptism for us is not the end of the struggle – it’s the beginning. Baptism is not the end of the
fight – it is the beginning. We don’t get baptized and then say “There, it’s done.” No! We get
baptized and then say, “Now it begins!”
Baptism is beginning of a new life but the old life must keep dying my friends. The old life just keeps
rearing it’s ugly head every day so it must die every day. What shall we say, then? Shall we go on
sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live
in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized
into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as
Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. (Romans
6:1-4)
Consider your new life – has it been all that new ? As you crawl into bed each night and consider the
way you have lived that day; the way you have talked; your thoughts; your attitudes, can your heavenly
Father – based upon those things – say to you, “You are my son…you are my daughter, whom I
love; with you I am well pleased.” No, although we need to hear these words, we don’t deserve to
hear them based upon the lives that we have lived. We are sinful and we are sinners and we all fall
short of the glory of God every day. We instead deserve to hear from the Father, “You are NOT my
son…You are Not my daughter. I Don’t love and with you I an NOT well pleased.”
Although this is what we deserve, as we repent and confess our sin, we take heart because what we
deserve to hear we don’t hear and what we don’t deserve to hear we do for the sake of Jesus Christ.
As you know I’m married. I have this problem. If I know my wife is upset with me, do you know how I
sleep? I don’t. For the life of me, I can’t fall to sleep if I know my wife is upset with something I have
said or done. Dear ones, shouldn’t it be this way for all of us when it comes to our heavenly Father? How
can anyone sleep not knowing? How can anyone face death not knowing? Martin Luther often spoke
about his sleepless nights not knowing if he was acceptable to his heavenly Father.
Doubt no more my friends. Maybe you are wandering, “When has my heavenly ever told me these words
I need to hear?” He spoke these words to you in your baptism and although the water in Baptism
evaporates; the water in baptism is dumped down the drain, the words the Father spoke to you in Baptism
never evaporate; never are they poured down the drain. These words remain for us to hear every day as
we return to baptism by daily contrition and repentance. These words are not ONCE AND DONE. What
Jesus did is ONCE AND DONE. “…we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. (Hebrews 10:10)
But now, once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the
age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice. (Hebrews 9:26)
Because of what Jesus has done ONCE we now have the comfort and assurance of hearing over and over
and over the words we need to hear from the heavenly Father not just through baptism but through the
absolution; through the spoken and written Word of God and today once again, through the precious
Supper.
There are many words a child needs to hear from a father but none are precious than these. None are more
needed than these. Now we can live in peace. Now we can sleep in peace. Now we can die on peace.
“You are my son…you are my daughter, whom I love; with you I am well
pleased.” Amen.
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