Belonging, beloved and liked
Readings: Luke 3. 15-22
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I wonder what your picture of ultimate reality looks like? If you pulled the curtain back, stripped everything away, what’s there at the core of everything? As Jesus is praying having been baptised by John, we get a glimpse of this ultimate reality. The heavens open and we see a Father loving his Son in the joy of the Holy Spirit. That’s ultimate reality, and it’s one which speaks into our deepest needs- to belong, to be loved and to be liked.
We’re back with John the Baptist again this week, we’re picking up where we left off in Advent. We had the first part of this chapter on Advent 2, considering John’s purpose, his mission. And then we carried on through the chapter on Advent 3 about his message, one of repentance that leads to rejoicing. And now we pick up the chapter as it reaches its climax, as Jesus, now a fully grown man, steps onto the stage to begin his ministry
As a reminder John is there at the Jordan river getting people ready for the more powerful one who will come after him. He’s calling the people to come and sort their lives out, to turn around and go the right way before its too late. And in token of this is baptising people as a sign of this turning, it’s like washing away the bad, all the wrong, to give them a fresh start, a clean slate.
So, we have all these people coming to be baptised, to have their sins, the bad and the wrong that they’ve done and thought and said, washed away. And out of this crowd walks the one John has been preparing them for, the more powerful one. Here’s the perfect Son of God, God come to join us in our mess and darkness, as we celebrated at Christmas. God come to be with us, alongside us. And here he publicly identifies with us, that’s what’s happening as he goes down into the water. Jesus has never done anything wrong, he has no sins to repent of, there is nothing bad or wrong that he has said or done or thought that needs washing away. But he’s not here to save us at arms length, he’s here to get his hands dirty, to be with us, and so he comes into the water with us.
And as he does, as he is there surrounded by the mess of our sin and darkness and shame, as its all swirling around him, now is the moment that the Father speaks the Spirit descends. Not when he’s doing miracles, not when he’s preaching and teaching, but when he’s neck deep in our mess, because that’s why he’s here, he’s come to deal with it all.
And as I said at the start here we get a glimpse of ultimate reality, the truth behind and at the heart of our whole universe. The Father speaks words of love and affirmation to the Son as the Spirit descends.
This isn’t a new thing, this is the reality from which our whole universe came. This is the clearest picture we have of the Holy Trinity. The God of the universe, from time immemorial to eternity without end, has always been a Father loving the Son in the joy of the Holy Spirit. This cascade of love which we see being poured out on Jesus here beside the river Jordan, that has always been happening since before the creation of the world, unseen. But now that the Son has joined us in our world, we can see it for ourselves.
“You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” In this simple sentence we see Jesus’ identity. He belongs, by his very nature he is the Son, he is the eternal Son of the Father. He is loved, the Father says it ‘whom I love’, always there has been this cascade of love pouring down from the Father to the Son. And he is liked, the Father says that with Jesus he is well pleased.
But God the Son hasn’t just come to be amongst us as our brother in the person of Jesus just to reveal what God is like. Yes in him we see perfectly what God is like, yes in him we see the world and life as it should be, yes in him at this moment we can see more clearly the reality at the heart of our universe. But he’s not just come to show, he’s come to invite. Come to become the way through which we can enter into this reality, enter into the family of God and know these truths not just as abstract facts, but as deeply felt and personal reality.
What we seek, what we pursue in all things are what Jesus has, to belong, to be loved and to be liked. And that makes sense because the reality behind creation is that this is true for God, the source of all creation, of course those fingerprints are all over us. Every relationship, every achievement and every experience is an attempt to get this verdict: “You’re my child. I love you. I’m well pleased with you.” But the wonderful truth of the incarnation, of God come to us in Jesus is that you are invited in. As St Augustine observed of God and us: ‘you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you’.
The baptism that John was giving was all about turning from things, our mess, our brokenness, our sin. But as Jesus enters the waters, as he takes upon himself all of that sin and mess on the cross, he changes the waters. Now baptism is not just about turning from, but turning to. Turning away from our sin and mess and darkness and death, and turning to Jesus, to be welcomed into his family, to find the place where we belong, the love for which we were made, and discover that God doesn’t just love us, he likes us.
Let’s start with belonging. Jesus has come so that we can belong. Belonging is one of the things I think we’re most at risk of losing in our current age but one which we desperately need. With society increasingly fragmented, personal choice valued above all else, including relationships, we’re becoming more isolated, and yet God says that it is not good for us to be alone, we need relationship, we need to belong. I wonder where you feel you belong? Whether you actually feel like you belong anywhere?
That longing to belong is deeply rooted in us isn’t it. And that’s because God put it there, we need to belong, but most of all we need to belong in relationship to Him. Because in so many ways belonging is defined by relationship. God the Son is defined in the fact that He is the Son of the Father, that’s his place, where he belongs. We were made to belong, and in Jesus, we can once more belong, find our place with God. Be adopted as sons and daughters of our heavenly Father. And this belonging isn’t just a vertical thing, where we find our belonging in relationship to God, it’s also a horizontal thing, we now belong to our brothers and sisters in the church, part of that wider family.
In baptism we go from being fragmented isolated individuals to part of a family, belonging to the family of God, with our heavenly Father as our Father, the Holy Spirit given to us to renew and restore us, and all these new brothers and sisters to encourage and guide us, celebrate and commiserate with us.
But here’s the thing, if you just belong, that isn’t really enough. You might have a place to call your own, but we need more than just a home. And yet in and through Jesus we are also loved. The most famous verse in the Bible declares that ‘God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life’. Jesus’ mission is motivated by love, the love of the Father, the love of Jesus, for you.
The fact that we were knee deep in our sin and mess didn’t mean God turned away, mean he decided to condemn us as without hope, perhaps start again one day. It meant that God came, came to us, and came to die our death, so that he could bear all that sin and mess and darkness down into death. Why? Because he loves us. We were headed for certain death, utter condemnation, and yet God stepped in, stepped in to offer us life with him forever. You are so loved that the God of the Universe chose to leave Heaven, step down from the throne into our world, become fragile and human so that he could die to rescue you from sin and death.
But here’s the thing, it’s still not enough, we might belong, we might be loved, but if we aren’t liked, that can never really be home can it. If we’re just loved in a general sense but not liked for who we are, it feels rather empty. We’ll never feel truly ourselves.
And yet we are also liked, liked for who we are. They say you can’t choose your family but you can choose your friends. You may have to love your family, even if perhaps you don’t like them, but friends? Well you choose to be around them because you like them.
Jesus, the night before He died redefines his relationship with His disciples, including us, He calls them and us, His friends. He likes us for us. The Bible tells us that we’re fearfully and wonderfully made. Genesis tells us that God declares us good when He first created us. Now, since then we have fallen, there is much that is not good in us, stuff that we need to deal with and repent of. To adapt a phrase, God likes you, exactly as you are, wants to welcome you for you, but he loves you too much to leave you that way. But God still likes you, likes you for you. As King David marvels in Psalm 8 ‘what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?’
In Jesus you are welcomed into the family of God, you are welcomed home and find belonging, find love and that you are liked, and not just for now, for this life, but for eternity.
All our seeking in life is to belong, to be loved and to be liked. We look for it everywhere. And yet in Jesus it is offered to us freely. If we turn from going our own way and go God’s way, as we turn from our sin and mess and towards God we find that as we are baptised into Jesus’ life his Father, his Spirit and his identity are yours. In Jesus you belong, you’re loved and you’re even liked! Those words of Isaiah are now spoken over you ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine’.
Amen.