"...WITH YOU I AM WELL PLEASED"

 

4/22/22

 

Mark’s very brief (See below.) account of the baptism of Jesus (Mk 1, 9-11) by John concludes with Jesus “coming up out of the water” and a voice from heaven saying

 

“You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

 

While this was, in all likelihood, translated as it was written, I often, and especially when I am feeling down and/or angry with myself or with God (See “SIGN, SIGN, EVERYWHERE A SIGN…”, 3/22/22), like to think of inserting a comma so that it would read

“You are my beloved, Son; with you I am well pleased.”

 

That simple comma doesn’t change the meaning of the Father’s message to His Son, but could more widely and personally apply it to all of us, His children, as well.  Surely, the Father would have said this sentence in either form to His son.   But inserting the comma makes the saying more personal and direct.   Similarly, the Father would like to tell each of us that He is well pleased with us and would like to say it in the more personal, latter form of address.

 

Wait a minute; God is pleased with us?  Yes…always.  In fact, I like to contemplate the insertion of the comma at times when I suspect God is least pleased with me.   But we have to remember that God is pleased with us even when we are not worthy of being pleasing to Him.   Those of you who have kids have a leg up in understanding this; you are always pleased with your children, even during those times when you are not pleased with their actions.    Similarly, God is similarly pleased with us, and wants to tell us that in an intimate, personal, and direct manner, even when He is not pleased with our actions… perhaps especially when He is not pleased with our actions.

 

 

 

Speaking of the Gospel of Mark, when people who are not regular Bible readers ask my opinion regarding which Gospel to read first, I suggest reading Mark’s Gospel.   This is not because I was given the author’s name, which, by the way, was a surname for the author, John Mark, Peter’s co-worker and, quite possibly, Peter’s son (1 Pt 5, 13) as well as a traveling companion of Paul and Barnabas and a cousin of the latter (Col 4, 10).  But I digress.   Mark’s Gospel should be the first one read for a number of better reasons:

 

·         It was probably the first Gospel written and both Luke and Matthew borrow heavily from it.

·         Mark’s Gospel is brief and to the point; it can easily be read in an hour.   And, as was said about 1500 years after this Gospel was written, brevity is the soul of wit.

·         Mark moves quickly; by the end of the first chapter, Jesus has already been banished from just about every town in Israel except his then home town of Capernaum.

·         The author’s emphasis is on the actions of Jesus, not His words.

·         There is a minimum of heavy theology in Mark’s Gospel, and heavy theology can bog down new, and even long time, Bible readers.   There is plenty of time for, inter alia, John’s deep theological thinking later in the process of studying the Bible.

 

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