EPIPHANY - I AM THE BELOVED

Reflections at Joyceville C.I. on the Epiphany/Baptism of Jesus. You are my son, the Beloved.

Like it or not, we are social beings. What others think of us shapes us. The epiphany or revelation for us that comes from our knowledge of Jesus is that our social relations need not, do not determine how we decide and how we think about ourselves.

Our perception of what others think can push us to conform or to rebel. This is an issue that Jesus had to face and that each one of us has to face. If others think badly of me, will their views influence me to think badly about myself? Will their views push me into behaving other than the way that I know I should?

Let us consider Jesus who comes to the Jordan to be baptized by his cousin John. Jesus was a carpenter from Galilee, a young man when he came on the public scene. For the power elite living in the capital city of Israel, that is, Jerusalem, people from Galilee were considered untrustworthy. Galilean Jews mixed too much with non-Jews; Galileans didn't have the opportunity to live the strict practices of the community; didn't attend the Temple regularly; Galileans had a history of raising movements of protest against the occupying forces of the Romans. As a Galilean, Jesus was suspect. He was on the outside, on the periphery, not from the centre. Even for the leaders of his own people he was a potential threat to the established order. The Roman military would have seen him as someone to be carefully watched.

Later in his ministry Jesus is accused of being a drunkard and a glutton. After all, he had a big thing about sharing meals -- even with public sinners like the tax collector.

It appears that Jesus did not allow negative perceptions of him throw him off course. Why is that? We have a clue in the baptism of Jesus. The communal memory represented in the New Testament accounts says that Jesus knew he was beloved by God. When Jesus came up out of the waters of the Jordan he had an experience of being loved by the "Father." Jesus knew in a definitive way that he was the son of the Father, that he was the Beloved. He lived this relationship each day. The evidence is that he prayed to God as "Abba," that is, in very intimate terms as "Daddy."

What others thought of him did not determine the course of his decisions. He already knew that he was the Beloved of God. So neither the authorities of Israel, nor the Roman military, nor his closest friends and disciples, nor even his own mother or family members could lead him to think less of himself or turn from the way he thought he should go.

What freedom! And each one of us who completely accepts God's word of love for us -- we too can live with that freedom. We can know that we too are beloved and we can live from now on as our deepest and most real self. God created me good and I am good. My value comes only from Abba, Yahweh, God. Nobody else gives me my value. I am free.