Inheritance
A couple years ago, my husband and I had a humbling evening of talking to a junior high youth group about relationships. The goal: discuss the importance of relationships in our lives, what healthy relationships can look like, and turning to Jesus to form or develop our most important relationship.
The reality: We lost the kids’ attention after we asked them to work together on a project with markers.
Maybe I summarized that evening a little too simply, but if someone asked me how well the desired messaging was received at that night’s youth group gathering, I defer 100% to the Holy Spirit to have worked some wonders on Gabe’s and my sound waves reaching minds and hearts.
This weekend’s Gospel brings me back to a central focus of that talk: reminding the preteens and teens about their inheritance. This weekend we will celebrate the Baptism of Jesus. We read this account from Luke (chapter 3:15-16, 21-22), and we also find this powerful scene written by Matthew and Mark (Matthew 3:13–17; Mark 1:9–11).
I love this reading for Lectio Divina. I encourage you to sit with this reading before you hear it in church. Read it slowly. Put yourself in the scene. Visualize each person present. Imagine if you were an onlooker on the banks of the Jordan River. There’s John the Baptist, the guy who has been baptizing lots and lots of people, all the while pointing the way to Jesus. And then Jesus asks John to baptize Him. Jesus…requesting baptism? Jesus, who is ever humble, always teaching, and always doing the will of the Father. Baffled, John the Baptist complies. And this is the part that I hold in my mind:
Jesus is standing in the Jordan River, and the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus as a dove, with the voice of God the Father booming down from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Luke 3:22
The Trinity - God the Father (His voice), Jesus His Son, and the Holy Spirit as a dove are all together. All visibly present in the same scene, with an incredibly powerful message.
God’s words were directed to Jesus and the onlookers, but we know that God calls out to each one of us as His beloved sons and daughters. One of the tangible moments of my personal faith story is believing that statement, AT MY CORE, to be true. With God as our Father, we are his sons and daughters, and how I hope every pre-teen and teen is told that over and over again until they begin to believe it. We adults need to be reminded too. Through our baptism, we are “partakers of the divine nature” 2 Peter 1:4.
Beloved siblings in Christ, may you reflect on your relationship with God through your own baptism and remind others of their divine inheritance too.
