Jesus’ public ministry is launched! Soon he will triumph over temptations, perform spectacular signs, and preach spell-binding sermons; ultimately, in submission to the Father’s will, he will surrender his life on the cross. As Jesus himself put it, ‘I always do what pleases him’ (John 8:29).

But Jesus pleased the Father long before he was thrust into prominence. Even in obscurity, Jesus remained conscious of God’s call on his life (Luke 2:41–50). His ‘Father’s business’ was not just in the temple but, equally, in the ordinary, everyday struggles and challenges of family life, work life, and community life in an obscure little village called Nazareth. During those ‘hidden years’ between 12 and 30, ‘Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man’ (Luke 2:52). We know those hidden years were holy years because, although ‘tempted in every way’, Jesus didn’t sin (Hebrews 4:15). Before Jesus even begins his public ministry, the Father publicly commends the private life of his beloved Son: ‘with you I am well pleased’ (v 22b). 

Opportunity knocks ceaselessly through the everyday events and encounters of ordinary life, where most of us spend the greater part of our years. And as Mother Teresa often said – and demonstrated by her own life – we can ‘do ordinary things with extraordinary love’.*

*www.motherteresa.org/her-own-words.html

‘O love of God, how rich and pure! / How measureless and strong! / It shall forevermore endure – / the saints’ and angels’ song.’¹

Luke focuses on Jesus’ baptismal experience, the foundation from which all his ministry will come. In this scene the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus in bodily form as a dove and the Father speaks a profoundly personal word to Jesus – an affirmation that Jesus needed to hear: ‘You are my Son, the beloved, in you I take great delight’ (v 22, paraphrased).

It is amazing that the Father speaks this directly to Jesus before he has done anything for him. In fact, Luke next tells us that Jesus then ‘began his ministry’ (v 23), which implies that this experience is the springboard for the many amazing things which Jesus goes on to say and do. God’s love and pleasure in Jesus does not result from anything he does but is simply because Jesus is his Son. This implies that nothing can change this love and that Jesus finds great security and identity in the closeness of this unique relationship. This intimacy and affirmation is the very thing that empowers Jesus to endure testing in the desert, faithfully to minister to people for the next three years and, ultimately, to go to the cross.

We live in a world of earned acceptance and conditional love. Yet God’s love, so unlike the world’s, is freely available for you. God’s fatherly love is totally independent of anything you do for him. He loves you because you are his child: nothing can change that. It’s not a formal love, but a passionate love, the kind of love that leads to great pleasure and delight. This love will empower you to do great things for God in your life, but these are always the result, never the cause. God’s intimate love is the foundation for all else.

In silence, let God’s love root and ground you. Focus on this powerful and simple truth: ‘You are my child, the beloved, in you I take great delight.’

¹ Frederick Martin Lehman, ‘The Love of God is Greater Far’, 1917