Reflectionary XVI

This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.

This is where I introduce a crazy idea.

The birth and baptism of Jesus are two crucial events, that form part of a single narrative. It is God's Second Essential Act of Creation.

The first was when He created the Heavens and the Earth, in the first place. He created humanity, and pronounced it "Good."

Now - - - these "good" creatures were "good" because they had something very desirable: the ability to choose. They could become noble creatures with their own will. That's the root of everything. But "good" is not the same as "perfect." A "good" thing is not the same as a "holy" thing.

Maybe "good" in this sense is the same as "This is good fishing weather!" 

Favorable. On target. On time. Just right for it's purpose.

It also is not the same as being "pleased." Imagine someone, after a long, painful illness, finally succumbing to death. Her loved ones might mutter "good." But this does not mean we're happy about it. It does not mean we're pleased (pleased, and pleasure are from the same root).

"Good" can mean a lot of different things.

But in the fullness of time, Mary came along, and she was just right to become the mother of the Messiah. I believe that it took a lot of tinkering around the edges, of directing history, without violating too much, man's intense will to do whatever he wants. God finally had the woman, and the circumstances, so that he could introduce the male function of procreation, in a non-sexual way, and produce a son for Mary, that would be in every way the DNA equal to The First Adam (this is the crazy idea).

Christ needed to be in every way identical to Adam. If you saw the face of Christ, you saw the face of Adam. And now - - - the difference is that Jesus would be obedient, where Adam wasn't.

All of the preliminaries are over, and it's time for the Son of Man to go out, and express a humble, obedient spirit. The first such act was to accept the baptism of John. And when He did so, something finally happened, in God's plan, with which He was "pleased."

Read on . . .