The CROSSroads: Personal Lessons from Mark's Gospel by Rev. Mitch Schultz

Updated
2001-05-26; 14:34:25utc

Lesson Five: THAT'S MY BOY (Mark 1:9-13)

"You are my Son whom I love and with you I am pleased".(vs.11)

I went to a soccer game this weekend at the Bible College I once attended. Back in my day the soccer team was not a powerhouse. "Average" would best sum up the standard of play. Today, the team wins trophies and has a squad to look out for in the local league. Much of the success the team has experienced is due to the talents of a young striker named Steve. Steve is a local boy who developed his skills while playing club soccer and with his ability could easily have won scholarships to bigger universities, but instead chose this small Bible College. What captured my attention the day I watched the game was not so much his skill on the field, but the support he received from his father off the field. Perched atop his pickup truck, Steve's father apparently possessed a "that's my boy" type of pride as he videotaped every move of the game. I understand he does this every game. Here is a son who is bringing pleasure to his father.

In the days of Noah we are told in the scriptures that there was very little on this earth that pleased God, the father of mankind. His children gave him very little to cheer about. In fact, in Genesis 6, we find things so unbearable to God that he makes that heart-wrenching decision to destroy the earth. Yet in the midst of this polluted scene, the outline of one righteous man is visible, and as a result God spares Noah. Noah was a son who brought pleasure to the Father.

In truth, it is not until the baptism of Jesus that a son finally appears who truly and completely pleases his father. "A voice came out of heaven, 'You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." Until then there had been very little that pleased God about humanity. In Noah's day when God saw the wickedness of man upon the earth where "every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time", he was "grieved and his heart was filled with pain." (Gen. 6:5-6). What joy it gave God to now look upon the earth and see the visible righteous presence of his own Son! It was a moment that would change the scene for God, since now there stood one who was fully man, and who would be pleasing in God's sight. If the technology existed, Mark would have videotaped the drama.

The scriptures tell us that we who enter into Christ become sons of God. "To all who receive him, to those who believe in his name he gave the right to become children of God." (John 1:12). After two thousand years, true, the state of the world is getting worse, but God's sons form an outline shaped like a bride being prepared for a great wedding - the church. As a member of that body, does your life, the way you live your life give God reason to say with pride, "that's my Boy"? I trust it does.

The Lord is very jealous over any saint who is utterly abandoned to him. He does not let that believer have any pleasures at all outside of himself.

-Madame Jeanne Marie de La Mothe Guyon (1648–1717)