Gospel of Mark: Loved and Well Pleasing

The next section of Mark is one that I’m guessing most people are at least acquainted with: Jesus’ baptism. The part that I want to focus on is where the Father tells Jesus,

You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased. (Mark 1:11)

Here is Jesus being told that He is loved. And because of how He has lived, He is well pleasing to His Father. What a tremendous thing for anyone to hear. Loved and well pleasing.

We Christians need speak about this to those around us who aren’t Christians. So, first, we need to let them know, in as clear a manner as we are able, that they are deeply loved. The Father loves them with a love that is impossible to overstate. And His great desire is for them to flourish as people.

At the same time, we also need to tell them - and we need to do this gently - that they are not well pleasing to Him. The reason is that they are not living according to the ways that the Father has told them to live. They aren’t living like Jesus did. They look to other things to make life work instead of the God who actually does make life work. They are ignoring the Father who loves them. In this they are very unwise and rebellious. And, as a result, they are not well pleasing to God.

However, because they are so loved by the Father He has made it possible for this situation to change. They can be fully assured that they are well pleasing to the Father. And that can happen because of what Jesus has done. This will be theirs once they entrust themselves to Jesus as the Savior sent from the Father.

We really need to tell people that they are loved. But we dare not stop there. We also really need to tell them that they are not currently well pleasing to the Father. There is a problem. But that can change. Jesus has come.