On This Day: Three Witnesses to the ‘Son of God’

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:9-11)

 

   I am constantly asking God to keep my walk with him real. I would rather be gut-level honest about how poorly I am doing than pretend I am doing well. I would rather hear him say the most piercing rebuke than to only hear myself self-justifying my sin.

   One way God made things feel real in my time with him this morning was by showing me how different Mark’s gospel is from the others. I often hear how the similarities between some of the gospel accounts must mean they were using the same sources. This is supposed to mean that the four gospels are not actually multiple witnesses to the life of Christ, but only secondary repetitions of what one person wrote.

   But just reading God’s word over the years, and settling a few days ago that I was going to continue from Matthew to Mark without any other Scriptural excursions in between, has let me see how distinct Mark’s account is from the other three. His brevity stands out simply because I have so much difficulty with that quality!

   I often picture these recorders of Scripture like mentors I am interacting with. I can see the way Matthew would respond to a question by taking me through the wonders of Scriptural affirmations proving that God himself is the author of his answer. I can see how Luke would put the puzzle pieces of history together so I can see the picture of how my question fits into God’s work. I can hear John pointing to a scene of God’s word and using word-pictures that bring it to life in my mind with feelings of wonder and realness that delight my soul. And I am beginning to sense how Mark would wait his turn and then say, “Okay, here’s how I would summarize what we’re all trying to say here…”

   And that is when I felt it was real. Today I needed to see these three witnesses taking me from Matthew’s grand tapestry of Scriptural proofs to Mark’s narrowing of the spotlight on Jesus as “the Son of God” who is “the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29). And I needed to feel for real that this includes ME!

   Worldlings reject God’s witnesses no matter how many there are. Lost sheep hear about Jesus and something in them recognizes the voice of the Shepherd they abandoned a long time ago. My hope today is that in these witnesses (and mine) you will hear Jesus himself calling you to humble yourself and surrender to him as “the Son of God”. It is only in the Son of God in whom the Father is “well pleased” that any of us have any hope of being pleasing to God. But when we are "in Christ", Jesus Christ, the Son of God, makes it so.  

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)