The Father's Voice

During this past Epiphany season, Pastor frequently mentioned how this part of the church year is bookended with "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." The Father said it at Jesus' baptism. He said it again at the transfiguration. When Jesus suffered in His passion, when God's wrath was poured out on Him, when He was abandoned by the Father because He had become the sinner on behalf of the whole world, He still clung to that word of God: "This is My beloved Son."

This is important because sometimes it seems to us as if God has abandoned us. Our experience may tell us that God no longer loves us, but we need to hang on to the clear and certain word of God that declares: "I forgive you all your sins" and "Take, eat; drink of it all of you ... shed for you for the forgiveness of sins." But how often do we pay more attention to our feelings and experience than we do to God's word!

So it is comforting to read in John 12 how the Father's voice thunders from heaven yet again, this time promising to glorify His name. It's grand to know that God is willing to repeat Himself so often, that we might have a word to which we might cling. And if He does it for Jesus, the man of perfect faith, how much more will He reiterate His promises to those of us full of doubts and misgivings, who need constant renewal of faith.