Baptism of Jesus

According to many leading psychologists, positive self esteem is vital in the development of a healthy personality. Nathaniel Branden calls self esteem: The immune system of consciousness. Self esteem is about how we feel about ourselves. It is our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, for example: I am good looking. I feel good about myself. I am kind. I am competent and so on. The level of our self esteem determines how we operate our life, the way we view our life, the manner we interact with others, with our spouses, children, friends, and strangers. It also determines our goals and what we strive for. It is proven that people with high self esteem tend to be more ambitious in what they want to experience in life. They have a drive to express themselves and to communicate openly and honestly about their needs and desires. On the other hand, people with low-self esteem tend to withdraw from people, less motivated, less focused and confident about themselves. Some of us have grown up with high self-esteem and others with low self-esteem. We get them from our parents and sometimes, they fail to give it us not because they are deliberately withdrawing it from us, but more so because they themselves are suffering from low self-esteem and do not know how to impart it. Instead of looking everywhere for a boost of self-esteem and ending in frustration for not having found it, we should always turn to God who can restore and gives the true expression to our identity. I believe He is the one who can give it us.

The baptism of Jesus is the most expressive moment in the life of Jesus of who he is in the sight of God. There are no other moments in the time of Jesus, where Jesus has received this explicit confirmation from his Father, of who he is, namely “the son of God.” Another moment of this voice of confirmation would only appear at the moment of transfiguration of Jesus. This moment of anointing Jesus with his identity as the Son of God has opened up a whole new world to Jesus, a whole new ministry. His ministry was in fact restoring that very identity of the people and giving them a true sense of belonging to God, namely being children of God. Never once did Jesus falter in not believing in His sonship even in the midst of temptation, persecution or even crucifixion. In fact, the last words of the centurion seeing Jesus dead on the cross were: “Truly, this was the son of God” (Mark 15:9). I believe it is in this utter conviction and belief in the identity of being the Son of God,that Jesus, having a proper and high self-esteem about him (and other as well) was able to proclaim God to people effectively and unwaveringly.

Fr Robert Daniel Francis