We know so little of Jesus’ early years. What we do know comes to us in a series of brief encounters or moments of revelation in which something significant happens.
This morning as we recall his baptism, he is of course an adult and it does mark the beginning of his public ministry, when he steps out of life as a carpenter onto the mainstage.
He stepped onto a stage where ‘the people were filled with expectation’.
Something was happening.
John had stirred people up. They ask, is this John the Messiah?
John ‘answered all of them’ by saying he is not, that another is coming.
This other man is baptised along with others, and the Gospel tells us he is praying and at that moment his true identity is revealed, a voice comes from heaven and says
‘you are my son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.’
It is a moment of revelation.