You Are My Beloved Son

This is my beloved Son,

in whom I am well pleased.

This passage from the Gospel of Matthew

is consistent with all the different Gospels,

as each one refers to John the Baptist baptizing Jesus.

But it was a great scandal at the time of the Gospel,

because why would Jesus, who is the Son of God,

need to have a baptism of repentance?

And this is the core.

They could not take it out of the Gospels,

because they knew it had happened.

So they kept it in here, and it says Jesus allows it.

Why does Jesus, who is meant to be divine, submit to John the Baptist?

Even John the Baptist objects to it in today's Gospel.

But let me come back to that later.

But here is what has always struck me about this Gospel,

this little section of the Gospel.

More than anything else, what throws me off

is that before Jesus does anything,

God recognizes that this is whom I love, I am well pleased.

But Jesus has not done anything yet.

He has not healed a single person.