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What purpose would it serve for Jesus to hear God speaking
through a descending dove, "This is my Son, the beloved; with you
I am well pleased?" Could it be that our Lord needed a special
sense of identity? What purpose could there be for Jesus to hear
the voice of God affirm divine pleasure with him? Is it possible
that even our Lord would benefit from some assurance? Did Jesus
need confidence that the life-changing effort in which he was
about to ask others to join him -- was really worth it? Is it
possible that even he needed evidence that the work he was doing
had ultimate meaning and eternal value?
It is not easy to ponder, but I am convinced that self-esteem
is so important to the development of a fully functioning person,
that even Jesus needed it. Our Lord's humanity required that he,
too, experience our need for an important sense of his self-
worth. This may seem unlikely, since his divine nature
establishes his all-knowing perceptions and wisdom. On the other
hand, given his unique human nature (entirely both God and a
person like us) -- he must also have experienced our needs. And
there is little that we need more than we need a healthy sense of
self-esteem.
I believe that self-esteem is one of the most spiritually
charged concepts circulating today in our churches. From
positive-thinking pastors to possibily-thinking pulpits the

message of the church is often a thinly disguised motivational
exercise. And that's not all bad. From the nurture provided in
Christian day-care centers to the affirmation of the gifts of the
older and retired members at the senior center, self-esteem is
riding a wave of popular esteem of its own. There is a very
significant effort under way to help young and old secure and
maintain a healthy sense of personal identity. I continue to
believe that no paraphrases can be substituted for the original:
"by grace we are saved through faith." At the same time the need
of many people to experience self-esteem on their way to grace is
an important contribution to the life of faith. I would not
translate the ancient concept of "sin" as merely a case of low
self-esteem. At the same time I believe that the root of much
evil is the sinner's sense that they aren't really worth very
much, whether to God or to the rest of us. Much of the crime,
dysfunction and pain in our world is the result of what some
people set out to prove to themselves, about themselves. They
don't think they are worth very much and they set out to prove
it.
Much of what I have observed in this regard must be the left-
overs of my college years' introduction to the pyramid of needs
(I believe it is called), developed by Abraham Maslow. The
details aren't so important for our reflection upon the baptism
of our Lord, but I think the principles of Maslow's ideas are
involved. Running the risk of over simplification, let me suggest
that a basic principle of the pyramid is that the base represents
those physical needs that are basic for survival. As those needs
are met the individual has the energy and interest to be
concerned about higher level wants. Each step up the pyramid
becomes smaller than the plane below, suggesting to me that as
the need gets more altruistic, fewer people graduate to the next
step. All the way up to the top, after progressing through each
successively more noble concern, one can have hopes of achieving
fulfillment, or what was called self-actualization.
Using that general approach, it occurs to me that the baptism
of Jesus served the purpose of helping him to experience

a significant achievement along the way toward his own
fulfillment and our salvation. I believe that this dynamic event
in Jesus' life served the purpose of establishing his own self-
esteem as the Messiah. Through it he received the identity,
support and sense of mission that would be necessary if he was to
fulfill his own identity as the Christ and ours as Christians.
First, self-esteem is made up of a sense of personal identity.
It is found, I believe, in a sense of purpose. To have a sense of
what one is about in the world, and to feel some sense of
direction, can be an enormous blessing. There are any number of
ways in which one's sense of purpose can grow over the course of
a lifetime. But from the initial urgings of the still, small
voice of God -- to a full awareness of God's call -- every person
is gifted by God's blessing of identity. We are all children of
God; loved with the same compassion and devotion as if we were
the only person God had to care about and love so deeply.
A clear conviction of purpose helps when the going gets rough,
as the going certainly will get rough. When life experience
brings along any of its challenges and temptations, a sense of
God's purpose and direction can be the greatest of blessings.
I've seen the signs countless times; perhaps you have as well. A
friend recently told me about the large number of her friends who
began college and university at the time she did. Of the 45 that
went to the state university with her that fall after graduation
from high school, only five remained there by the following
spring, and a total of only eight completed their college
education anywhere by the time of their 10-year reunion. Only one
characteristic that they could note seemed to make a difference.
Both those who left and those who remained sensed it and they
talked about it among themselves. Their unscientific poll of one
another seemed to suggest that those who had a specific academic
goal or career plan had an easier time devoting themselves to the
hard work. Those who seemed not to sense why they were going
through all of this hassle more easily chose not to.

A sense of identity in God's vocation -- our divine calling --
can be a tremendous blessing in the daily life ministry of each
of us. Many of us as clergy probably knew we were going to be a
pastor some time around the age of five. It sometimes comes right
after fireman, I think, for the boys, and just after thinking
about being a nurse for the girls. Those gender-focused careers
are changing but for many of us the sense of call came early-on.
We may have developed some contingency plans, and there probably
have been some moments when we wondered about the alternatives.
But for most of us seeking to be spiritually centered, we have
never doubted for one instant that this was exactly what we were
created to do. The pastor is deeply blessed who knows that while
there are some things they might do, this is what we were meant
to do. Whatever your daily work, I pray this same sense of
identity for you. And that sense of identity makes it ministry
and produces self-esteem.
And so it may have been for our Lord. He would be tempted and
challenged, even as we are tempted and challenged. He would come
to know every assault on the spirit that is known to you and to
me. His cross and his challenge would be so enormous as to
require a universal kind of self-sacrifice and denial. He would
need a sense of who he was in an infinitely more compelling way
than the sense of stability available to you and to me. And he
received it. In the voice of God. And it was sufficient to
sustain him through the completion of his ministry.
Next up the pyramid comes a sense of belonging. Self-esteem is
often developed in relationship. It is at this point that we have
come to know the importance of the early childhood stages of love
and nurture of the self provided by the parent. Someone simply
must be available to the child to grant this sense of warm,
loving acceptance or the child may never develop full integration
as a person.
Here, too, Jesus found his sense of self-esteem in those he
gathered around himself. I expect his parents did well in
establishing love and respect for him as a person. God had

specifically chosen them, after all. Surely they were devout and
devoted to him. Still he would come to consider his disciples his
true mother and brothers and sisters. It is with other people
that we come to know the value of our selves. We see who we are --
and what we are -- in relationship to those around us and the
image of God in them as well as in us. Through a parent one comes
to know that one is loved. It has to be a gracious and forgiving
love. You aren't just loved because you have done well for you
will fail. Nor should one earn a low sense of one's self for what
one does badly, for it is our nature to make mistakes. Grace and
forgiveness provide the promise of growth and renewal that esteem
requires if we are to treasure the self.
The most fundamental experience of this self-esteem we have is
the love of God, from the beginning, in our baptism. As Christ
received his sense of belonging, we too are granted an identity
with a group that counts; a group that is going to last, a group
that is going somewhere. Who would suggest that a baby is not
truly loved unless or until the baby can accept it? We do not
decide our self-esteem based upon our affirmation of God. God
gives us our self-esteem, based upon God's undeserved affirmation
of us. The only self-esteem that will last is a self-esteem based
where it originates: namely the grace of God. We can have a deep
and abiding sense of self-esteem because we belong.
Finally there is a sense that we are a part of a group that is
going somewhere. To our identity and a sense of belonging, God
grants us a mission. You and I can know that we are loved,
deeply, warmly and graciously -- along with all those around us
whom God also embraces as a part of an all-important purpose in
the world.
God is passionate about you and me, together, in order that we
join in divine passion for all people, everywhere, about whom God
is also passionate. This is not just a job or an activity. This
mission is nothing short of God's plan for every man, woman and
child -- bearing the light of Christ -- who comes into the world.
We welcome them as we have been welcomed, for eternity.

Eventually Jesus would be required to give himself up
willingly to that divine purpose. You and I are also required to
do that. In the garden of Gethsemane, with the choice clearly
before him, every ounce of identity and every element of self-
esteem would be required of him. I personally believe it is not
necessary to think of him as completely aware of the details of
how God would grant him the victory. In my own spiritual life it
has been more affirming of the nature of faith to suppose that
Jesus went to his death simply with utter confidence that God
would vindicate him somehow, but lacking the details. So goes the
manner in which faith supports us in our gardens of Gethsemane.
We do not know how our pain and sorrow will come out or how we
will be vindicated. We lack specific visions of how the victory
will be achieved. Faith is the substance of our hope to be
vindicated -- the evidence of the victory we do not yet see.
Perhaps he did not have a complete picture of the Easter ahead.
If he had known the specifics -- that his death and those
difficult three days were to be followed by such an Easter --
would even Jesus' sense of trust have been faith? Or would it
simply have been the strength to endure the pain and wait out the
trouble? If he had known just how God was going to demonstrate
faithfulness, would Jesus' trust have been so confident? Or would
it simply have been his part of the bargain?
He felt forsaken and we know all about that. His sense of
self-esteem in God enabled him to entrust his spirit to the God
of his baptism. And I pray we know all about that, too.