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Mark 1:9-15

Baptism: Jesus Makes A Promise To God

February 18, 2024

First Sunday of Lent

Lectionary Year B

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ASK (a.k.a The On-Ramp)

Good morning!
Let’s pretend that you and some friends are planning a surprise birthday party for another friend of yours, who we’ll call “Dakota.”
And you all promised each other to NOT TELL Dakota about her surprise birthday party.
But, then your friend Dakota calls you and is saying, “Hey, my birthday is tomorrow, do you know what people are doing for my birthday? I really want to know!"
What would you do? Would you tell Dakota about the surprise birthday party? Or would you keep your promise to not tell the secret? (Listen to their answers)
Those are some thoughtful answers – thank you!
It’s a tough question, isn’t it? Because on one hand you want to tell your friend the truth, but on the other hand you made a promise to keep your other friends’ plans a secret.

TELL (a.k.a. The Freeway)

There are no secrets in today's scripture story, but Jesus does make a promise to pay attention to God.
That's what the baptism part of today’s story is: a promise.
By being baptized, Jesus is saying, "I promise to make God the center of my life. I will make this promise happen by paying attention to God all of the time."
After Jesus makes this promise, the story says that the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness where Jesus was tempted.
This is like Dakota calling up and asking, "Tell me what’s happening on my birthday?"
In other words, "tempted" is a fancy word that means Jesus had a chance to break the promise he had just made to God.
So what do you think – do you think Jesus broke his promise in that other story?
You’re right! Jesus did NOT break the promise he had made to God.
And, because Jesus didn't break his promise to pay attention to God, that tells us that Jesus was really good at paying attention to God.

SHARE the Good News (a.k.a. The Destination)

Because Jesus was really good at keeping his promise to pay attention to God, it shouldn’t surprise us that Jesus was really, really good at teaching others how they, too, could pay attention to God.
So, when Jesus invited his disciples to follow him so that they could learn how to pay attention to God, we know that they had a really good teacher – the best teacher.
And guess what? The same is true for us! We can also choose to follow Jesus and learn from him.
When we choose to learn from Jesus, one of the things we will learn from him is how to pay attention to God.
The better we learn to pay attention to God, the better we will be able to receive God’s love and direction – which helps us and is something we can also share with others.
And that's the good news for today. Let’s pray…

CLOSING Prayer

This is a repeat-after-me prayer.

Dear God,

Thank you for Jesus…

...who kept his promise...

...to pay attention to you...

..and then showed us…

…how to do the same.

Thank you and Amen.

Originally posted February 8, 2015

Updated on January 20, 2024
Written and edited by Nathanael Vissia

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