Validation!

Mark 1:4-11

Georgetown Presbyterian Church

Rev. Stephen H. Wilkins

January 8, 2006

What does it mean to validate someone or something? The dictionary says that to validate is "to make legally valid" (that’s not much help). The secondary definitions are more helpful: "to grant official sanction to by marking, to support or corroborate on a sound or authoritative basis." A synonym for validate is "confirm."

Let me give you a couple of examples. If you go to MUSC for a doctor’s appointment, the doctor’s office will validate your parking ticket, meaning that the doctor’s office marks your ticket and corroborates the fact that you did, indeed, use the parking facility for the purpose of a medical visit, and not some other purpose; the validated ticket will get you a discount on your parking rate.

Another example: In the process of calling a pastor in the Presbyterian church, a congregation does not act on its own; the choice of the congregation must be validated, or confirmed, by the Presbytery before the call can be officially issued. And so, even though the PNC and I both felt strongly about my call to become your pastor, I still had to be examined by the Presbytery of New Harmony before I could be installed as your pastor. The Presbytery had to confer official sanction upon the call. The call had to be validated.

I want to share one final example of validation: Some might say that the numbers 41-38 serve to validate the claim that University of Texas is the best college football team in the nation. (You had to know that somehow I was going to fit that in today!)

Validation is an important concept in today’s lesson from the Gospel According to Mark. The gospels of both Mark and John are different from those of Matthew and Luke, in that Mark and John do not include any of the birth or childhood narratives of Jesus’ life. Mark picks up his telling of the gospel at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, which takes place during the last three years of Jesus’ life. Jesus kicks off his public ministry by coming to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. Hear now the word of God as it comes to us from the Gospel According to Mark, the first chapter, beginning to read in the fourth verse...

As I mentioned a few moments ago, validation is an important concept in today’s gospel lesson. If there is going to be a claim that Jesus is Savior and Lord, there needs to be some official stamp of approval, some way of confirming the validity of that claim. There are three distinct instances of validation in today’s lesson.

The first validation comes as John the Baptist validates Jesus. This is pretty clear when John says, "After me will come one who is more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." John is pointing beyond himself to someone who is greater. The greatest religious figure of his day is saying that there is someone even greater, that in fact it is his sole purpose to prepare the way for that Someone who is greater.

There is in John’s words a great model for us. For the truth is, no matter how great or important any of us may be, we must always be pointing to that Someone who is greater. If we’re doing our job right as Christians, then we’re not trying to call attention to ourselves, but instead point others to Christ. As much as we might enjoy attention and basking in the limelight, our goal is always to point beyond ourselves to Jesus.

How about you? When people look at you, can they see beyond you, to the One who is the Author and Giver of life, the One who is the Lord of heaven and earth, and your Lord, Jesus Christ?

Does your life validate Jesus?

The second act of validation comes from God. In Mark’s account, only the readers are privy to the words that God speaks to Jesus: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." This validation is twofold. On the one hand, Jesus experiences the validation of his Father as God confirms that Jesus is his beloved Son. But it’s also confirmation for both Jesus as well as Mark’s readers that the ministry of Jesus is backed by the power and authority and the love of God himself.

This is important as we begin a year during which we will be spending much time in Mark’s gospel. For as you read through Mark, you will notice something of a "Messianic mystery", as virtually none of the people with whom Jesus interacts really "gets it" about who Jesus is, until the very end of the gospel. But as we read the gospel accounts, we do so with the benefit of having listened in on this declaration from God, that everything that Jesus does throughout his ministry has as its basis the love and power and authority of God.

And there is no validation that matters more than the validation of God. There is no official stamp of approval that carries a heavier weight.

There’s one other act of validation in today’s story. This one may be less obvious, because it’s a non-verbal validation that runs in the opposite direction from the other two. By submitting to the baptism of John, Jesus validates us.

Jesus validates us. Jesus validates us by coming among us and taking our human nature upon himself, so that he might redeem us. Jesus validates us by becoming one of us, and facing all the things we face, conquering them for us, so that we might have life and have it abundantly. Jesus set aside all the privileges of his place in the kingdom of heaven so that he could dwell with us on earth and redeem us from our sin.

Jesus, very God of very God, became one of us! As one bishop from the third century put it, Jesus came "as one of the multitude, and humbled himself among the captives though he was the Redeemer, and ranged himself with those under judgment though he was the Judge, and joined himself with the lost sheep though he was the Good Shepherd who on account of the straying sheep came down from heaven... and was mingled with the tares though he was that heavenly wheat that springs unsown."

It is one thing for someone to declare love for another; but that love is not validated until it is demonstrated through commitment. By coming and dwelling among us as one of us, by submitting to a baptism of repentance though he had no sin of which to repent, Jesus demonstrates and validates his love for us. His entire ministry will continue to validate his love for us.

It is very much like Father Damien, who was a Belgian missionary to Hawaii about 150 years ago. After years of establishing churches on the island of Molokai, Father Damien felt called to work on a small isolated peninsula that was virtually impossible to get to or to leave. It was the place where the Hawaiians abandoned the lepers. Father Damien felt called to work among those who were cast out of the mainstream of society. He lived among them. He built a church with his own hands. He worked side-by-side with the lepers and cared for them and loved them. One day, after he had been on the peninsula for about 15 years, he was cooking a meal and boiling some water when he spilled the water and some of it hit his foot. And he realized that he felt no pain from the scalding water. There was but one conclusion--that he now had leprosy.

The next Sunday, when he began the weekly worship service, he altered his greeting by one word. Instead of saying, "My fellow believers," he said, "My fellow lepers." He had become one of them. Even by taking upon himself their greatest pain.

Jesus does that for us. In his baptism, Jesus validates us by saying "I love you so much that I am willing to walk alongside you." He takes upon himself the burden that is ours, and he conquers it for our sake.

As we enter the new year, let it be a year of validation in terms of your faith. Let your life validate Jesus as Savior and Lord, as you follow him and point others toward him. Let your life validate Jesus as you seek for our world justice and righteousness in his name. But also let your life be informed by the validation that Jesus confers upon you, for he gave up everything in order to demonstrate his love for you and to redeem you.

There is no greater love than the love of Jesus, who gave his life so that we might have life. Beyond that, no further validation is necessary. Amen.