Today, we read Luke's story of Jesus' baptism. When Jesus is baptized, three things happen to him. First, heaven is opened. In the Bible 'heaven' often symbolizes God or God's Kingdom. Thus 'heaven opened' means 'God revealed.'
Second, the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus. We should not misunderstand this, to mean that the Holy Spirit resides somewhere above in space. Our whole world is embraced, filled and sustained by the Holy Spirit. We cannot escape the presence of the Holy Spirit. The problem is not the absence of the Holy Spirit but our ignorance of its presence. Our task is to awaken to the presence of the Holy Spirit and to be in intimate fellowship with it. What happens here is Jesus' being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Third, Jesus hears a voice from heaven. Here also, 'heaven' refers to God. Jesus hears his Father's voice in his heart, saying: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." Jesus experiences his Father's wholehearted approval and love here.

In a sense, the first two events of heaven opening and the Spirit descending prepare Jesus for the third event. When intimate fellowship with his Father is opened and the Holy Spirit fills him, Jesus comes to experience his Father's wholehearted approval and love. Jesus' public ministry starts at this point.

Henri Nouwen once noted, "I very much believe that the core moment of Jesus' public life was the baptism in the Jordan, when Jesus heard the affirmation, 'You are my beloved on whom my favor rests.' That is the core experience of Jesus. He is reminded in a deep, deep way of who he is."

"I am my Heavenly Father's beloved Son." This identity and this assurance becomes the bedrock for Jesus' life and work from this time on. It gives him direction. It gives him passion for his ministry. In a sense, this assurance becomes a main source of Jesus' public ministry. Do you understand why and how it becomes the foundation for his life?

Let me share my story with you in order to help you understand why and how. I went through a similar experience when I was fourteen years old.

At that time, my family lived in the remote countryside. My father was an elementary school teacher, and my mother had to take care of the farmland crops that my father inherited from my grandfather. My mother was a hard-working, diligent woman, but the fields were too vast for my mother's strength alone.
So, my brothers and I used to help my mother after school. At that time, no machinery was available to our farmland. We had to work with simple tools. Working in the fields required a lot of time and energy.
One hot summer day, I helped my mother from early in the morning because of summer vacation. I worked hard until lunchtime. After lunch I collapsed. Afterwards, I came to know that my liver had failed due to hard work.

My father was away on that day. My condition looked so serious that I needed to be taken to the hospital right away, but there was nobody to take me to the hospital except for my mother. At that time, we did not have a car. My mother could not ride a bike.
So, my mother took me on her back. You know what? She ran to the bus stop. She ran. It was about a half hour walk through hills from my house to the bus stop.
At age fourteen, I was already a grown-up. My body was too heavy for a woman to carry for a long time. But my mother ran, carrying me on her back. Once in a while she stopped, but soon she ran again. I could hear her rapid heartbeat and feel her sweat.
Leaning on my mother's back, I cried. I cried not because of my physical pain but because of my mother's love for me. I could see the miraculous power of love. My mother was not such a physically strong woman to carry a grown-up son for more than half an hour. Her love for me enabled her to run for such a long time under the scorching sunlight.

My sickness healed quickly due to opportune treatment and was soon forgotten, but I have never forgotten the length of my mother's love. At that time, I felt sure that my mother would give her life for me if it was needed. I still believe this to be true. At that time, I heard my mother's voice in my heart: "You are my beloved son. I love you this much. Stay strong, my son. I am here with you."

This experience taught me a lot. First of all, I came to know that I am not able to love until I am really loved by someone. We are ignorant and incapable of love until we experience love. Love begets love. Only when we are loved, are we born to love.

Before I experienced my mother's intense love in this way, I had never thought about how I loved my mother. Of course I loved her, but that love was something natural and instinctive, something that every animal is born with. When I deeply felt my mother's love for me for the first time, her love captured my heart. Her love overwhelmed my heart. My heart was filled with her love. My heart came to know what love is and became able to love.

Second, since that time on, this moving memory of my mother's love has been a major source of encouragement in my life. Whenever I am depressed or discouraged, I think of my mother. I hear her voice in my heart: "Son, I love you. You are my son. Even though all people in the world leave you, I will still be with you." Deep inside my heart, her love continuously pumps out life-energy.

Let's go back to Jesus' story. I don't believe that Jesus' experience at the Jordan happened without any preceding events. One can safely assume that Jesus had maintained a serious and sincere spiritual life until this time. He was a seeker. Jesus' experience in the Jordan River can be seen as the outcome of his foregoing spiritual pursuit.

What is the outcome of Jesus' spiritual efforts? Just one word suffices to answer this question: 'Love.' At the peak of his spiritual journey, Jesus experiences his Father¡¯s love. He awakens to his Father's love for him. His Father's love overwhelms him. Jesus becomes a captive of his Father's love.
His Father's love is the source and model of his love. Jesus often says, "As my Father loves me, I also love you." Furthermore, this love sustains Jesus when he faces diverse hardships. Deep inside his heart, his Father's love ceaselessly pumps out a strong life-energy.

Love is the most crucial element for our lives. Did you know that the English words 'love' and 'live' share the same root? It is interesting to see that Korean words for 'love' and 'live' also share the same root. What does it mean? It means that to live is to love and to love is to live. Do you want to know true life? First of all, you need to know what love is. In order to know what love is, we need to experience it. Reading numerous classics about love is not the solution. Until we experience true love, we will never know it or be able to practice it.

A long time ago, when I was waiting for someone in a mall entrance, I overheard a lady's telephone call. She talked to her child at home on her cell phone. If I remember correctly, her words went something like this: "Okay, okay. Stay at home and do your homework, okay? I will come home, soon." After a while, she became angry and responded to her child, saying, "Okay, I love you. ¡¦ What? I said I love you. Is that enough? I will repeat. I love you. Is that enough?" Then, she abruptly hung the phone and disappeared.

Looking at her back, I asked myself, "What kind of love is this? Does she love her child? Is her love sufficient enough for her children?" Well, it is not right to pass judgment about her love based on such a brief encounter, but the question remains as to why her child repeatedly tried to confirm his or her mother's love. I am not sure whether the cold confirmation gave her child any assurance.

We all crave love. We are created to love and to be loved. We are living out of love and for love. Without being loved and loving, we human beings cannot live properly and satisfactorily. The psychologists generally agree on that lack of love is the main cause of most mental diseases at childhood. Love is this much crucial to our lives. Through being loved and loving, we come to find who we really are. Love is the source of life-energy. Love gives us direction.

Remember this. Being loved by his Father, being sure about his Father's love was the starting point of Jesus' life and work. If Jesus started his ministry without this experience, his ministry would have failed soon. In one sense, Jesus put off his public work until this point of time because he knew that being loved by his Father was crucial to his life and work.

It is the same for all of us. First of all and most of all, we need God's love. Yes, all of us know that God loves us. But mere knowledge is not enough. We need to go further than that. We need to feel it. We need to be captured by God's love. We need to be overcome by God's love. God's love for us should become the surest fact for us. We need to make God's love the bedrock of our lives. Then, God's love will make things happen.

God's love is not something we can buy, nor something we can earn. It is a free gift for all of us. It is already given to us. You see? Before I felt my mother's love, she had loved me from my birth, even from my conception. Love was there. What I did at that time was being fully awakened to that love. It is the same with God's love. God has loved us from the beginning. What we should do is to awaken to God's love. What we should do is to put ourselves in God's love until we fully realize it.

There is no other way but to seek an intimate fellowship with God to experience His love for us. Everyday, spend quality time of fellowship with God through praying and reading His words in the Bible! Every moment, try to stay in intimate fellowship with God! Do for God's glory whatever you do! Give your time, your life, and your money to help people with God's love! Be sincere seekers and make your spiritual pursuit the top priority of your life! All these works will make you abide in God's love and soon you will experience it with all your beings. There won't be anything else that makes such a deep and long-lasting change in your lives.

May each and every one of you fully awaken to God's love! May each and every one of you be overwhelmed by God's love! May all of you become captive to God's love! May all of you come to know true love and to love truly!

I kneel before the Father,
From whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.
I pray that out of his glorious riches
He may strengthen you with power
Through his Spirit in you're inner being,
So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

And I pray that you,
Being rooted and established in love,
May have power, together with all the saints,
To grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
And to know this love that surpasses knowledge
That you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine,
According to his power that is at work within us,
To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
Throughout all generations,
Forever and ever!
Amen.

Ephesians 3:14-21