The next part of Matthew's description is, to my way of thinking, one of the most wonderful statements in the Gospels.  A voice rings out from heaven, and for everyone to hear, says, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

Everyone in this church this morning is someone's child.  And if you've been alive very many years, I promise that there have been times in your life when you craved hearing those words from your own father.  Most of us have had times where we rebelled or for some other reason the relationship got strained with our parents.  Or perhaps you were in the situation where the parent was just lost to you, either physically or emotionally and as a result those words never reached expression.  Or perhaps the parent thought he made the words plain to you, but somehow you two were just not speaking the same language.  "This is my son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."  These words — spoken so seldom by most of us parents and longed for so often by all children — affirm not only that we are loved, which is a huge affirmation, but they also affirm that we are accepted and acceptable, just as we are, as my grandfather used to say, "warts and all."