Over Christmas some members of my family were saying how captivated they were by the TV programme, The Traitors, and how they were looking forward to the new series starting this month. Never having seen it myself, I watched a few episodes on iPlayer. For those of you who haven’t seen it, it’s a murder mystery game on steroids, where out of 22 contestants, 3 are selected to be traitors, while the others are known as faithfuls. The traitors hide their true identity from the faithfuls, pretending to be faithfuls themselves. The traitors must choose a faithful to murder each night, and each afternoon the entire group votes on whom to banish, hoping to uncover one of the traitors in the process. During the day there is much observation and second-guessing of each other, trying to work out who might be a traitor, and then often shock at the banishment when the true identity of the banished person is revealed and they discover they have banished yet another faithful. I found it a hard watch as the levels of deception and betrayal are high but what was interesting was the sense of relief for many contestants as they revealed their true identity.

The game is all about working out who someone truly is, knowing for sure. ‘Who are you?’ is a simple question and yet a huge one. It’s one we can grapple with for ourselves all our lives as we work out who we are and what we are about.

So much of our identity can be attached to what we do, our work, to where we have status or responsibility, to how we are seen. In today’s world, on the one hand there seems to be an unhealthy focus on self and individualism. What works for me? Witness all the perfect lives portrayed on social media, and the freedom people feel to criticise and bad-mouth others online. On the other hand, there’s a healthier trend towards showing up as the person you are, being authentic, rather than hiding behind a façade or feeling you have to fit in in order to belong. I know for myself since leaving my job in a large corporation 10 years ago and pursuing a path of self-employment and ordination, I am more acutely aware of being free to be me – I no longer have to mould myself into the shape that fitted the company I worked for - and also how much more vulnerable and exposing that can feel without the scaffolding of an organisation around me.

Identity is also a big theme of the Epiphany season – we witness the revelation of Christ’s true identity. We have had the visit of the wise men to Jesus, this week the baptism of Christ and next week the first miracle in the wedding at Cana, all of which serve to disclose who Jesus is – his true nature.

His baptism is a defining moment before he begins his public ministry. In Matthew and Mark’s gospels, from here he goes to be tempted in the desert, and then start his ministry. In John, the temptation is not mentioned; it’s straight to work. But in Luke, before we get to the temptations, there is a long list of genealogy going back to Adam. Luke wants to give us more evidence, if it were needed, that Jesus IS the Son of God.

It seems that for Luke the baptism itself is not so much the focus, but rather what happens afterwards. Luke does not refer specifically to John baptising Jesus, only that Jesus was baptised. John was offering a baptism of repentance and Jesus had no need to repent of any sins. In this account, it was after his baptism, while Jesus is praying, the revelation of his identity occurs. We have the opening of heaven, the descending of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, and a voice: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” The voice speaks in the second person singular: ‘you are my Son’ not ‘this is my Son’ as we have in Matthew. Here we learn the true nature of Jesus, but he also hears his own chosenness, that he is the beloved. I wonder what that was like for him. I wonder how much he might have needed to hear it as he contemplated what lay ahead. I wonder how much he was establishing his identity as he went along. Some schools of thought suggest that while aware of his general mission, Jesus was discovering more of what he was about as he progressed.

We too, as we come to renew our baptismal vows in a moment, we have an opportunity to consider again our own identity in Christ: that we are beloved of God. That we too are chosen. Unlike Jesus we have need of the baptism of repentance, but as to our identity, we can stand in the sure and certain knowledge of being loved children of God. Easy to read those words on the page, but we are invited to experience the reality of that depth of love in our daily lives. I wonder how you experience it. That knowledge and experience is powerful. It sets us free. Free from all the feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt that can afflict us. Free from all the noisy clamouring of the world around us, trying to persuade us that we need to fit in, belong, think a certain way in order to be enough. That experience gives us direction and purpose – to follow in Christ’s footsteps, to be identified with him, to live life in all its fullness. It brings us great joy. It is what we all need and it is all we need.

Amen.