Flowing from Love — God With Us
Matthew 3:13-17 NRSV
Hi folks, i hope your are doing ok? This week we are meeting in the Tynemouth Castle Inn from 7.30.
Also please be aware that there will not be a meeting next week as we will be on our annual weekend away.
This week’s blog continues our program thinking about aspects of the Christian faith and how they might relate to nature.
The Baptism of Jesus
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptised by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptised by you, and do you come to me?’ 15 But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfil all righteousness.’ Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus had been baptised, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved,[a] with whom I am well pleased.’
Over the years I’ve preached on this story quite a bit. Every time I come back to it, something new catches my attention. Lately because of our overarching theme i have had to look at it differently again.
I picture Jesus stepping into the Jordan not because he needs fixing, but because love moves toward connection. The river is already flowing. The crowds are already there, wading in, hoping for forgiveness and a fresh start. I imagine the dry wilderness wind skimming across the water, carrying dust and whispered prayers.
Into that very ordinary, very earthy scene, Jesus walks.
No miracle.
No sermon.
No grand announcement.
And yet as he comes up out of the water, the sky opens and a voice says,
“This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
Beloved first.
Before ministry.
Before sacrifice.
Before success or failure.
What holds this whole moment together is something simple but huge: God’s love comes before performance.
We live in a world where you’re only as good as your output. Grades, targets, followers, promotions. So much of life feels like proving yourself. It’s not hard to assume the Divine works the same way, approving the disciplined, favouring the impressive.
But at the Jordan, the order seems to flip.
Jesus is called Beloved before he has done anything remarkable.
God’s delight is spoken at the beginning, not the end.
Love isn’t the reward for obedience. It’s the starting point.
And that shifts everything.
If love comes first, then following Jesus isn’t about earning acceptance. It’s about living from it. Repentance isn’t grovelling for approval. It’s turning back toward the love that was already there. Our actions stop being driven by anxiety and start being shaped by gratitude.
The Spirit comes down like a dove, quiet and gentle. Water, voice, breath. The river holds him. The sky responds. The Spirit rests. It’s as if heaven and earth agree on something essential: this human life, standing wet in the mud of the Jordan, is deeply loved.
And Jesus is standing in the same water as everyone else. That matters. The affirmation doesn’t stay locked around him like a private spotlight. He steps into the shared river of humanity. If he is named Beloved there, then that naming spills outward. This moment doesn’t suggest divine suspicion toward humanity. It shows divine solidarity with it.
Humanity and creation are not starting from rejection. They are met with delight.
If that’s true, then the way we live starts to shift.
Water stops being just something that comes out of a tap. It becomes part of a bigger story, a place where God once spoke love over ordinary human life. Relationships stop being deals we negotiate. They become spaces where that same belovedness can be heard again and again. And caring for creation isn’t an add-on for the especially passionate. It’s simply stepping into the current of a love that is already flowing through the world and choosing to move with it.
Rivers don’t wait for landscapes to become impressive before they flow. They move, and in moving they shape, nourish, and sustain. Love works like that. It arrives first. It forms us over time.
So maybe the question shifts.
Not, “Have I done enough to be loved?”
But, “If I am already beloved, how will I live?”
The heavens opened at the beginning.
The river was already flowing.
And the voice has not fallen silent.
Some Questions
- If you had to pick a song to play while you walked into the Jordan for your ‘baptism moment,” what would it be?
- Where in your everyday life do you notice the strongest pressure to prove your worth, and what does that pressure feel like?
- How would things change if you genuinely believed you were loved before you achieved anything this week?
- Do you think social media makes it harder to feel “beloved” without performing? Why or why not?
- In what areas of your life do you find yourself striving for approval, and what might it look like to live from approval instead?
- When you hear, “God’s love comes before performance,” does that feel freeing, uncomfortable, or hard to believe?
- How might connecting Jesus’ baptism to water influence the way we think about environmental issues like water scarcity or climate change?
- If you truly trusted that you are beloved, how might that reshape your relationships, your activism, or the way you care for creation?
Peace Rob
Photo: Rob Wylie
Rob Wylie is the founder of BeachcomberFX and guides its leadership team. He has worked in the North East for over 20 years and has vast experience from various roles he has held. He has a passion for Fresh Expressions of Church and Pioneer Ministry as well as beer, beaches and Miniature Schnauzers.