The text this morning is from the Gospel according to John, the third chapter:
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Did you know that the word “Trinity” isn’t anywhere found in the Scriptures? It’s true. The word itself is a made-up word. In a way, it’s kinda like saying eleventy bajillion. It’s a combination of the words Tri, meaning three, and unity, meaning one. Tri-unity. Trinity. It might be a made up word, but the meaning behind it is anything but made up.
In fact, the Church had to come up with the Word Trinity in order to explain something that has been seen all throughout the Scriptures, but hadn’t been fully realized until the Lord Jesus Christ illumined us. God has progressively revealed things throughout His creation, but in the coming of His Son, He revealed it all, especially about Himself. In His Son, the fullness of the Deity dwells, yet the Son made it clear that though the ancient Words of Scripture are true, Hear O Israel, the Lord, the Lord our God is One, the Godhead was made up also of three distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
In fact, this is such a crazy thought, it really only could be of the mind of God Himself. We can’t understand this. We can try to explain it, but we usually delve into heresy. The Trinity is like water, where it can be solid, liquid, or gas, ice, water, or steam. Yeah, that sounds good, but the problem is this is an ancient heresy called modalism, which teaches that God presents Himself as one person at a time, sometimes the Father, sometimes the Son, sometimes the Spirit. The Trinity is like a clover, three parts, yet one clover. Well, this starts to divide God up into three separate parts, dividing the unity of God. Any analogy that we use to explain the Trinity falls far short and into heresy. So, when you think about it, how could the mind of man come up with something that can never be explained, that God is three persons, yet one God, each person is Lord, but there is only one Lord, each person is distinct, yet they are united and indivisible. It’s weird and it cannot come form the mind of man; it can only be of God.
So, when Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night (we call it the Nick at Night episode) to inquire after His wisdom, Jesus takes the opportunity to point to the Trinity. In fact, by Jesus’ words about that which Nicodemus doesn’t understand, Jesus brings the Trinity to light. He shows us the miraculous things that He can do, the authority by which He does, which is derived from the Father, and the means by which they are done, which is enabled by the Holy Spirit. Jesus does miraculous things because they are used to point to His divinity, the Godness that He shares with the Father and the Spirit, in order that those who need a redeemer need only look at the Cross and believe.
He points out then that this belief is a gift of the Holy Spirit, a gift that comes when you are born again, or born from above, through the waters of Baptism. And all of this has been authorized to happen by the Father, to whom all glory is given by the Son, the Spirit, and all of creation. Really, the Trinity is impossible for the human mind to comprehend, yet to confess it is a necessary thing. This is what we’ll confess in the Athanasian Creed coming up here. If you want to be saved, you must hold to the catholic faith, and the catholic faith is that God is One in Trinity and Trinity in Unity.
If you want to be saved, you have to believe that. If you don’t believe that, you cannot be saved. That’s not a very en vogue way of saying it, but it’s true. More and more and more, I hear out there that there’s really just one god and hundreds of paths lead to him. Muslims and Jews and Christians all worship the same god, we should all just get along. But that’s not true, is it? You see the Muslim and the Jew reject the idea that there is a Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They see it is a great heresy; they see Christians as tritheists, people who worship three gods, not one. Muslims, for this belief, want to kill us, the infidel. Jews, for this belief, wanted to kill the one who spread the idea, the Son of God Himself, and so they did.
But, you see, while we may not understand the Trinity, we certainly understand that this is what Jesus would ask us to believe. He would tell us to believe that He was sent by the Father, and after He is lifted up on the cross like the snake in the desert, He would send the Spirit to guide us into all truth. The Son makes visible to us the Trinity, that by believing in each person of the God head, we might truly see the unity between the persons. He shows us the Father and the Spirit, so that, by their work and their will, we might see the Son.
We don’t often think of this, but the idea is like if you put all three persons in a lineup, you’d see them all, but you wouldn’t really be making eye contact with the Father or the Spirit. They’d be covering their eyes so that you wouldn’t focus on them, and they’d be pointing at the Son. The Father and the Spirit only ever want you to focus on Jesus. Yes, we pray to all three, yes all three persons are involved in our lives in different ways, but they only ever want you to see the Son, they only ever want to deal with you through the Son.
Think about it: couldn’t the Father, if He so desired, just speak out of nothingness and tell us what He wants? Couldn’t the Spirit descend on us and have a Holy Ghost party all the time? Sure they could. But, where, instead, do they tell us to look? Where do they tell us to turn? To Word, and to Sacrament. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The Word is Jesus Himself. And the Sacraments? Jesus’ body and blood, not the Father’s. Jesus’s blood to wash away sins, not the Spirit’s. The Sacraments are Jesus, and no one else.
You see, the incredible thing, whether it is being born again, whether it is hearing God’s Word, whether it is being healed from disease and infirmity, whether it is marveling at the words of God, whether it is studying God’s Word, whether it is seeing the connections pointing to the Son throughout history, is that Jesus, the Son of God, is the One who came to this earth, to take upon Himself our flesh, to bear our sin and be our Savior. Yes, He did it by the will of the Father. Yes, He is strengthened by the Spirit and sends Him to comfort us. But, the work of the Son is the crux of history, and the Father and Spirit want you to see Jesus.
Just as the snake was lifted in the desert, that anyone who looked upon it would be saved, so would the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever looks upon Him for salvation would be saved. Just as He is lifted up, the Father and Spirit take a back seat and marvel at His love for you, as well. These are heavenly things, and they are hard, they are impossible to fully understand. But that’s okay. God doesn’t require you to fully understand a single thing, but only asks that you believe Him.
So, yes, the Word Trinity is not in the Scriptures. But neither is phone. Neither is hamburger. Neither is Lutheran. But all of these are real things, things you can hold in your hand, confess with your heart and your mouth. But as real as a hamburger may feel in your hand, feel in your mouth, feel in your belly, the Trinity is more real. It is the most real thing in the entire universe, for only from the Trinity comes all life, forgiveness, and salvation. If you are looking to Christ, my friends, then you have it. In Him, whom the Father sent, whom the Spirit points back to, you have it all, for He has given to you the knowledge, not only of who He has done, but who He is, for you, that you might be together with Him forever. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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