Holy Trinity 2021

Rev. Thomas Van Hemert

St. John 3:1-17

Feast of the Most Holy Trinity

May 30/June 3, 2021

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Mystery is fascinating. It’s one of the best-selling book genres in America. The mystery surrounding Jason Bourne’s identity pulls us in. We all want to know the true identity of all those adults in the Bailey School Kids series. Who committed the crime, in which room, with what weapon?

Now we eventually figure out the answer to all of that. But there are some mysteries that we simply cannot know how they work out. Such as, what are the properties of that singularity within a black hole? What would it be like to be sucked into one? Are there any other planets in the universe, that could sustain life? Now because we’re impatient, we begin to speculate. Speculation is fine when it comes to things of this earthly life—of physics and mathematics. Who hasn’t daydreamed of stepping foot on another planet or walking on the moon as a child?

But there are other mysteries we know of, that are revealed to us in Holy Scripture, where too much speculation can turn in to trouble and false doctrine. Two of the greatest mysteries of our faith are confessed this day in the Athanasian Creed.

First of all, he who desires to be saved must, above all, hold the catholic faith. Now the word “catholic” in the Athanasian Creed does not mean “Catholic” in the sense of the term “Roman Catholic.” The word “catholic” simply means “universal.” It means the universal faith held by Christians throughout the world and throughout history.

The catholic, the universal faith is this, that Christians, if you want to be a Christian, you worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity. The first mystery we confess is that our God is known as the Holy Trinity. What this means is that there’s one God. Just as Moses says in Deuteronomy, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” We have one God. And yet, our God is Triune. There are three persons that make up the Holy Trinity. That’s what Triune means—it means “three.” Yet, we don’t have three Gods, we have one God. There’s one God—one essence that this God has. And in order to be saved, you must believe this—that that the three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all three persons of this one God in His essence. In order to be saved, all you have to do is believe this doctrine.

God be praised that we don’t have to have a perfect head knowledge or perfect understanding of what this looks like, or how it works, or operates. Nor do we have to be able to explain this doctrine of the Holy Trinity to others through theological discourse in order to be saved. In order to be saved, all that is required of us is a simple faith—the faith of a child. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews writes that faith is the hope of things not seen or fully understood. Because how can we, created beings of a sinful nature, understand the perfect, holy, and divine things of God, our creator? We can’t. It’s impossible for us.

And in fact, this is where the Church has run into problems throughout Her history. Because we love to speculate. Every major controversy and heresy in the history of the Church has been the result of someone trying to provide a perfect explanation of holy, divine, and Godly things using logic or philosophy—through speculation. For example, there was a pastor in the early church that falsely taught that the three persons of the Holy Trinity are only appearances or manifestations of the one, singular God. This of course, is not how it works. Because we know that in this one essence of God, there are three individual persons that share the same essence. So also today, there are probably going to be pastors that will use the analogy that the Holy Trinity is like an egg. Because an egg has three parts—the shell, the white, and the yoke. Now unfortunately, this analogy falls short because the shell, the white, and the yoke are of a different essence. Right? If we put these things under a microscope individually, they all have different molecules.

But you can see how if we try to speculate and explain these hidden mysteries of God, we always fall short and eventually come to error. Jesus did reveal to the disciples in Matthew 28 that God is Triune: “Go therefore and baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Apart from that, we dare not try to explain these things. Because we simply can’t. We are sinful, corrupted by sin. God, on the other hand, is holy, perfect, and divine. We can’t comprehend how the Trinity operates or what it looks like. But again, God be praised that we don’t have to worry about that. We simply receive this teaching in faith and believe in it as a child believes because we trust Scripture to be true, regardless if we have a perfect understanding or not. And that’s the wonderful thing about faith.

Now within this Christian faith, there’s another mystery that flows from the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. We confess it also in the Athanasian Creed. It’s the doctrine of the two natures in Christ. How God became a man is a mystery. How can a finite human body contain the infinite God? We don’t know. Again, we can’t know. But so that we might be saved, so that we might be given the gift of eternal life and salvation, God had to become a man. The Second Person of the Holy Trinity became a man in the person of Jesus so that He would do the things that He Himself talks about in John chapter 3.

A couple weeks ago, the Old Testament reading was from the book of Numbers. It was the account of the people in the wilderness after they had complained against God and against Moses. God became fed up with their constant complaining so He sent fiery snakes upon them and the snakes bit the people so that many of the people died. But the people of Israel realized their sin, they repented, and then God told Moses to make a bronze serpent, put it on a pole, and anyone who was bitten, when he looked at this snake, would live. They didn’t need to do anything other than look at this construct Moses made, and they would live. Such is faith. It’s simply trusting the promises that God has made, without having to completely and perfectly rationalize it. Why did God go about saving the people of Israel in this way? Couldn’t He have just saved them, in a random act of healing? I can almost guarantee the people of Israel didn’t have that thought going through their minds. They simply trusted in the promises God had made. “Look at the bronze snake on the pole and you will live.” Ok. Sounds good. There, look, I live. That’s how faith works. Trust in and believe that God is Triune. Trust in and believe that Jesus is the Son of God and you will live.

It is not without reason and intent that the Gospel text for this day is John 3. John chapter 3 contains what is known as “the Gospel in a nutshell.” That, of course, as we know, is John 3:16—probably the most well-known verse in all the Bible. But we need to understand it rightly and in its proper context. The word “so” in “for God so loved the world,” isn’t there to add emphasis as in “For God loved the world so much. He loves you so, so, so much that He sent His only-begotten Son.” The word “so” in “for God so loved the world,” acts like a conjunction. It connects the previous passages to John 3:16. 

The context is Jesus talking with Nicodemus, who has come to Jesus by night. Nicodemus was a Pharisee. He was a teacher of Israel. He read his Bible every day. He studied the Scriptures. He taught people. But now he comes to the true teacher. He comes to Jesus, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. During their conversation, Jesus tells Nicodemus, “No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” So here, Jesus is testifying of Himself. He’s God. And He descended from heaven, He was incarnate by the Holy spirit of the Virgin Mary. The Second Person of the Holy Trinity was made man. This is a mystery! We dare not make a feeble attempt at explaining it. We just confess it—our Savior is a God and a man in the person of Jesus.

And then, Jesus says, “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 is, “God loved the world in this way—that the Son of Man, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity has taken on human flesh will be lifted up on the cross, like the serpent in the wilderness, and He will die for all people—that, whoever believes in Him, whoever believes in this, should not perish but have eternal life.”

Such is the Christian faith. For whoever desires to be saved must, above all, hold the catholic faith. The catholic faith is this, the universal faith is this: God is Triune, Jesus became a man yet He is still God. He died for you and He rose for you. These are mysteries. We receive them in faith. Our faith is all we need. This faith comforts us with the assurance of salvation.

In +Jesus’ name.