Today is Trinity Sunday. And in the gospel reading for today Jesus speaks pretty plainly about the idea of His part in that holy trinity. He makes it plain that He is the Son of God most high. He minces no words about it. But the words we read today need to have a bit of context put to them. We need the ‘back-story’ that has lead up to this exchange of words with the Jews.
In the section before the gospel reading for today, Jesus and the Jews have been in “discussion”, so to speak, regarding the Jews parentage. There was talk of being children of Abraham, and of being Abraham’s descendants. The thing is, just before today’s reading, Jesus has let them know that they are not true children of Abraham and that their father is the Father of lies and is the devil. Perhaps not the most endearing thing, however it is true.
It’s true for this reason; they refuse to understand that Jesus is speaking as God. So, they reject what Jesus says regarding being sinful and in bondage to sin. In their doing this, in rejecting the truth of their need for salvation, they are rejecting their need for the messiah of God. That’s really not a lot different from many people today. Many, if not most people, simply refuse the idea of being born in sin and in rebellion against the God who created them.
But back to the Jews and Jesus: Jesus has told them that they seek to kill Him because He has told them the truth about their sinfulness and that Abraham longed to see this day, the day of Jesus. Abraham sought this day because he knew that the messiahs coming meant full freedom from the guilt of sin. So after all this talk then the Jews speak in today’s lesson and answer Jesus by accusing Him of being not only not a Jew, by calling Him a Samaritan, but also that He is, in fact, according to their view, demon possessed.
And you know, not much has changed in the millennia that have passed since that day when these words were first spoken. People still reject the truth of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, as the messiah sent to redeem man.
They also still reject the idea that God is one and yet also three. There are three persons to God and yet only one substance. Now, this mystery is great and vast beyond our comprehension, and yet it is true. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are not three God’s but one God.
And in todays lesson Jesus in trying to convey the truth of who He is as God the Son, and makes it absolutely crystal clear that this is what He means. He makes it clear by using words they will understand, though they won’t like it. Look at verse 58 and read it with me. "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!"
When He says the words, 'I am', He is saying the very words that God spoke to Moses on the mountain; and these Jews know it. They know only one response to this: to call Jesus the devil, to call Him demon possessed.
(By the way, notice that they understand demon possession as a person who claims to be God that isn’t God. What they miss is that this IS God and not just another person who claims to be God. Any normal person and who in fact claims to be God is demon possessed just by making that claim. So they have a correct understanding of demon possession, they’re applying to so totally wrong that it is, in truth, a sin of the gravest consequences. They are attributing to Satan what is in fact God’s work, the incarnation. The incarnation is the coming of the gospel in the flesh. And this is just more evidence of what Jesus has said about their father being Satan; the Father of lies.
At any rate, turn to the New Testament reading today. There Peter declares to the Jews that they killed the Son of God and that He, Jesus, was raised from the dead as the ultimate proof of His divinity; of the fact that Jesus is, in fact, God. Peter goes on to say, that they, the disciples and apostles are eyewitnesses to Jesus’ resurrection.
That resurrection is the thing that everything else hinges on. If Jesus is not raised from the dead then we’re fools sitting here today. If Jesus is not raised from the dead, then we are lost and wasting our time. If Jesus is not raised from the dead then Christianity is the greatest of hoaxes ever. If Jesus is still in the tomb then our faith and hope is nothing but a vain useless exercise in self delusion.
But! But, Christ is risen… (congregation)(He is risen indeed!) That’s right, Jesus is raised from the dead. We have these eyewitnesses accounts of that to rely on. And we have the word of God that told of this before it happened. We have scripture that points to the cross and to the empty tomb as the cross roads of time.
The cross and empty tomb confirm for us and forever that… Jesus… is… God. That He along with the Father and the Holy Spirit, which Jesus Himself sent to us, these three are the one true God of heaven to be worshipped and adored. We are called by the same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead to believe and trust in Him. He grants us faith and He gives us the rock solid assurance that His resurrection is our resurrection as well. We do not hope in vain. Our hope is in this One, Jesus, who today told the Jews that before Abraham was born, “I am.”
Look at the sermon title today, "Jesus Demon Possessed or The Possessed of God?" As the great “I am” Jesus is possessed of all that is God. That is Jesus possesses in Himself all, all that is divine; and He has miraculously hidden that divine nature within the form of a human. And He also is possessed of a human rational soul as well. Jesus is God and Jesus is man and He is the only God-man ever. This is something that is just simply beyond us to grasp.
I like the story of the man who attended a Trinity Sunday service where the pastor carefully explained the Triune nature of God – that there are three distinct Persons, but only one God. After the service the man approached the pastor and said: "I enjoyed the service, but I'm having trouble with this concept of the Trinity. I can't understand it and I just can't accept it!" The pastor asked the man, "What size hat do you wear?" The man replied: "Oh, I guess about a seven. Why do you ask?" The pastor replied: "I was just wondering how you expected to put the almighty, eternal, omnipresent, Triune God, Creator and Sustainer of all that exists, into a size 7 head."
Like that pastor, I, too, cannot truly make it so that we can fit into our heads the total reality of the trinity. We must take this word of God’s and trust it to be true and that it’s beyond our heads to reduce God to something we can comprehend. What kind of God would that be? That would be no God, but a thing of our own devising and not worthy of worship or glory.
Let me give you just one example that can help us aid in trying to understand the trinity: The apple. (Take out an apple and cut it. Explain the core, skin and meat. All are the apple and yet each is not the apple alone.
Like I said before, the idea of God being three and one is repugnant to non-believers. Just the idea of Jesus as the Son of God is itself rejected by most people. It’s rejected by the Jews, the Muslims the Jehovah’s witnesses and the Mormons. None of these religions can acknowledge the truth of what Jesus says in today’s lesson, or they would have no religion.
Now, I want you to realize something; that you, in your confession of the creeds every Sunday, make a claim regarding God that is made nowhere else on earth than in Christian churches. That God is three in one. Again, recall the sermon title today, Jesus – Demon possessed or The Possessed of God?
I did this because, looking back in the gospel lesson, in the first verse the Jews say what about Jesus? Right! They label Jesus as demon possessed. That is what many do in today’s religious marketplace here in America.
Give thanks to God for His grace in revealing through His word, through His son Jesus Christ that we need not be able to comprehend God in order to love God or to have Him love us. Think of it like this, our own children cannot comprehend us when they are infants or little ones, yet they cry out to us in their pains, needs, and desires. We are just the same. We also cry out to our Father in heaven who by the power of His Holy Spirit grants us all that we need for our pains, needs, and desires. And He provides for our greatest need, salvation. This, He has done by the blood of Jesus shed from the cross to redeem us from sin.
But, but what if Jesus had decided not to do His part, not to do the things the Son was to do? What if Jesus had said – I’m happy just to be here, as part of the trinity, don’t ask me to do anything more than just show up. How would it be if we took that attitude, ‘I just want to be left alone with my salvation and not ‘get involved’? How would salvation have come to us if that were Jesus’ attitude? How will salvation come to others if that’s our attitude?
Love needs to do for the one who is loved. Jesus, in His love for the Father and for us, did for us what is needed. We need to do love, to care for each other, to demonstrate the triune God's love among us. We’re the only ones who can do that love. Jesus was the only One of the trinity who could do the work on the cross that grants us the gift of salvation. Am I saying our salvation depends on our work, no, of course not.
This isn’t talking about our salvation, its talking about others and their salvation. Saint Paul speaking by the Holy Spirit in the book of Romans said that how can they believe unless they hear and how can they hear unless someone preaches the word to them.
We’re a place that preaches that word of hope and salvation. We’re the ones who have built this place by God's grace and direction. And we need to continue to grow it, to grow the telling of the gospel in this place and from this place.
We need to be involved in Sunday school teaching, and vbs and family centered ministry and preschool and visits to the sick and shut-in and administration and grounds keeping. All of those things are needed so that the word of the Lord grows from this place into the hearts of those around us.
We, sitting here, are… the… only… ones… who can tell others that we are here and that this is a place that speaks of God's love expressed in the trinity of persons. We are the only ones who can take the word of God to those around us and preach to them the salvation won for us by the Son of God who did what He did out of love for us and for the entire world.
God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is Who seeks us out and wants us to know Him in all His mystery and holiness. He desires us and wants a relationship with us and with those around us in this world. To live by grace through faith in the presence of this triune God, is for us to have life to the full.
That’s why our sign out front this week says,
God – the Father, my Creator, God – the Son, my Rescuer, God – the Holy Spirit, my Strength. In the mighty name of our holy triune God, amen.