Matthew 28:16-20
Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savoir Jesus Christ.
The Trinity is a hard concept for us humans to get our arms around. We can't describe it adequately in human terms or really understand it in human terms. Luther struggled with the Trinity. He believed in it, One God, Three Persons, but had trouble putting it into words. The closest word he could find was threefoldness and admitted it really wasn't adequate.
This is where the Holy Spirit and faith step in; we believe it even when we can't explain it.
People will tell you the word trinity doesn't appear in scripture so it was a concept of man's making. The word may be of man but the truth is throughout scripture.
In the very beginning we have a reference to God in a plural sense and a reference to the Holy Spirit.
Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The Hebrew word used for God is Elohim, which is plural.
Gen 1:2….. and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
We find this in the first verses of Genesis and there are many other references to God in a plural sense throughout the Old Testament.
The full revelation of the Trinity comes to us in the New Testament with the glorification of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
It's a real struggle to deal with the Trinity in an intellectual way, but then the intellectual way is human, not of God. There are many things about this mystery that are hard to rationalize not just three in one.
What about one of the three coming to earth in human form and being the final sacrifice so that we can be with God for eternity?
What about eternal life itself?
Many reject that there is an eternal life. Life here in this world is so terrible why even consider a life beyond this one.
That way of thinking is a misunderstanding of what eternal life truly is. Eternal life isn't an extension of this life it's a new life. A new life without sickness, death, sorrow or sin, to concern us. The love of our Lord surrounding us for eternity is all we will know.
Sometimes we have doubts about this reality. I want to draw your attention to the second verse in the Gospel reading. "When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted." Some doubted that's an incredible statement. After everything they experienced they doubted? Perhaps the statement reflects that doubt is natural and can be a constructive form of evaluating the truth.
The disciples are on a mountain in Galilee because they followed the instructions given to the women at the tomb by Jesus. There are some missing pieces as to how they know about the mountain other than being sent to Galilee, and how it fits into Luke's account of them being told to wait in Jerusalem. However the important thing is that Matthew wants us to understand that they are there because Jesus told them to go there. They may have doubted but they were obedient to His instructions.
When we believe in Jesus as He instructed and let the Spirit work in us our lives improve. We make better choices. We realize the things of this world are really just little distractions.
You know what is really troubling though. Some of these same people that reject eternal life have been blessed with so much in the way of worldly treasures. They think they don't need anything. These people live all around us. What can we do about this dilemma? What should we be doing about this dilemma? Jesus said, go and baptize all nations, in other words share our joy in the gift of knowledge given to us through the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is a gift to us yet we don't look at it that way. I think we look at this gift as a child looks at opening a present to find a piece of clothing. Okay we got a gift and we move on. The gift of the Spirit is something to be excited about. If we didn't have the Spirit we couldn't know Jesus.
On this Sunday in particular we try to focus our thoughts on this mystery of God. Although we know we should be focused on Him at all times, the evidence clearly demonstrates otherwise.
It's comforting to know that even if we have difficulty keeping Him in our thoughts at all times and that we have doubts; we are always in His thoughts. He is so focused on us that even the very hairs of our heads are all numbered. I'm afraid I may be getting a little too much attention since he has to keep renumbering mine. No matter how often we look away He welcomes us back every time without fail.
Perhaps we need to look at scripture from the beginning to appreciate the gift of the Spirit. Every day of creation in Genesis is followed by, "And God saw that it was good." And look at the sequence of creation. It tells us God had a plan. It wasn't some haphazard sequence of events, it was planned. The coming of the Messiah was planned. The coming of the Spirit was planned. God loves His people so much that he has a plan for each one of us.
Part of the plan is for us to share and understand the Gospel in human terms. To be able to do so and connect with the power and salvation of Jesus Christ we need the Holy Spirit. From the beginning God had an answer for sin, a plan to defeat death, a plan to gather His people to Him.
In our baptism we died to sin. All who are baptized into Christ Jesus are baptized into his death. And we are also baptized into His resurrection. We have indeed been given a glorious gift. Something to get excited about, a Father who loves us, Jesus who purchased us, and the Spirit to recognize this miraculous plan.
Ask yourself, do I really believe in Jesus? Am I excited about His love for me? Shouldn't everyone have an opportunity to feel that excitement? Am I open to what the Spirit has in store for me? Am I going to do my part in the Great Commission?
In the name our Risen Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
