Holy Trinity
Jesus Reveals the Trinity
John 8:48-59
22 May 2016 – Redeemer
What’s the second commandment? You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. What’s the first petition in the Lord’s prayer? Hallowed be Thy Name. Near the top of the commandments and first in the prayer our Lord gave us is God’s name.
Holy Trinity Sunday is about God’s name. God’s name began the Divine Service this morning. God’s Name, along with a few splashes of water resurrected you from the death of sin to the life of forgiveness in your baptism. This morning the soil and shame of your sin was cleansed and covered in God’s name. I forgive all your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
If you get God’s name wrong you’ve end up with the wrong god – no god at all. So today is set aside to confess the name of God, to teach His name rightly, not for the sake of being right, but for the sake of your salvation. True God means true forgiveness and true life. False God, no life because there’s no forgiveness.
Jesus gets called names in today’s Gospel reading and not the right names. “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” The Jews words toward Jesus would be a hate crime today. There wasn’t a more disgusting label among the Jews than Samaritan. For a little icing on the slander cake the Jews add that Jesus was demon possessed.
We shouldn’t be surprised that Jesus is called names. He said that He alone knew and could reveal the true God – that there was no way to know God apart from Him. What happens today when you say there is only one true God? Or only one way to know Him? Or only one way to be saved by Him? You will be called names – bigot, hater, intolerant. To speak of only One God is considered a great evil – of the Devil. As it was with Jesus so it will be for those who worship the Trinity.
Jesus doesn’t defend Himself against the Samaritan charge. He has no problem being identified with those who are despised. But He will have none of that devil talk. He answers the Jews by telling them and us much about the Holy Trinity.
I honor my Father … I do not seek my own glory. The persons of the Trinity do not seek their own honor and glory. There’s no competition in the Trinity. The Father gives glory to the Son. The Son honors the Father. The Spirit honors the Father and the Son. When Jesus came into the world He did not come to make a name for Himself. He came to seek His Father’s glory – to show the world His Father through His life and death and resurrection. Jesus did not amass power, destroy His enemies, or gather to Himself the brightest and best. He honored His Father by taking on the form of a servant, by making Himself nothing. He prayed for His enemies and desired them to be His friends. He could have destroyed the Jewish nation for their unbelief – instead He came right into their midst, prayed for them, wept over them, and died for their sins. He called the worst to receive His best gifts – sinners, prostitutes, IRS agents received His forgiveness. He called the least likely men to be His apostles and preachers – Peter the brash. Thomas the Doubter. Matthew the Cheat. Paul the murderer. Jesus honors His Father by revealing His Father’s gracious and forgiving heart to us sinners, to you.
Here is where we learn the lesson of Trinity Sunday – Names matter. We do not worship a generic little-g god. People like generic gods — gods with no name but god; Gods with no words in their vocabulary but “love, tolerant, and inclusive.” We do not worship a generic god who does nothing, says nothing, is nothing.
We confess a particular and peculiar God. The catholic faith (that is the universal Christian faith) is this, that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance. For the Father is one person, the Son is another, and the Holy Spirit is another. But the Godhead of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is one: the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal.
We confess the Holy Trinity. He is the Father who created all things and gives to all of us everything we need for life. He is the Son who was sent by the Father to reveal the Father – by becoming flesh and living among us and by becoming sin and dying for us. He is the Spirit who delivers to us through the Word and the Sacraments the gift Jesus purchased for us — the forgiveness of our sins. He is three persons, but one God.
How do we know this to be true? The same way Abraham knew – in Jesus. Jesus told the Jews, Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” How did Abraham see Jesus? Simple math rules it out – Jesus was no more than 50 years old and Abraham had lived 2000 years before Jesus. Don’t tell your High School math teacher, but math won’t give you all the answers. Math won’t explain the Trinity because the Trinity is greater than math. Adding up birthdays won’t help you figure out how Abraham saw Jesus because Jesus is beyond birthdays. He is the eternal God, without beginning or end.
Abraham saw the day of Jesus dawn when Sarah gave birth to Isaac. Up until that day all Abraham had was the Word of the Lord. “Abraham, through your offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” All Abraham had was a promise, until Sarah’s belly grew full with Isaac and then gave birth at the tender age of 90. On that day Abraham saw the day of Jesus dawn. The birth of Isaac was the Lord God putting flesh on His Words, fulfilling His promise, giving into Sarah’s womb and Abraham’s hands, what He promised – a son Isaac. God put flesh on His Word. Isaac had a son named Jacob, who had twelve sons. In the tribe of the fourth son Judah, many, many years later, in the little town of Bethlehem, the final Son of the Promise, the final flesh on God’s Word, would be born – the Son of God, God’s final, full, and eternal Word took on flesh and be born of Mary. How did Abraham know the Lord was true God? Because He put flesh on His Word, kept His promise, and delivered Isaac and in that he saw Jesus.
How do we know the Trinity is the true and only God? Because He put flesh on His promise. The Father delivered His Son to Mary and then delivered Him up to death for our sins. Three days later He delivered Him from the grave – as He promised. He put flesh on His promise for you, to forgive you, that you might belong to the offspring of Abraham – the Holy Christian Church. In Jesus we have all we need to know that the Trinity is the true God.
What did Jesus get for telling the truth? The Jews picked up stones to kill Him, but it wasn’t His day to die. What do you get from Jesus telling the truth? You hear and see the true and only God, the living Lord, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You receive God’s promise with flesh on it – you will not taste death because you are forgiven your sins, in and only in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
21 May 2016 anno Domini