Three in One: The Mystery of the Trinity

Scripture: John 16:12-15

There are two things in the Christian faith that are the most difficult concepts to wrap your mind around. 

The first is eternity – the mere idea of eternity is something that boggles our mind. We have no concept of it, we cannot grasp it – because for our reality – there is always a beginning, and always a middle, and always an ending. But not so with eternity. Yet – the idea of eternal community with God is the cornerstone of the hope we have in Christ. Even though we can scarcely comprehend it.

The second concept that we seem unable to comprehend is the trinity. Seems only fitting that an eternal God would Himself be just as incomprehensible as his longevity. This idea of “three in one.” 

Now before you yawn and go to sleep – I’m not going to attempt to shove all kinds of Trinitarian doctrines down your throat that will probably fall flat – or try to come up with an analogy that will ultimately wind up being a heresy because it can never accurately demonstrate or illustrate the true nature of the trinity – I’m simply going to talk about the trinity in terms of how we experience God, of how God has revealed Himself to us – as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

There is a Father in heaven who loves us, a Brother-Savior who died for us, and a Spirit who helps us. And they are all part of the same, one God. That is the trinity.

I find it interesting in our gospel lesson for today how Jesus tells the disciples that he has so much more to tell them – but can’t, because – quite simply – they’re ill-equipped to understand it. They aren’t going to get it. They cannot bear what he would have to tell them. Indeed – I wonder if today – we are any more well-equipped to handle Jesus’ teachings when it comes to the matter of the trinity. We are still unable to fully bear or comprehend it. However – through the Spirit – we are able to experience it – even if we don’t ever fully understand it. 

And quite frankly – the mere fact that we DON’T understand it, that we cannot grasp it – yet, still believe it – to me is evidence that it truly is God. For if God were simple, if God were easy to understand and comprehend, I would have to question – then is God really God? 

Christians get accused many times of being polytheists – believing in more than one God – by our fellow monotheistic religions – Judaism and Islam. Because the concept of the trinity does not fit neatly into our human understandings – they say what Christianity claims is simply not possible. In fact, the Qur’an is quite vehement in its denouncing of the trinity – “Say not three! It would be better for you.” The idea of God becoming human is a big enough blasphemy in their eyes, but to claim that God is “three in one” is nothing short of polytheism. 

Though really – is three in one that much more complicated than understanding the universe – where uni = one or unity, and “verse” = to turn. So the “universe” means “turned into one.”  I don’t know about you, but when I think about the nature of the universe, a singular entity isn’t exactly what comes to mind. So you honestly think God, the creator of the universe, the creator of this sprawling mass of planets and gases that are described as being “turned into one,” is going to be more easily and succinctly understood than that which He has created? I figure once you’ve figured the universe out – then you can start trying to comprehend God and deciding what God can and cannot do.

Martin Luther once said that if we were ever able to fully comprehend God, then we would reduce God to an idol of our own imaginations. 

The mystery of the trinity actually, in many ways, makes me feel more secure in knowing that the God of the Bible is truly God. Whenever we start to say things like “God can’t do this,” or “There’s no way God would be like this…” – that’s when I know we’ve attempted to put God in a box, when we’ve tried to make God fit our limited understanding or how we want Him to be rather than who He actually is. So I take comfort in the mystery that is the trinity – and instead focus on how the people of the Bible and we have experienced this God that comes to us in different ways. 

As Lutherans – we spend a lot of time focusing on Jesus – the second part of the trinity. Primarily because, let’s face it – Jesus as God incarnate is the most relatable. Jesus is the easiest part of the trinity to understand because he walked and he talked among us. He is easy for us to identify with because he became one of us. And it is because through Jesus – God’s love for us is revealed most fully. 

I figure understanding God is kind of like trying to understand my mom. There are parts of my mom I just don’t get. And then there are other parts that I do relate to, parts I comprehend and parts I embrace – and it is those parts that make a relationship between us possible. We both cling to the relatable parts of one another. Jesus is God’s relatable part. Jesus is who makes relationship with God possible because we can relate to Jesus. And it is through Jesus that God’s redemptive work for the world is done.

Now God the Father – he’s a little more obscure. A little more distanced from us. More difficult to put our finger on. Let’s face it – even in our human understandings of our fathers – we love them, we tend to obey them when it suits our purposes or because it is easier than the trouble we’ll get into if we don’t… but understanding our Fathers at times is just as big of a mystery as the trinity itself. And as much as we love our fathers – there’s a part of us that still has a respectful fear of our fathers. Especially when we opt to ignore them. Granted, as we grow older, some of that mystery dissipates once we recognize how equally human and fallible our own human fathers are, but father’s, for the most part, seem to have this inexplicable wisdom that both annoys and amazes us. They are also disciplinarians – correcting us and teaching us where we’ve gone wrong – and again – this both annoys and amazes us. So we find Jesus a far more comforting ally – a sibling, or brother, of sorts, that we look to for help when we get into trouble with dad. 

And then there’s that third part of the trinity that a lot of times, we just don’t know what to do with. The Holy Spirit. Our Guide. Our advocate. The part of the trinity that makes it possible for us to even know who Jesus and God are. Because of how the Holy Spirit guides us and teaches us – we are able to believe in and experience the love of the Father through the work of the Son on the cross. 

But because we do not see the Spirit, not like a flesh and blood Jesus, it’s far more difficult for us to talk about the Spirit. Because the spirit is not limited in its location or constrained by all the other human limitations we have. It manifests itself as God in us as individuals as well as in and through us as communities.

And in today’s gospel reading, when Jesus speaks of the Spirit, he speaks of it in terms of a guide. And I’m not talking about the kind of guide who just takes you on a tour. I’m talking about a guide who literally saves your life.

One way of thinking about it is to think of ourselves as a bunch of blind skiers. Anyone around here who skis is probably sitting there going, “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Skiing is difficult enough with two good eyes – but to do it BLIND? 

Yet, that’s exactly what we do day in and day out - We can't see even five seconds into the future. We can't see the struggles and the heartaches that may await us. We can't even see other "skiers" who might run into us. We are – in essence – blind. 

Yet, blind skiers aren’t on that mountainside alone. Instead – they are given a guide. Someone who stays close to them – talks to them, taps their poles from time to time, and gives them instructions like “turn left” or “turn right.” A blind skier has to have complete and total trust in that guide and act obediently to the commands of the guide. Trusting that the guide sees what we can’t. 

The Spirit likewise guides us through the things we cannot predict and cannot see. But here’s the thing about the Spirit – its destination is always the same. The guide’s job to the blind skier is to get the skier safely down the mountain. That’s his only goal. Likewise, our guide, is continually guiding and pointing us to one thing as well – God’s love through Christ. 

In essence, it’s the Spirit that guides us and helps us to have faith in that which we know we cannot fully grasp or comprehend. Luther’s small catechism explains the third article of the apostles Creed – the Holy Spirit – as “I cannot by my own understanding or effort believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him.” We need to be guided there. We need the spirit to reveal to us what we are naturally blinded to. Just like the blind skier isn’t going to make it down that mountain in one piece by his own efforts and understanding – neither are we able to come to Christ by our own effort or understanding. The Spirit must guide us there. 

That’s part of why Jesus states that rejecting the Holy Spirit is so problematic. You’re rejecting your guide. You’re saying “Nope – let me fly blind down this mountainside and I’ll just take my chances.” Let me try to get there on my own. Let me do it by myself. 

By doing it yourself – you may eventually wind up at the bottom of the mountain… but you probably won’t be alive or in one piece when you get there. In other words – you’re a complete lunatic to reject your guide. 

This was the problem the disciples had, too – they could not fully comprehend and grasp who and what Jesus was until the Spirit came. They could not bear it. 

I find that word “bear” in and of itself an interesting word – the definition of the verb “to bear” is as follows: to move while holding up and supporting; to be equipped or furnished with; to have as a feature or characteristic; to give as testimony; to have as an identification; to hold in the mind or emotions; to give birth to; to produce; to support the weight of.

The disciples could do none of these things and were none of these things until the Spirit came. Then – the spirit  moved them, supported them, and equipped them to testify to Jesus – to hold in their minds Jesus as Lord and God. They could “bear” all these things once the Spirit came and revealed it to them. 

So the irony is, while we prefer to talk about Jesus rather than the Spirit because Jesus is what we more easily understand – the reason we understand Jesus is because of the Spirit. So once again – have fun wrapping your mind around that little conundrum. 

Ultimately – the only way for us to even begin to gather a glimpse of who and what God is – we must have God’s self-revelation in the three persons of a father who loves us, a son/savior who died for us, and a Spirit that guides and leads us in the truth of that Father and Son.