Trinity Sunday
Beloved. Normally the great festivals of the Church Year recall events in our Lord’s life—for example, His birth, His Transfiguration, His resurrection. But today’s great festival—the Feast of the Holy Trinity—is different; it is a celebration, a recalling of a doctrine. In light of all that we have once again heard this past Church Year, we come to this great mystery of Who God is—one God and yet three Persons; we worship and adore the mystery of God’s essence, the Holy Trinity. It is this doctrine that distinguishes Christianity from the other so-called monotheistic religions of modern-day Judaism and Islam, which deny that there are Persons in the Godhead. Only the Christian knows God rightly as one divine being but three distinct Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That Christians in faith know and believe this is not because we are somehow more worthy and deserving than others; instead, it is all God’s grace revealing this to us and giving us the gift of faith that we believe it.
There is a huge difference between the two questions: What is God? and Who is God? All people, as we come into the world, know instinctively that there is a God. That’s because the knowledge that there is a God is something we are all born with. It is part of what St. Paul calls [Rm. 2.15]: the law written in [the] hearts, [the] conscience also bearing witness. Not only, then, does conscience tell us there is a God, but the world around us/ nature proclaims loud and clear that there is a God—someone had to design and make everything and that Someone is God. Again, St. Paul writes [Rm. 1.19, 20]: For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. God left His fingerprints all over the creation. From the Creation, not only do we know that there is a God, but that He is almighty, that He is wise because He planned and made everything so perfectly—the design and purpose in the world; nature testifies to God’s providence and also to His wrath. God chose to reveal Himself in nature; but this revelation of God in creation is not enough to bring us to a right and true knowledge of God. It will whet our appetite so that we seek and search for God where He has fully revealed Himself: in His Son, Jesus; in holy Scripture, which tells us all that God wants to reveal to us, all that is necessary for us to know Him rightly, all that is necessary for our salvation.
Although all the religions of the world talk about a “God”—because people know instinctively there is a God and nature around us is testifying—there is only one true God: the holy Triune God. That’s why we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Trinity. Yes, our worship and adoration of the holy Triune God is each and every day, but we need this yearly reminder of Who that God is that we are worshipping lest we fall prey to the fuzzy notions of “God” in our society, that all “Gods” are equally as valid and true. Holy Trinity Sunday is the day that the Christian boldly stands up and confesses that there is only true God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Our text today is Jesus’ discussion with a Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. Usually we find the Pharisees to be opposing Jesus, but here is a good Pharisee; he had a thirst for righteousness and salvation—he really wanted to know how someone was saved. Notice what he said to Jesus: “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these miraculous signs you are doing unless God is with him.” Notice: we know that you are a teacher who has come from God… The point? At least some of the Pharisees were convinced in their heart of who Jesus really is. The signs He was doing validated His teaching.
But only Nicodemus came to Jesus. Obviously Jesus’ discussion with Nicodemus and Nicodemus’ further study and listening to Jesus and His word led to the Holy Spirit working a firm and bold faith in Nicodemus. Later on [Jn. 7.50-51] in the midst of other Pharisees, Nicodemus defended Jesus and endured ridicule for it; and of course it was Nicodemus who brought burial spices to quickly prepare Jesus’ body for burial that first Good Friday. According to tradition outside of Scripture, Nicodemus was baptized by St. Peter; he was removed from the Sanhedrin and forced to flee Jerusalem.
In today’s text of Nicodemus and then in what we see happening later with him, we see something important. We see first of all, Nicodemus’ coming to faith in Jesus—and if that was before, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, or during this discussion, or sometime later we don’t know for sure—but his coming to faith was something quiet and hidden. And how beautifully that is pictured by the words of St. John: He came to Jesus at night—the quiet solitude of the night. Here we are reminded that the Holy Spirit works on the heart quietly and hidden.
And because of Nicodemus’ boldness later on, we see that not only is our faith something quiet and hidden, it is also something open and obvious.
Jesus seems to blow past Nicodemus’ opening statement without comment. “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these miraculous signs you are doing unless God is with him.” What was Jesus’ response? He showed His divinity, that He knows what is in a person’s heart and simply cuts to the quick of what Nicodemus needed to hear and what was certainly his reason for his coming to Jesus—to find out how a person is saved. “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless someone is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” What is necessary for salvation? That a person be born from above, that a person have a heavenly birth. That heavenly birth is God working faith in us, working new spiritual life in us. That’s because we are all conceived and born in sin and would remain spiritually dead and an enemy of God unless He works on us and gives us a new birth. Remember to whom Jesus is speaking—Nicodemus, a Pharisee, a person that was very meticulous to keep the OT law and not just the ones God gave but also the laws added to it. So outwardly, Nicodemus would be considered the “best of the best”, the “cream of the crop” in terms of righteousness. But even to someone so outwardly righteous Jesus says: “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless someone is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” All our righteousness, no matter how good we may seem to be, is not enough; there must be that rebirth, that birth from above. In other words, God must give us a new birth from above: Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh. Whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. Just like a baby does nothing toward its conception and birth, so with our new birth, we can add nothing—God must do it all.
Our new birth, our birth from above is when God creates true faith in Him in our hearts and by that gives us new life. And the amazing thing is that He does it quietly and hidden—and that through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God! Holy Baptism doesn’t look like much but it is God’s mighty working! God works mightily in the few words of Holy Baptism—I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit—and in its water. Notice again baptism’s importance and why God commands baptism: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God! Holy Baptism is the clearest grace of God. He comes to us sinners, washes away our sin, gives us the gift of faith to receive His gifts of forgiveness of sin and life in Jesus and brings us into His holy family. –All of this without any merit and worthiness in us. St. Paul puts it this way [Tts 3.5]: [God our Savior] saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.
Look at the way the Holy Spirit works when He gives us that new birth from above. Jesus describes it this way to Nicodemus: Do not be surprised when I tell you that you must be born from above. The wind blows where it pleases. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” You don’t see the wind, but you see its effects. The quiet gentle wind of the Holy Spirit works great things. The “sound” of the Holy Spirit is the word and Sacrament. That’s where the Holy Spirit is—in the Word and Sacrament. And He works in and through them to give us that new birth from above in Holy Baptism and to strengthen our faith through the word. We don’t see Him working, but we know He is working because you, me, and people throughout the world and throughout the ages are Christians. Let the gentle, quiet wind of the Holy Spirit blow on you in the word and sacrament and work in your heart and life.
Look at the blessings we receive in Holy Baptism—the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, faith, love of God, heaven. These are all inward and hidden. Walking down the street, a baptized person looks just like an unbaptized person. But inward, hidden in the heart and soul of the person are great, spiritual blessings, too great to even fully consider. Also inward, hidden in the heart are the new desires and loves the Holy Spirit works in us in baptism. Now we have a new self, the Christian in us, led and empowered by the Holy Spirit that loves the Lord and wants to do His will. We have within a battle raging between our old sinful self and the new self. By faith and the Holy Spirit we now live a life of repentance where we die to sin and live to righteousness.
That’s where our Christian faith is no longer hidden. Nicodemus came at night, quiet and hidden, was brought to faith and strengthened by the Holy Spirit so that His faith became open and obvious as He actually prepared Jesus’ body for burial.
That’s a beautiful example of that faith, that new life, that new birth from above that is worked in quiet by the Holy Spirit in the Word and Sacrament, then showing itself mighty and powerfully in our lives.
The Christian, because we have been born of water and the Spirit, we are freed from serving self, freed from slavery to devil, sin, and death, and now free to love God and neighbor in this life—as imperfectly as it may be. Being born again from above is freeing and liberating because it frees us from a slavery to sin that will only doom us to damnation. Instead, we have the Holy Spirit in us; He is working with the new self/ the Christian in us that He created as He brought us to spiritual life in Holy Baptism. Because by faith we know God rightly as our Savior who loves us, we as Christians are ready and willing to do all that pleases God out of our joy in the Lord and our love of Him. This spiritual life is alive, vibrant, moving, active! In baptism faith begins producing works pleasing to God. A Christian, because we have that new spiritual life the Holy Spirit created in us, will never think that sin doesn’t matter, that I can live anyway I want since, after all, I’m baptized. Instead, the Christian’s new life shows itself in daily remembering his/her baptism by daily examining life, recognizing sin, repenting of that sin—rooting out that sin and turning to Jesus for forgiveness of that sin. The Christian’s faith is confessed/ out in the open as he/she gathers around our Lord’s holy word and Sacrament for the forgiveness of sin and the strengthening of faith.
Our Christian faith is both hidden—worked in the heart by the Holy Spirit as He brings us a new birth from above in Baptism—and obvious as strengthened by the Holy Spirit we, in faith, joyfully lead a life of good works. INJ Amen