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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
When it comes to the Triune God—three Divine Persons and one Divine Substance, a Trinity of Persons and a Unity of substance—we all are a little like Nicodemus in today’s Gospel Reading, both asking, “How can these things be?” and effectively being silenced by Jesus’s answer. Of course, Nicodemus did not ask Jesus about the Trinity; in fact, initially, Nicodemus did not ask Jesus anything at all. Whatever might have motivated Nicodemus to come to Jesus by night, and whatever Nicodemus might have meant by his initial comment to Jesus, and whatever Nicodemus might have intended to talk further to Jesus about, Jesus, Who knew Nicodemus’s motives, meaning, and intentions (confer John 2:24-25), immediately made their initial topic the Divine necessity of being born of water and the Spirit—of the Holy Spirit, Who is One of the Blessed Persons of the Holy Trinity, along with God the Father and God the Son, Whom Jesus also mentions in speaking with Nicodemus. As we this morning consider today’s Gospel Reading, we also talk about “The Triune God and you”.
Notably, as we discussed recently in our Midweek Bible Study was the case with other Jews (confer Lenski, ad loc Acts 5:32, pp.228-229), Nicodemus apparently did not object to Jesus’s talk about the Triune God—specifically, as Jesus described Them, the Father Who loved the world, the Son Who was given to save the world, and the Spirit Who gives birth to children of God out of the world (confer John 1:12-13). But, Nicodemus, in all likelihood, had not been baptized by John the Baptizer, just as the other Pharisees and Jewish leaders had not been baptized by him, which fact St. Luke tells us, also stating that they had rejected God’s purpose for themselves (Luke 7:30). However, you and I, in all likelihood, have been baptized, but in some ways we may still reject God’s purposes for us. For example, we may not want to give up thinking, speaking, and acting in ways that we know are sinful. Certainly, at least, we continue to sin. Apart from God’s leading us to repent and believe, we would be condemned and perish eternally. But, God loved us, even when were dead in our trespasses (Ephesians 2:5), and, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).
Today’s Gospel Reading may not tell us that Nicodemus objected to Jesus’s talk about the Holy Trinity, but today’s Gospel Reading arguably makes clear that Nicodemus did not understand that Jesus was part of that Holy Trinity. Nicodemus called Jesus “a teacher come from God” and said essentially that Jesus could not do the miraculous signs that Jesus did unless God was “with Him”. In fact, Jesus was and is God in human flesh—the Son of God both begotten from the substance of the Father before all ages and born of the substance of His mother in this age. As Jesus went on to tell Nicodemus, the Father loved the world by giving His only Son to death on the cross in order to save the world (confer 1 John 4:9). The already sublime mystery of the Holy Trinity—the Father’s begetting the Son, the Son’s being begotten, and the Holy Spirit’s proceeding from the Father and the Son—seems to be only more mysterious when we consider the incarnation—that, despite the three Blessed Persons of the Holy Trinity’s sharing one Divine Substance, not the Father or the Holy Spirit but only the Son took on human flesh and died for us—dying in our place, the death that we deserved. Jesus told Nicodemus, and Jesus tells us, that the lifting up of the Son of Man was divinely necessary, so that whoever believes in Him—and Him crucified (confer 1 Corinthians 1:13; 2:2)—might have eternal life (confer Isaiah 52:13), and Jesus told Nicodemus, and Jesus tells us, that people’s being born of the Spirit is divinely necessary, in order for them to enter the Kingdom of God.
Since Jesus made that Divine necessity of being born of water and the Spirit His initial topic with Nicodemus, there is little surprise that, in the Gospel Reading, they mention “being born” eight times, and that, of those, three are specified as birth “of the Spirit”. And, since baptism is in the one Name of the three Persons—the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19)—there is little surprise that the topic of the Holy Trinity comes up in connection with Holy Baptism. The Triune God was manifest as Triune at Jesus’s own baptism: with the Father’s speaking from heaven, the Son’s having been baptized by John the Baptizer, and the Holy Spirit’s descending like a dove and coming to rest on Jesus (for example, Matthew 3:16-17). And, Holy Baptism is where the Triune God puts the Triune Name upon us. At the Baptismal Font, God saves us by the washing of regeneration (or, “rebirth” [Titus 3:5; confer 1 Peter 3:21]). Evident by good works or the lack thereof, belief in that Triune Name is the difference between those who are not condemned and those who are condemned (John 3:18; confer Mark 16:16), but, under normal circumstances, one who so believes will also not only be baptized but will even seek out and receive both individual Holy Absolution in that same Triune Name and the Sacrament of the Altar administered in that same Triune Name. Those who believe Christ’s words “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins” are truly worthy and well prepared to receive the bread that is the Body of Christ and the wine that is the Blood of Christ. As you receive them in faith, that which God’s messenger takes from this altar takes away your guilt and atones for your sins.
The idea of being born of water and the Spirit should not have surprised Nicodemus, for God had spoken of it in the Old Testament. For example, through the prophet Ezekiel, God promised to sprinkle clean water on the people of Israel in order to cleanse them from their uncleanness; God promised to put His Spirit within them and so cause them to walk in His statutes and be careful to obey His rules (Ezekiel 36:25-27). So also for us: after we are baptized, we at least want to stop sinning and obey God’s Commandments, even though we will fail to do so and therefore, with daily repentance and faith, live in His forgiveness of sins. Ultimately, all who are so born of God overcome the world (1 John 5:4). That victory that all believers have in Christ already now is of great comfort to us as, especially as we grieve the loss of loved ones from this world, and even as we face our own deaths in this world.
When it comes to the Triune God, we may both ask, “How can these things be?” and effectively be silenced by Jesus’s answer. But, considering today’s Gospel Reading and talking about “The Triune God and you”, we have realized that the Holy Trinity is not an irrelevant abstract aspect of Christian teaching but is a relevant concrete God, Who loves, saves, and gives birth to you, and Who, in ways that you can hear, feel, and taste, forgives your sins and gives you eternal life. The “catholic faith”—that faith pertaining to the whole Church as it confesses the wholeness of Christian teaching—is that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance. We bless the Holy Trinity and the undivided Unity; because He has shown His mercy to us, we give glory to Him.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +