Week Fifteen-Day Two: Trinitarian

Psalm 139:7-8

“Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go up to the heavens You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there.”

Jesus’ teaching was challenging and downright unsettling at times, to be sure. But it was also thrilling. In fact, the biographies record several instances in which the crowds around him murmured “We’ve never heard teaching like this before.”

Okay, that’s the good news. And it kept the earliest followers coming back for more. Still, I believe his teaching was also very confusing at times, especially to those closest to him. This may explain why they sometimes react in ways that Jesus characterized as lack of faith.

Certainly there were occasions of weak faith, but it seems to me that it was a lack of faith born of “how-could-this-possibly-be-the-case” kind of thinking. It may not have been outright rejection so much as it was confusion.

“You seem to be saying things about yourself, and frankly doing things, that just don’t sound right, Jesus. If we didn’t know better we would accuse you of blasphemy. Look, I understand why the religious rulers and experts are accusing you of such. You kinda sound like you’re claiming to be God here.”

Strange enough, right, but add to this confusion the sayings Jesus offered about another. What were they to make of these sayings? Who was this “other”? How would they be expected to understand? Listen in …

John 14

“¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to help you and be with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. ¹⁸ I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. ¹⁹ Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. ²⁰ On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. ²¹ Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

John 16

“⁷ But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”

This kind of teaching helped lead these first followers to the inevitable conclusion that we have been calling Trinitarianism. So, not only did the first followers come to an understanding of God as having existed forever as a community of absolute oneness, but this understanding then begins to inform their reading of passages like King David’s hymn quoted at the beginning of today. This understanding would also inform their most important early practices. For example, following the teaching of their Master, Jesus, the first followers would baptize new converts “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”[1] We do the same thing today.

This is an obvious acknowledgement of their belief, and ours, in the reality of the Trinity, but think about how odd this phrasing is. Imagine Jesus suggesting that his followers baptize people “in the name of God and all of the prophets”. Actually, that would be somewhat understandable. But now imagine him singling some names out. Imagine him suggesting that we baptize “in the name of God, Isaiah and Ezekiel” … or “God and Abraham and John the Baptist”.

Weird, right?

Now think about this: “Baptize in the name of the Father, the Son and the archangel Gabriel.” What? Doubly weird, right? You know why it sounds doubly weird? Because by saying “Father” he seems to be putting everyone else in the phrase on an equal footing with God. In the former cases, it is weird that he would have singled out say Abraham and John the Baptist, but at least God is separated apart as “God”. But “Father, Son and Gabriel” … what are we to make of that?

Of course, I took us through that exercise to try and shake off the familiarity of the phrase “Father, Son and Holy Spirit”. Unless you come to embrace Trinitarianism, this is a very awkward phrasing to say the least.

If we’re honest with ourselves, we have to admit the awkwardness of it. Trinitarianism is an odd belief and we are odd for believing it. But if you accept the truth of the death and resurrection of Jesus and the truth of his teachings, you can only reject the idea of the Trinity with great difficulty. You see, Jesus leads us to this doctrine. But once we are here we begin to see that it really makes sense of everything else.

BEFORE YOU START YOUR DAY

1. Go back to the John 14 and John 16 passages and try to identify 5 things Jesus’ teaching tells us about the Spirit.
2. What phrase(s) in those passages jumped out at you?Turn it over a few times in your mind before you begin your day.