This is very mysterious. It always has been mysterious to me. I grew up going to church and Sunday school, but a lot of Christianity and the Bible is perplexing to a young mind. (And even an old mind.)
The concept of the Trinity is one of those things. It doesn’t make sense because there is nothing like it in this world. I can’t relate to it or understand it or even imagine it very well.
As a child I could grasp the idea of God because I was very familiar with powerful authority figures. I knew parents and teachers, police officers and shop clerks. Pretty much any adult had more power than me and did things I couldn’t begin to understand. My dad built our house so I could understand very well the concept of a loving father creating a good place for me to live, like God creating the universe for His children.
But when they tried to explain the Trinity to me, I was lost. I had no experience with three-in-one people. My dad was separate from my teacher who was separate from my mom. How could God include Jesus and the Holy Spirit as one Being while being three separate Beings as well? The closest I could come was a person with a split personality or conjoined triplets or some kind of job-share situation perhaps. There’s just nothing like it in all of creation.
Well, I guess that’s kind of the point. God is unique and mysterious and incomprehensible. I can’t begin to understand Him fully. If I could, He wouldn’t be much of a God.
The point of today’s verse isn’t to boggle the mind though. Jesus was simply trying to comfort His disciples. He had been explaining that He was about to be executed, which is understandably disturbing. After all, they had spent years following Him. They had put all their hopes in Him. Now He was “going away”?!
So Jesus said, hey don’t worry, another part of me will come and hang around right in your heart and be with you all the time. That part of me will never go away. In fact, that part will stick around until I come back.
They were very confused. And they stayed confused until Pentecost when it happened — the part of the Trinity that Jesus promised arrived and filled each of them.
Fortunately, part of the Holy Spirit’s job was to teach and remind the disciples about everything Jesus said and meant during His ministry. The disciples stopped being confused and started worshipping and teaching and preaching and healing and writing. They continued the ministry Jesus began. They loved. The fear left them, replaced by confidence in God, and they started Christianity.
The good news is that the same Holy Spirit that filled the disciples at Pentecost will also fill any believer in Jesus today. Today’s verse is for me and you. I don’t have to understand the Trinity or any of God’s wondrous mysteries to have access to God’s love. I just have to believe and accept His gift.
Dear God,
You are a confounding and marvelous mystery to me. Thank you for explaining what I need to know in a way I can understand it through Jesus. Thank you for promising to come live with me, teaching me and reminding me of your word. Open my ears to hear your voice today. I look forward to the day when you explain it all to me, and I can see you face to face.
CamDevo 