“HEAVENLY THINGS”
The Holy Trinity
May 27, 2018
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
"If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?"
John 3:12 (ESV)
The world that we live in is full of mysterious things that are beyond our comprehension or acceptance. Death, for example, is an experience that is common to all of us and has been studied extensively by many, and yet no one really knows what it’s like to die or to be dead. Lightning bugs have been the subject of intense scientific study for centuries, but still I’m not all that sure that a simple explanation for their uniqueness has ever been given. The great pyramids of Egypt, thousands of years old, are engineering marvels even by today’s standards, yet how they were built so many centuries ago remains a mystery. If you go to the observation deck at the Empire State Building in New York City, when the wind currents are right, you can see rain or snow going up instead of coming down. And although I'm personally not smart enough to verify it, I have been told that, according to the laws of physics, there is no way that a helicopter should be able to fly, and yet it does. Life in this world certainly is full of mysteries.
It’s no wonder, then, that we should balk at some of the even greater marvels--spiritual marvels like the Trinity, the incarnation of Christ, the virgin birth, the regenerative power of Holy Baptism, the real presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper, and the resurrection of the dead. Jesus’ point in His conversation with Nicodemus (which serves as this morning’s Gospel) is that people who can’t accept the earthly mysteries that they live with day in and day out certainly aren’t ready to accept divine mysteries. Very often our attitude toward the ways of God is not unlike that of a student who can’t get the basic stuff complaining that the more advanced material makes no sense to him. Of course it doesn’t make any sense to him! He’s not ready for it! This morning, as we celebrate the Mystery of the Holy Trinity, we’re going to explore why "heavenly things" are so difficult for us to understand and accept. It all really boils down to just two facts: (1) our understanding is limited and (2) the "heavenly things" that Jesus is talking about here are perfect.
Our understanding of heavenly things is limited, first of all, because we are capable of seeing things from only one perspective--our own. No matter how educated and open-minded and unbiased that we may like to think that we are, the fact is that a we each see ourselves as the center of the universe. Now if I think that everything revolves around me, I’m not going to see anything except in terms of how it relates to me. Not only is that a presumptuous and an arrogant attitude for a person to take; it also prevents that person from seeing and understanding and accepting so much of God’s world. If this is true of the visible world that we live in, how much more it must be true of the unseen world in which God works His wonders for our spiritual welfare. We can’t even understand human forgiveness because we are not forgiving by nature, so how could we possibly begin to understand God’s grace and forgiveness extended to sinners like us in Christ?
The most serious limitation placed on our understanding stems from the fact that our understanding, like everything else about us, is tainted by sin. When sin came into the world through the first act of human disobedience, every aspect of our lives became infected with sin. Our perceptions are no longer perfect, as the Creator intended them to be from the beginning. Now we see everything with a selfish and critical eye. As we look at “the big picture,” so to speak, we look at it only in terms of whether or not it’s what I want. We don’t consider any other issues. It doesn’t matter to most people whether what happens is going to benefit a lot of people. It doesn’t matter whether what happens is going be instructive. It certainly doesn't matter whether what happens is going to glorify God. It doesn’t even matter whether what happens is ultimately what I need. The only thing that matters to the average person is that I get what I want when I want it, and if that doesn’t happen, it’s not right, and on that basis I conclude that life isn’t fair--and neither is God.
What makes the things of God so difficult for us to understand or accept is the fact that God deals with perfection--a concept that we like to talk about and occasionally try to demand from others, but something that we can’t even begin to attain ourselves. The “heavenly things” that Jesus alluded to in His conversation with Nicodemus are perfect things--first of all perfect justice. We cry out for justice all the time but we don’t really know what we’re talking about. By contrast, God brings about His perfect justice on a cross outside the city of Jerusalem. He does it with the shedding of innocent blood--the death of the Innocent in place of the guilty. This makes no sense at all to the average person, but God knows that perfect justice can never be brought about by people who are imperfect; it can be accomplished only by the perfect Son of God.
Something else that we don’t see in the "heavenly things" that God is and does is His perfect love and grace. We are told in Paul’s letter to the Romans that “for those who love God all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28). We don’t know what’s best for us and for the whole community of faith quite as well as we often think we do. God has a way of bringing all things together into a beautiful harmony to His glory and for the benefit of His children. We don’t always see it that way, but a very big part of faith is trusting that God, who is all-wise and all-loving, knows better than we do what is best for us. Our Father in heaven may not always do things quite the way that we would do them and He may not always do things the way that we want Him to do them, but He always does everything perfectly--for Him and ultimately for us.
God Himself has bridged the huge gap between His perfect grace and our limited understanding. The God who loved us so much that He became One of us in Christ in order to deliver us from sin and death also loves us so much that He presents His Gospel of grace to us in ways that we can grasp. We call these ways the means of grace. Through them our gracious God comes to us in simple things that we can understand and relate to--things like words in our own language that we can hear and read and understand and apply to our lives and speak to others--things like water that we can be bathed in and thereby receive the forgiveness of sins, the Gift of the Holy Spirit, and New Life in Jesus Christ--things like bread and wine that we can see and smell and taste and thereby receive in the true body and blood of our Savior all of the blessings of the once-for-all sacrifice that He made for us on Calvary's cross so long ago. All of these--and much more--are the "heavenly things" of God that are given to us in simple ways--ways through which we can receive them in faith--because He loves us. His Spirit teaches us to know it, to make use of these means and rejoice in them, and to live the New Life that He gives us in and through them with joy and thanksgiving.
Amen.
May the King of Ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, make you wise for salvation through His Word, revealing Himself to you as Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, that you may grow in grace and knowledge, equipped to serve Him in all things. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.