Preparing for Worship - June 15, 2025

This Sunday is Holy Trinity Sunday, and the Scripture readings focus on the mystery and yet the reality of the One True Triune God, one God and yet three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Psalm is Psalm 8, a psalm of praise to the LORD, our Lord, with His majestic Name and work as the Creator of our amazing universe and world. Note that David uses the unique Biblical Name for God, Yahweh, which is always shown in translations like the ESV as capital LORD, the great I AM, I AM WHO I AM. (See Exodus 3:13-15.) David also uses another word for “our Lord,” the word which can be used to refer to our king, our ruler, one in great authority. The LORD is both our God and our King, and what is a man that the LORD is mindful of and cares for him? Yet the LORD does. And He cares especially in providing a unique Son of Man for us human beings, our Lord Jesus. God the Son was true God, Son of the Father, and yet became a true man, “a little lower than the heavenly beings,” in order to do His saving work for us and as one of us. Jesus used the name “Son of Man” for Himself at least seventy times, and this is affirmed in Hebrews 2:5-9, where this passage from Psalm 8 is quoted. It was “namely Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels” so that He might suffer and die “by the grace of God for everyone.” Then he was “crowned” again “with glory and honor” in heaven, with “all things put under His feet,” as both 1 Corinthians 15:27 and Ephesians 1:22 say, quoting from Psalm 8. We therefore praise our Lord Jesus as children did in the temple long ago, as quoted again from Psalm 8:2.

The Old Testament lesson is from Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31. This passage begins with a woman pictured as sharing what is right, Wisdom from God, with people, in contrast with an adulterous woman pictured in Proverbs 7, who seeks to lead people, lacking sense, astray. Then, in verses 22-31, a person is described who was with the LORD from eternity, before all things were created, and who was then involved in the creation of the heavens and the earth, together with the Spirit of God, and is the personification of Wisdom. The New Testament applies passages like this to Jesus, in John 1:1-4, 14-18. Jesus was the “Word of God” and "God made flesh, the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth, who makes the Father known.” Christ Jesus is also called “the Power of God and the Wisdom of God… who became to us Wisdom of God” and much more, as our Redeemer (1 Corinthians 1:24-24, 30-31). We therefore boast in the Lord Jesus, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:2,9-10,12-13). (Look also at Colossians 2:2-3, which speaks of “the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” If you have an ESV
Lutheran Study Bible, you could look at the discussion of “Christ as Wisdom” on p 1012.)

The Gospel Lesson is from John 8:48-59. Jesus is being accused of being a “Samaritan,” one of the people whom many Jews hated, and having a demon, an evil spirit, in him. Jesus says that He actually honors His Heavenly Father, and that if people “kept His Word, they would never see death.” That statement made people think He was truly demon-possessed. “Abraham and all the prophets died”, they said. Who did Jesus think He was? (They often accused Jesus of being crazy and demon-possessed. See also John 10:20 and Luke 11:14-23.) Jesus says that He truly does know God, His Father, and keeps His Word, and that even Abraham knew of His coming. (See what Peter says about the prophets of old and what they did know, in 1 Peter 1:10-12, even as we believe in Jesus without having seen Him, through His Word and promises (1 Peter 1:8-9). Jesus then made a very strong statement of being God, with eternal existence, saying, “Truly, truly I say to you, ‘Before Abraham was, I AM.'” Jesus applies that special Old Testament name for God, Yahweh, the LORD, “I AM Who I AM” to Himself. (See the comments above on Psalm 8 and Exodus 3:13-15). He truly was One with God the Father, and made the same comments again and again when he used His many “I AM” statements - I AM the Light of the World, I AM the Bread of Life, etc. People then realized that he was claiming to be God and LORD, but they rejected Him and what he was claiming and tried to stone Him to death. He was able to escape until he finally went to the cross willingly to die in payment for our sins, and then rose in victory. (A passage like this is what caused people like C.S. Lewis to say that Jesus was either a liar or a lunatic or the Son of God. Lewis says that he was dragged kicking and screaming into the kingdom of God by being brought to know that Jesus actually was the Son of God, his Savior.)

The Epistle lesson is from Acts 2:14a, 22-36, continuing the Pentecost reading from last Sunday. Peter clearly speaks of Jesus, who followed “the definite plan and foreknowledge of God,” in being crucified and killed, but then being raised from the dead, and now “full of gladness in the presence of God” and reigning with Him. Peter quotes prophecy from God in Psalm 16:8-11, Psalm 132:11, and Psalm 116:11-12, showing that Jesus was both LORD and Christ (the anointed, promised Savior). Peter does not give a neat definition and explanation of the Trinity, for that is beyond our comprehension. (See Romans 11:33-36.) Peter simply says what the Triune God has been doing for our salvation. “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing this day (of Pentecost).” This is the One True Triune God, one God and yet three Persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, actively at work for us and our salvation. The result is what our LORD God wants, calling people to Himself as our Heavenly Father and bringing them to faith in Jesus and baptism, through The Word of God and the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38-41). Praise Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, our One True God!