Sunday 04 June 2023

Psalm 8

Background

Today is Trinity Sunday, when the Church celebrates the mystery of God in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  It's an understanding that has developed over time. God exists in a community of love: dynamic, generous, vulnerable even – eternally defined by the giving and receiving of love. It is a love so strong that we are drawn to say that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one. Our passage today contains one of the earliest written expressions of ‘Trinity’ in Matthew’s account of Jesus final earthly words. Jesus gathers his disciples on a mountain, and gives them three things: good news, a mission and a promise. We will find an understanding of these things if we look for the clues in other mountain-top experiences in Matthew’s Gospel.

First, the good news: all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus. At the start of Jesus’ ministry, the devil took him up a mountain and offered him the world, if only he would bow down and worship him (Matthew 4:8-10). Jesus refused, unlike humans before him who submitted to earthly idols (against God’s design for humanity in Genesis 1:26 and Exodus 20:3-4). But God now provides a way out of this slavery. On another mountain, God's voice is heard saying, “This is my son... Listen to him!” (Matthew 17:5).  Jesus is given a place high above the other rulers of this world.  

Paul wrote of Jesus: “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15).  In his death and resurrection, Jesus is rewarded with the true throne of the universe.  Those who were once slaves can now find redemption and release in him.

Through Christ we can be set free to enter the new community as forgiven disciples in a renewed relationship with God, following the Lord who rules with absolute self-giving love. This leads to the mission: “Go, therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising... and teaching...”  Jesus’ sermon on another mountain (Matthew 5-7) gives us a basis for the teaching of God’s renewed people: striving to live on earth ‘the kingdom of heaven’, through the Holy Spirit.  Baptism is the sign, showing we follow Christ through death into eternal life. It is performed in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – because all three are intimately involved in God’s saving and liberating love.

'The end of the age' will signal a new dawn: the coming ‘new creation’ when all will be renewed and we will see the Father, Son and Holy Spirit face to face. For now, Jesus leaves us with a promise: “Remember, I am with you always.” (v. 20)  God’s mission is not to be achieved without God’s profound help. It’s a promise that lasts, even though we are often like a people wandering in the wilderness: fighting enemies outside and within; trying to live in community; struggling with persecutions, hardship and our own mistakes. We are God's people, and God is with us! 

To Ponder:

• Would you call yourself a disciple of Christ? In what ways do you consider yourself under Christ’s ‘authority’?
• How are God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit all involved in your life?
• Have you been baptised?  Even if you can’t remember it, knowing it happened connects you with the disciples in this story and with the unbroken line of baptism through history. What does this mean to you?