The Divine Hug: A Different Way of Thinking About the Trinity
Matthew 28:16-20
There is something odd in Matthew 28
Jesus has all authority. He commands the disciples to go to all nations. And he says that he will always be with them.
He is, using the old words, omni-potent and omni-present.
You might expect him to say, ‘baptise them in my name’.
That would make sense.
When you are baptised into someone’s name, you become part of them and they become part of you. Your lives are intertwined. Their glory becomes the glory in which you share. Their destiny is your destiny. You become their person, and they become your person.
In 1 Corinthians 10:2, Paul speaks of how the ancient Israelites were baptised into Moses.
And Paul also speaks of baptism into Christ.
Romans 6:3: ‘All of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus have been baptised into his death’.
Galatians 3:27: ‘As many of you as were baptised into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ’
But Jesus does not say here, ‘baptise them in my name’.
He says something much bigger.
He says: ‘Baptise them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit’.
In other words, we are Jesus’ people, but bigger than that, we are Trinity people - Father Son and Holy Spirit – people, immersed into the life of the Trinity, part of the life of the Trinity.
We’ve seen the Trinity in Matthew
Jesus was conceived by the Spirit. He is led into the wilderness by the Spirit (4.1), he casts out demons by the Spirit of God (12.28)
At his baptism, we hear the voice of the Father and Jesus sees the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove.
At his transfiguration, the Father speaks again. ‘This is my beloved Son – listen to him”
But perhaps the most remarkable statement comes in Matthew 11:27, when Jesus says, ‘All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him’.
It speaks of the harmony between Father and Son, of deep intimacy (being known and knowing), and of how we are invited to share in this relationship.
And we are baptised, immersed into the life of the Trinity.
The Trinity is not a problem to be solved.
So often – as in that classic Nuns on the Run clip – the Trinity is treated as a mathematical problem to be solved.
And I am dissatisfied with many of the illustrations for the Trinity that are used. The three leaf clover, the Venn diagram with three overlapping circles, the water/ice/steam analogy – because they turn the Trinity into a thing and forget that we are speaking about a relationship between three persons.
So, I find this icon by Rublev incredibly helpful. Three angels who are seen as representing the three persons of the Trinity, in communion seated at a table.
Or I take it a bit further, and I speak of the divine hug of three persons.
The Father initiates the hug. He gives.
The Son responds and returns that love. And he opens the way to us to come into the hug
The Holy Spirit reaches out and draws us to Jesus, he draws us into the embrace, so that we become part of the hug, of the divine life.
If there is no Trinity, if there is only Jesus with all authority over all people at all time, then:
Jesus’ prayer becomes self-conversation
His claim to have authority is (albeit justified) self-aggrandisement
His glory is only about his majesty, power, sovereignty, splendour and greatness.
And ultimate reality is ultimately monadic (sorry this is a bit philosophical!). It is ultimately solitary, or totalitarian with no distinction between anything.
But Jesus is saying, and this is really significant, not, ‘I have all authority’, but ‘I have been given all authority’
Beyond me there is always One, who is my source, who I have been eternally with, who I know as my Father and who knows me as his beloved Son, whose glory I seek and who gives me glory and authority – and he is the One who you, who are created, can also know as Father.
And because at the heart of creation, of everything, there is the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, then self-giving, mutuality and interdependence, fellowship and communion belong to reality at its deepest level.
We often think the most important question is "What am I?" But the Trinity suggests that the deeper question is "Whose am I?" and "Who am I with?"
And so we baptise people into the life of the Trinity.
We begin to share in their glory.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning (for from the beginning they have been glory to each other), is now and will be for ever. Amen.
There is something odd in Matthew 28
Jesus has all authority. He commands the disciples to go to all nations. And he says that he will always be with them.
He is, using the old words, omni-potent and omni-present.
You might expect him to say, ‘baptise them in my name’.
That would make sense.
When you are baptised into someone’s name, you become part of them and they become part of you. Your lives are intertwined. Their glory becomes the glory in which you share. Their destiny is your destiny. You become their person, and they become your person.
In 1 Corinthians 10:2, Paul speaks of how the ancient Israelites were baptised into Moses.
And Paul also speaks of baptism into Christ.
Romans 6:3: ‘All of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus have been baptised into his death’.
Galatians 3:27: ‘As many of you as were baptised into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ’
But Jesus does not say here, ‘baptise them in my name’.
He says something much bigger.
He says: ‘Baptise them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit’.
In other words, we are Jesus’ people, but bigger than that, we are Trinity people - Father Son and Holy Spirit – people, immersed into the life of the Trinity, part of the life of the Trinity.
We’ve seen the Trinity in Matthew
Jesus was conceived by the Spirit. He is led into the wilderness by the Spirit (4.1), he casts out demons by the Spirit of God (12.28)
At his baptism, we hear the voice of the Father and Jesus sees the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove.
At his transfiguration, the Father speaks again. ‘This is my beloved Son – listen to him”
But perhaps the most remarkable statement comes in Matthew 11:27, when Jesus says, ‘All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him’.
It speaks of the harmony between Father and Son, of deep intimacy (being known and knowing), and of how we are invited to share in this relationship.
And we are baptised, immersed into the life of the Trinity.
The Trinity is not a problem to be solved.
So often – as in that classic Nuns on the Run clip – the Trinity is treated as a mathematical problem to be solved.
And I am dissatisfied with many of the illustrations for the Trinity that are used. The three leaf clover, the Venn diagram with three overlapping circles, the water/ice/steam analogy – because they turn the Trinity into a thing and forget that we are speaking about a relationship between three persons.
So, I find this icon by Rublev incredibly helpful. Three angels who are seen as representing the three persons of the Trinity, in communion seated at a table.
Or I take it a bit further, and I speak of the divine hug of three persons.
The Father initiates the hug. He gives.
The Son responds and returns that love. And he opens the way to us to come into the hug
The Holy Spirit reaches out and draws us to Jesus, he draws us into the embrace, so that we become part of the hug, of the divine life.
If there is no Trinity, if there is only Jesus with all authority over all people at all time, then:
Jesus’ prayer becomes self-conversation
His claim to have authority is (albeit justified) self-aggrandisement
His glory is only about his majesty, power, sovereignty, splendour and greatness.
And ultimate reality is ultimately monadic (sorry this is a bit philosophical!). It is ultimately solitary, or totalitarian with no distinction between anything.
But Jesus is saying, and this is really significant, not, ‘I have all authority’, but ‘I have been given all authority’
Beyond me there is always One, who is my source, who I have been eternally with, who I know as my Father and who knows me as his beloved Son, whose glory I seek and who gives me glory and authority – and he is the One who you, who are created, can also know as Father.
And because at the heart of creation, of everything, there is the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, then self-giving, mutuality and interdependence, fellowship and communion belong to reality at its deepest level.
We often think the most important question is "What am I?" But the Trinity suggests that the deeper question is "Whose am I?" and "Who am I with?"
And so we baptise people into the life of the Trinity.
It is the mark of belonging — belonging to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, belonging to God.
And it makes us a different kind of people.
Not people grasping for our own authority and glory — that is the way of the world.
But people who are learning to receive.
We receive from the Father, who loves to give — who made us, who sustains us, who gives us his very self in his Son.
We receive from the Son, who was given all authority by the Father, and who gives us everything — himself, his life, the knowledge of the Father's love.
We receive from the Holy Spirit, who comes into our hearts, who changes what we think, what we want, what we long for.
And as we are drawn deeper into their life — as we pray Our Father in heaven, as we cry Come, Lord Jesus, as we open ourselves to the Spirit — something remarkable happens.
And it makes us a different kind of people.
Not people grasping for our own authority and glory — that is the way of the world.
But people who are learning to receive.
We receive from the Father, who loves to give — who made us, who sustains us, who gives us his very self in his Son.
We receive from the Son, who was given all authority by the Father, and who gives us everything — himself, his life, the knowledge of the Father's love.
We receive from the Holy Spirit, who comes into our hearts, who changes what we think, what we want, what we long for.
And as we are drawn deeper into their life — as we pray Our Father in heaven, as we cry Come, Lord Jesus, as we open ourselves to the Spirit — something remarkable happens.
We begin to share in their glory.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning (for from the beginning they have been glory to each other), is now and will be for ever. Amen.
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