05/31/2026
The Trinity - Receive and Believe
(Matthew 20;16-20) Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Today’s Gospel is set on a mountaintop. The Scriptures are full of accounts of God calling His prophet’s to summits and mountain tops. Remember Abraham, Moses, and Elijah. Each one encountered God on high ground and left that summit with a mission given to them by the Almighty.
The resurrected Jesus had invited his disciples to join him on a mountain top. They listened to him and climbed up the steep slope believing and trusting that they would meet him at the summit. Their faith and trust had paid off. Jesus stood before them. The mountain top setting was by no means random. It punctuates Jesus’ words and commands.
At the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus was tempted by Satan. Matthew reveals three specific temptations unleashed by Satan. The first two relate to Jesus’ identity. Satan began: “If you are the Son of God, perform a miracle for me. Jesus refused. Satan then demanded that Jesus put God to the test.” Jesus rebuffed him. Believing that the third time is a charm, Satan took a different tack.
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’[e]”
Satan is the father of all liars. He promised Jesus more than he could deliver. The world did not belong to Satan in a way that he could have handed it over to Jesus.
Satan had tempted Adam and Eve to disobey God and bring sin and death into the world. Satan had convinced Eve that God would not strike her down if she ate the forbidden fruit. She would know the difference between good and evil she would be like God. Eve believed Satan and not God and she ate the fruit and so did Adam. They were instantly changed and sin, suffering and death came into the world.
Satan knew that Jesus had come into the world to take dominion over the world. His temptation: “Jesus you can have that dominion you seek, all you have to do is worship me.” He tempted Jesus to disobey God so that the cycle caused by Satan’s initial temptation of Adam and Eve (a world filled with sin, misery, sickness, unending toil and death) would continue for perpetuity. Jesus refused to take dominion over a broken world. He sent Satan away with a quote from Deuteronomy 6:13: “We are to worship God alone and serve him only.” He would take dominion over the world by worshipping and serving God.
Jesus’ identity and how he would worship and serve God was revealed in Jesus’ baptism. God the Father had introduced this new rite through the Prophet John. Baptism was instituted to prepare God’s chosen people for the coming of their promised Messiah. John called the people of Israel to repent of their sin and rebellion. Those who earnestly repented were baptized as a sign of their repentance and for the forgiveness of their sins. John declared that while his baptism was for the forgiveness of sin, and that one would come after him that would baptize them with the Holy Spirit.
Matthew’s Gospel reveals that Jesus suddenly appeared before John while he was baptizing repentant sinners. Jesus asked John to baptize him. At first John was taken aback and refused. John recognized Jesus and his authority. The Messiah stood before him. John declared: “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Jesus encouraged John to baptize him as it was necessary to fulfill Jesus’ mission to save the world, that is “to fulfill all righteousness.” (Matthew 3:13-17)
The Son stood in the Jordan River, ready to receive the waters of baptism. John applied the water to Jesus. He walked out of the water and heaven opened. Then suddenly, the Father spoke these words from above: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” The Holy Spirit came from above. He descended like a dove and came to rest on Jesus. (Matthew 3:13-17)
The water John applied to Jesus, was the same water that was applied to repentant sinners and had signified the forgiveness of their sins. When John applied the water to Jesus, he knew that Jesus had no sins that needed to be forgiven. The water applied to Jesus signified his acceptance of this rite of baptism. His mission was to sanctify the water of baptism by paying for the sins remitted by the rite and to baptize the ones released from sin with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus rendered the highest service and worship of God the Father by offering himself as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. All the sacrifices offered at the Temple in Jerusalem, including the daily sacrifices, the Passover lambs, the Sin Goats and the Scape Goats all pointed to Jesus and his sacrifice.
Throughout his ministry Jesus declared that he was the gateway to eternal life. He declared that he would die and come back to life on the third day. Jesus declared to Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)
Jesus humanity was revealed on the night when he was betrayed, on the first Maundy Thursday. In the Garden of Gethsemane, he struggled mightily. His human nature was revealed when he prayed: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” His divine nature shone through when he prayed “Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
Moments later he was arrested, tried and sentenced to death for the crime of blasphemy: having the audacity to call himself the Son of God. (Matthew 26:36-46)
When he suffered and died on the first Good Friday, he satisfied and fulfilled all that these sacrifices pointed to: the forgiveness of and atonement for our sins; and the satisfaction of God’s wrath and anger sparked by our sins. When he rose from the dead on the first Easter Sunday, he opened the gate to eternal life for all those who would believe in him.
Adam and Eve had sinned and had eaten from the forbidden fruit so that they could have knowledge and wisdom and thereby rise to God’s level. Jesus, the Son of God, had humbled himself and had taken on our humanity so that he could live a perfect human life, as God intended, and with his life, pay for the sins that Adam and Eve and all the rest of us committed. In baptism Jesus takes away our sin and gives us his perfection. In this way all righteousness is fulfilled and only the Son of God could do this.
Christ’s dominion over the world was not to be established through military action. The apostles were not instructed to take land and cities by force and enslave people. God’s dominion was expressed through discipleship. They were to make disciples of all nations. They were to make disciples in a particular way: by baptizing people of every race and language in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. In baptism we are given a new identity and a mission.
When the waters of baptism are applied to any person God acts. The Apostle Paul declared: “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6:3-5)
Paul teaches us that when we are baptized we are incorporated into something new. “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” (1 Corinthians 12:27) We become a part of the body of Christ. Paul’s understanding is based solidly on his interaction with Jesus. When Jesus appeared to him in Damascus, he asked Paul (who was then known as Saul): “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4) Paul never persecuted Jesus personally; he had manhandled Jesus’ chosen and baptized brothers and sisters. When Paul hurt them, he hurt Jesus.
Paul also teaches us that we were baptized into a community of faith. “For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” (1 Corinthians 12:13)
We receive the Holy Spirit at baptism and are made adopted sons and daughters of God. On the day of Pentecost, the birthday of the Church, St. Peter told his fellow Jews to “repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).
Likewise, Paul says elsewhere that baptism is “the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5; see 1 Peter 3:21).
It is through the work of the Holy Spirit that we come to believe. In his Small Catechism, Martin Luther wrote: I believe that I cannot come to my Lord Jesus Christ or believe in him by my own intelligence or power. But the Holy Spirit called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, made me holy and kept me in the true faith, just as He calls, gathers together, enlightens and makes holy the whole Church on earth and keeps it with Jesus in the one, true faith. In this Church, He generously forgives each day every sin committed by me and by every believer. On the last day, He will raise me and all the dead from the grave. He will give eternal life to me and to all who believe in Christ. Yes, this is true!
On this Trinity Sunday I am reminded that God has dominion over me because of the actions of others. Despite the doubt of some, the disciples went down the mountain. As Jesus’ instruments they preached, baptized and discipled people of all nations.
Since then, the church has spread over the globe. According to data for 2025, about 2.6 billion people identify as Christians worldwide (representing about 31.7 percent of the world’s population). This 2.6 billion includes Roman Catholics, Protestants, the Orthodox, and other Christian groups. Christianity is deemed to be the largest single faith group in the world.
Some 2,000 years later, my parents, answering Jesus’ call to make disciples, brought me to the baptismal font. I was baptized in the triune name. When I was baptized my parents promised to bring me to God’s house. During my childhood and youth they attended worship almost every Sunday and they took me with them. They brought me to Sunday School and then confirmation classes. There I learned the Creed, the Ten Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer. They put the Holy Scriptures in my hands.
As I look back over my childhood and youth, my parents did more than just take my siblings and I to church. They lived as people of faith. They led by example. They worked hard. They did their civic duty. They were devoted fully to one and other and to their family. They lived temperate lives. They taught us to love one another deeply and to forgive one another. They trusted in God.
Over the years I have gone to church almost every Sunday and heard the Scriptures. At age 38, I literally took the Holy Scriptures into my hands and read them from cover to cover. I was changed by those words. Something began to stir in my heart and soul. I began to wonder what God was doing in my life. Was he calling me to ministry? I was not sure. I doubted.
Then at my maternal grandmother’s funeral, I experienced a call to ministry. As I stood in the pulpit ready to give a eulogy for my grandmother, I heard a voice inside my head say: “You could be here.” I heard a call to serve God in the pulpit, at the altar and at the baptismal font. I still had doubts.
Was that my voice or God’s voice? I shared my experience with my wife Deni. We decided to step out in faith. Within two years I started seminary. In seminary I was taught about Jesus and what it means to obey him. It was a challenging time. I often had to defend my faith in Jesus. I graduated and received a call to Grace Lutheran Church in West Kelowna. The rest is, as they say, history.
I always saw Christ’s Great Commission as a call to an institution, and it is. It is a call to the Holy Christian Church. However, it was in the beginning, is now and always will be a call to individuals to join Jesus on his mission to take dominion over the people of the world. He is the one who prepares us for his mission. We receive a new identity as children of God. The Holy Trinity is not an abstract concept to be mastered, but a living reality. Jesus provides all the material we need for discipleship, the word of God, with its crowning jewel, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus has all the authority, the world is his. He promises his presence. He promises to be with us, to the very end of this age.
Matthew 28:16-20, teaches us that in the church, and in each of us, there will always be doubt. We will incessantly ask: Is God really calling me to be a disciple and make disciples? Shouldn’t discipleship be left to the professionals? Am I worthy of being a disciple? Can Jesus really use me? We will declare: The world doesn’t want to hear the message we have to offer. They say they can’t believe in a God that lets disease and evil prevail. People out there are convinced that the Holy Scriptures were written for ignorant people that did not understand nature and lived in fear of disease and hunger. They say we understand nature now, can beat hunger and can cure many diseases; therefore, we don’t need God or the Bible.
Despite our doubts about ourselves and others, Jesus continues to call us to believe what we have received: a new identity, the word of God, and a mission. Jesus calls us to believe that he is at work in the lives of the people around us and will create opportunities for us to share the Gospel with them. He calls me and you to do unto others what has already been done unto us, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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