Trinity Cameos

This post links to RAnn's Sunday Snippets

Every year in Wednesday Night Sunday School, when the Trinity makes a cameo appearance, I point it out. I know of three occasions. Three. As in Trinity!

1. Genesis 18, The Hospitality of Abraham:

In class I use this fresco...

....or this mosaic.

 "And the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. 2 He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men stood in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the earth, 3 and said, "My lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. 4 Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, 5 while I fetch a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on--since you have come to your servant." So they said, "Do as you have said." Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, "Make ready quickly three cakes." 7 And Abraham took a calf and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. 8 Then he took curds, and milk, and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate. 9 They said to him, "Where is Sarah your wife?" And he said, "She is in the tent." 10 The LORD said, "I will surely return to you in the spring, and Sarah your wife shall have a son." And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, "After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?" 13 The LORD said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh, and say, 'Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?' 14 Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, in the spring, and Sarah shall have a son." 15 But Sarah denied, saying, "I did not laugh"; for she was afraid. He said, "No, but you did laugh." Then the men set out from there, and they looked toward Sodom; and Abraham went with them to set them on their way."

The LORD. One person? Three persons? Who could say in Abraham's day?

2. Luke 1, the Annunciation:

this one is of course inevitable

[Gabriel] said, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!" 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end." 34 And Mary said to the angel, "How shall this be, since I have no husband?" 35 And the angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.

The Holy Spirit; the Father; and Jesus, a little speck now growing in Mary.

3. Matthew 3, Dunked in the Jordan:

James Tissot strikes again

"And when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."

Jesus; the Spirit; and the Father, channeling Isaiah. Notice Tissot shows the Father's presence as the Glory Cloud, the Shekhinah, swirling down over his Son.

In class I like to tie these together a bit more- not only is the Trinity making a few cameos, but in each case there's an associated miracle. In the Hospitality, the announcement of a miraculous pregnancy; at the Annunciation, yet another announcement of a miraculous pregnancy. And at Jesus' Baptism- well, I say Jesus made water holy so it could wash away sins.

I think that's pretty miraculous, don't you?