Easter 6: Epistle, 1 John 5:1-8                                                   

1 John 5:1-8

New birth, love, commandments, fellowship, water and blood. John combines all these elements in our epistle for the week and connects them in ways that … oops, and the Holy Spirit … only the Holy Spirit of God could. So often when an artist works on a project, no matter the medium, the end result is beautiful, but the “extra” elements of the work end up discarded on a pile. Or the underside of a tapestry is anything but orderly. Paint splatters and sprays. Clay sticks everywhere. It’s a mess. But the artistry of the Holy Spirit is something altogether different.

 He weaves and molds. Brush strokes, colors and texture are just right. Size, shape and dimensions are all taken into account and the end result is a masterpiece. Nothing is wasted. Certainly that is true of His Word and the Word made flesh. But in the end it will also be true of us. Today we see that artistry in the words of this first of John’s letters.

 Special attention should be given to verses 7-8: “For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and these three agree.” Agree? Agree about what? Well they point somewhere, and that somewhere is the very person of the Savior. His testimony begins at His baptism in Jordan. It’s a sign of impending death. It’s a dying and burial and testimony is given not just by His cousin, John, but by the Father and the Holy Spirit as well. The blood speaks of His actual death on a cruel cross. That death which makes peace between us and God. That blood was given witness again by the power of the Spirit in His resurrection.

 Martin Luther says, “ … those three cannot be separated, but the three do one thing… For these three constantly accompany one another, and through the Word a daily immersion and a perpetual Baptism takes place, a perpetual shedding of the blood of Christ and of the Holy Spirit, a continual cleansing of sins.” (AE 30:315). All of this makes all the many terms of this passage congeal and make perfect sense. A work of art. And the gallery where it is on display is always open. It’s us. You and me. Take another look.