Friday, March 16, 2007

The Spirit is the Front Man now

I'm probably being a bit theologically slow off the mark here but it occurred to me this morning that as we look back over human history - or at least to the point of early Jewish history in the Old Testament - that we have seen three 'epochs' which largely correspond to the three members of the Trinity:

The era of the Father - the prime mover and character in the foreground in the Old Testament
The era of the Son - through the incarnation in Jesus Christ
The era of the Spirit - after the ascension of Christ and the day of Pentecost, the Spirit poured out.

Of course - it's not a science! Because we are talking about interdependent, perichoretic Trinity here then there is beautiful interplay throughout the three eras (e.g. the Father and the Spirit were obviously involved in the incarnation of the Son, and in this present era the Spirit points towards the Son and the Father) but it's like there is a different 'front-man' at each point.

2 comments:

Chris said...

I don't disagree, but I kinda think Jesus got the raw end of the deal... I mean he had, what, less than 40 years as front man between his conception and the day of pentecost -- compared to THOUSANDS OF YEARS on either side by the father and spirit.

Granted, Jesus packed quite a lot into his time on earth (like, y'know, saving humanity) but you'd think they'd give him more air time for something like that!

Matt said...

yep - but this is where it's important to hang on to the trinitarian and almost self-effacing nature of God.
You're right - the Father held the stage for a long. long time - but the focus was always on the Christ who was to come.
And now, in the era of the Spirit, we find the Spirit continually pointing us towards Christ.
The Trinity rock - they all point towards each other rather than hog the limelight for themselves!