The Mystery that Holds Us

John 16:12–15; Romans 5:1–5; Matthew 28:16–20

St. John’s United Church of Christ
Greeley, Colorado
May 31, 2026
Rev. Juvenal Cervantes

One of the most unsettling mysteries took place on March 8, 2014, when a Boeing 777 carrying 239 passengers and crew members took off from Malaysia at 12:41 a.m. local time en route to China … and seemingly vanished into thin air.

There were clues early on that something was off about the flight. Less than an hour after takeoff, the plane’s transponder was inexplicably switched off. Radar picked up Flight 370 making a major deviation from its flight plan. A satellite last detected the plane over the Indian Ocean at 8:11 a.m.

The multinational search effort was the largest in aviation history, costing an estimated $160 million and covering thousands of square miles of ocean. Over the next two years, 27 pieces of aircraft debris were recovered, many washing up on beaches in the region. But only three were confirmed to come from Flight 370. The prime minister of Malaysia has declined to comment other than to say that the aircraft disappeared over the Indian Ocean.

Theories include a hijacking gone wrong, a fire aboard the aircraft and even a meteor strike. But pilot-induced suicide is the most credible explanation. Investigators learned that less than a month earlier, the captain had flown a path on his home flight simulator that closely resembled the ill-fated plane's.

Still, the true cause of the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 and the 239 people aboard remains one of the strangest unexplained mysteries.

We live in a world that wants explanations for everything. We want certainty, clarity, control. But Trinity Sunday confronts us with mystery. Not a mystery to be solved like a puzzle. A mystery to be entered.

The doctrine of the Trinity is not God hiding from us.

It is God revealing that divine life is deeper, richer, and more beautiful than we can fully comprehend.

Father. Son. Holy Spirit. One God in three persons. And perhaps the most important thing to understand is this: The Trinity is not merely a doctrine to explain God. The Trinity is the mystery that holds us.

John 16:12–15

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Romans 5:1–5

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Matthew 28:16–20

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

I. We Are Held by a God Who Is Relationship

Before creation existed, God was already love.

Love requires relationship. The Father loves the Son. The Son loves the Father. The Spirit is the bond of love flowing between them.

God was never lonely. Never isolated. Never incomplete. At the center of reality is relationship.

This matters because many people imagine God as distant, cold, or detached. But the Trinity reveals a God whose very nature is communion, fellowship, self-giving love. And if we are created in the image of this God, then we were created for connection too.

Our deepest longing for belonging, friendship, family, and community reflects the very heart of God.

II. The Mystery of God Meets Us in Jesus

Jesus does not merely talk about God. Jesus shows us God.

In Christ, the invisible God becomes visible. The eternal steps into time. The Creator walks among creation. And throughout the Gospels, Jesus continually points beyond himself: to the Father who sent him, and to the Spirit who would come.

The Trinity is not abstract theology. It is the story of salvation.

The Father creates and sends.

The Son redeems and restores.

The Spirit comforts, empowers, and renews.

One divine love reaching toward humanity.

When we look at the cross, we see: the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the power of the Spirit holding us even through suffering and death.

III. We Do Not Have to Understand Everything to Be Held by God

This is good news, because much of life remains mysterious.

Why suffering happens.

Why prayers sometimes seem unanswered.

Why grief comes without warning.

Faith does not eliminate mystery. But faith reminds us that mystery is not emptiness. The God we cannot fully explain is still the God who holds us.

Like a child resting in the arms of a parent, we may not understand everything around us, but we can still trust the One carrying us.

The Trinity reminds us: we are created by love, redeemed by love, and sustained by love. Even when life feels uncertain, we are not abandoned.

2 Corinthians 4:18 reminds us: “Things that are seen don’t last forever, but things that are not seen are eternal. This is why we keep our minds on the things that cannot be seen.” 

Everything you see around you is temporary. It’s what you can’t see that will last forever. And those eternal, spiritual realities are what truly matter.

The truth is, spiritual realities are just as real as physical realities. And you need to be sure to focus on the spiritual ones—because they are part of reality. Here are five spiritual realities we need to understand:

God made you to love you. Jeremiah 31:3 says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (NIV). God created you to love you, and he wants you to learn to love him back. This is the most important reality of life.

You were made to last forever. The Bible says, “He has . . . set eternity in the human heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV). The evangelist Billy Graham talked about death this way:

“Someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have gone into the presence of God.” He is in the presence of God now. 

God has prepared two eternal places.

Both heaven and hell are real, literal places. They’re not just “states of being.”

You get to choose where you’ll spend eternity. You won’t accidentally find yourself in heaven or hell one day. You’ll be where you are because of a choice you made. If you choose to make Jesus the boss of your life, you’ll spend eternity with him in heaven. If you choose to reject him, you’ll spend forever in hell. There are no other options.

You get no second chance to make your choice. Your choice has a time limit. You have your entire life to make the decision about where you’ll spend eternity, but you can’t change your mind after death.

What you do with these five truths will affect your eternal destiny and transform how you live on this side of eternity.

Life on earth is always uncertain, so if you haven’t already made the choice for Jesus, go ahead and do it today.

IV. The Church Is Called to Reflect the Trinity

Jesus sends the disciples in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The church is meant to reflect the unity and love of the Triune God. Not uniformity. Unity. Different people. Different gifts. One body. In a divided world, the church bears witness to another way of living: reconciliation instead of hostility, community instead of isolation, self-giving love instead of selfish ambition.

The Trinity teaches us that real power is shared, mutual, and life-giving.

Conclusion

We will never fully explain the Trinity.

But perhaps that is the point. A God small enough to fit entirely inside our understanding would not be God. Yet this great mystery is not far away.

The Father creates us.

The Son redeems us.

The Spirit sustains us.

And through every joy and sorrow, every question and fear, every beginning and ending— we are held by the mystery of divine love.

For the twentieth anniversary of Larry King Live, Barbara Walters interviewed the man who became famous interviewing others. She asked him direct and revealing questions. Two of the most telling responses came when she probed about fear and faith. Walters asked King, “What is your greatest fear?”

He immediately replied, “Death.” This interview occurred in 2005 when he was at the very top of his career and had much to lose, but none of that mattered compared to the fear of death.

Her follow-up question was, “Do you believe in God?”

The mystery that holds the universe is also the mystery that holds us. Believe the gospel today and live confidently today and tomorrow. Amen.