Good Things Come in Threes
Why does the number three keep popping up within the long history of our culture? As children we sang of the three blind mice, listened to tales about three little pigs and the three bears, enjoyed the adventures of the three musketeers. Three spirits visit Scrooge in Dickens’ The Christmas Carol; we think of ourselves as living in three dimensions – living lives with a beginning, middle and end. The word trivia is Latin for a place where three roads meet – and gossip flourishes. And why only three outs in baseball, why not four, two, five? Maybe because of that old Latin rule: “omne trium perfectum” meaning every set of three is complete, perfect.
And if that’s not enough consider how often the number three comes up in the Bible. For example, Noah, after sailing around in his Ark, sends out a bird three times to see if the waters have subsided. Again, three is the number of Noah’s sons. Three is also the number of the great patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And three is the number of the angels who inform Abraham that his aged wife will have a son.
Moving further into biblical history, we meet Gideon who is told to reduce his huge army to a mere three hundred men (a multiple of three) if he wants to win. Then there’s the story of the boy Samuel whom God calls in the night three times. Elijah’s history is not without some threes as well, as when he stretched himself three times upon the body of a widow’s dead son and brought him back to life. And there’s more! How many days was Jonah in the belly of the whale? Three! And how many were the children thrown into the fiery furnace by Nebuchadnezzar? Three!
In the New Testament we meet the Magi whom the medieval Church assumed to be three in number – seeing in them the three stages of life. And do you recall how it was “on the third day” that Jesus performed his first miracle at Cana and how, after hanging three hours on the cross, it was “on the third day” that he arose from the dead? And do you remember how, when he ascended Mount Tabor, he took with him three disciples and how Peter, seeing Jesus flanked by Elijah and Moses (another threesome), wanted to put up three tabernacles there? It was this same Peter who denied Jesus three times and was then put to the test after the resurrection when Jesus asked him three times: “Do you love me?” And how did Paul conclude his famous poem in 1st Corinthians 13? “And so there remain these three: faith, hope and love.” Which finally brings me back to that other threesome whose festival we celebrate today – of whom Jesus says at the end of Matthew’s Gospel: “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.”
What can we make of all these biblical threes? One could speculate rationally for hours and still be unclear. But one thing does stand out. In practically all the biblical episodes in which the number three occurs, something wonderful happens. Noah finds land. Abraham and Sarah have a son. A widow’s child is restored to life. A transfiguration takes place. Water is changed into wine. Jonah is regurgitated by a whale. Jesus rises from his tomb. Three children survive a fiery furnace. And Peter learns how to say, “I love you.”
So whatever theologians may speculate about God being a Trinity, I’m am sufficiently impressed by the frequency of the number three in our Bible and culture to agree with my illiterate but wise old grandmother, who used to say, “Good things come in threes” – even God.