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Meet Father KempPentecost – 23 May 2010
“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.” We rarely find accidents in Scripture, instead we find providence, and the arrival of the Holy Spirit on the festival of Pentecost was no mere accident, it was God’s providence. The festival of Pentecost, which means ‘fiftieth’ for the 50th day after Passover, finds its origins in the Old Testament, one place being the twenty-third chapter of the book of Leviticus. This feast is called the ‘Feast of Weeks’ because it is celebrated seven weeks after Passover and it is called the ‘Feast of Harvest’ because the first fruits of the harvest were gathered and brought to the temple. Both of these titles are apt metaphors for the coming of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit’s work. In Scripture, the number seven signifies perfection and seven weeks after the resurrection, the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles perfecting and applying the redemptive work of the Triune God. St. Paul connects the Festival of Harvest with in Holy Spirit in Romans 8, when he speaks of the Holy Spirit as the first fruits of the harvest of salvation. However, there is another title for Pentecost, a title that dominated the religious life of the 1st century Israelites: the anniversary of the giving of the Law.[1] Leo the Great, one the four Western Doctors, beautifully summarizes this symbolism of Pentecost in these words, “For as of old on the fiftieth day after the Sacrifice of the Lamb, the Law was given on Mount Sinai to the Hebrew people, now delivered from the Egyptians, so, after the Passion of Christ, in which the True Lamb of God was slain, on the fiftieth day after His Resurrection, the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles and upon the people who believed.”[2] Fifty days after Israel’s release from the death of slavery in Egypt through the blood of the Passover Lamb, they gathered together at Mount Sinai to receive the Law, which was to direct and guide the Israelites in their lives and toward Him. Fifty days after Jesus’ release from the grave of death that set people free from slavery to sin, the Apostles gathered together at Jerusalem and received the promised Holy Spirit, which was now their director and guide to God the Father and God the Son. Therefore, just as Israel was to live by the law, so now Christians are to live by the Spirit.[3]
In Romans chapter 8, St. Paul speaks about life in the Spirit. It would do us well to quote him length: “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful mean is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. If the Spirit of God lives in you, you are controlled by the Spirit. …And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation – but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” If we may summarize St. Paul’s words, we may say that living by the Spirit means to live like a child of God.
When God the Father adopts us as his children, God the Son is the payment securing our adoption and the Holy Spirit is the certificate guaranteeing our adoption. The Holy Spirit comes upon us to testify that we have been adopted and are now true and legitimate children of God. However, the Holy Spirit is more than a certificate, it is the power of God within us, who leads us into truth, convicts us of sin, directs our steps toward righteousness, interprets our prayers and intercedes on our behalf. The Holy Spirit strives in us so that we may strive toward God. Now children strive to be like their parents. Therefore, if God the Father has adopted us as his sons and daughter, living by the Holy Spirit is to strive to be like God the Father. God the Father has given us a concrete and physical example of what His life looks like in his Son Jesus, who is now our older brother. Therefore, just as children strive to be like their older siblings, so living by the Spirit is to strive to be like Jesus, God the Father’s only-begotten son.
However, Christians are often tempted to retreat to back to the law and live by it rather than the Spirit, especially when we hear words like ‘strive’ and ‘obey.’ This may be because the law seems so concrete, applicable and easy while the command to live by the Spirit seems a rather vague command and a command that has been commandeered by the new agers who never tire of speaking about the spirit within all of us that leads us into higher spiritual plains of interior ecstasy. Is there any difference between striving to live by the law and striving to live by the Spirit? Yes, there is. To live by the Spirit is to find that bliss between giving your all and giving up. [4] Before the day of Pentecost, the apostles did not strive to live like the Father, their wits were incredibly dim, their speech incredibly dull, and their strivings incredibly weak and misguided. After the day of Pentecost, however, the disciples strove until death with all their strength, their wits were incredibly brilliant, and their speech was strong and sharp. After Pentecost, the apostles gave it their all. Yet, speaking on behalf of the apostles, St. Paul said it was not he who strove but the Spirit of Christ within him who strove. Therefore, when the apostles were giving life their all, they were simultaneously giving up and letting the Spirit work through them. The difference between trying to live by the law and live by the Spirit is like the difference between trying to float in the gravitational field and trying to float in space. Our same physical nature that compels us to remain on the ground compels us to break the law, but when the God who commanded the law comes to dwell in us, those laws no longer restrict and condemn because the God who commanded is now the God who lives and works in us. The same Spirit who filled the apostles on Pentecost is the same Spirit who fills all believers today. The same Spirit who inspired the speech of Peter, the minds of Paul and James and the lives of all the apostles inspires us today. Leo the Great said, “From that day forth the trumpet of the preaching of the Gospel has sounded. From that day the rain of spiritual graces, the streams of blessings, have watered every desert, and the whole parched world; for the Spirit of God moved over the waters to renew the face of the earth, and the brightness of new light began to flash forth to scatter the old darkness, when, in the splendour of those ardent tongues, the shining world, the burning eloquence of the Lord was received; which hold within it both the power of making light, to give understanding, and the power of fire, to burn away all sin.”[5] Bliss, complete happiness and spiritual joy, is not just an illusion or delusion, it is something real and tangible, it is a quality of life found when the Holy Spirit engulfs our lives in the fires of his love, a fire that illuminates our minds and burns away the dross of sin.
[1] Richard N. Longenecker, Acts, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, vol. 9, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 1981, 269.
[2] Leo the Great, The Work of the Holy Spirit, The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, trans. and ed. by M.F. Toal, Preservation Press: Swedesboro: 1996, pg 43.
[3] Living by the Spirit is the ideal laid forth by the prophets of old. Consider the words of Ezekiel, “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them.” Is this not what Jeremiah meant when he said, “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people” and “I will give them a new heart to know me.” The new heart and new life Ezekiel and Jeremiah foretold could only happen if God, himself, entered into and transformed the hearts and minds and lives of people and this is precisely what the Holy Spirit does. Thus here is the verdict, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles and the rest of those gathered together in fulfillment of the promise of Jesus Christ and in fulfillment of the law and the prophets. Just as the Law formerly guided Israel in the ways of righteousness that lead to God, so now the Spirit guides all of God’s children in the ways of righteousness that lead to him. Just as Israel was to live by the law, so now we are to live by the Spirit who dwells within us.
[4] This is a line from “Ooh, Ahh” by the group Grits. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-yCg-0-baE
[5] Leo the Great, Ibid. pg 43.
