John 20:19-23
Pentecost
“Then the disciples rejoiced when they
saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again,
‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said
this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are
forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained’” (Jn.
20:20b-23).
This
is John’s version of “Pentecost,” although he never uses the word. In John’s
Gospel, there’s no violent rush of wind or tongues of fire or speaking in
strange tongues, as we have in Acts (see Acts 2). According to Luke, the Holy Spirit descends only
after Jesus ascends (Acts 1:6-11). In
John, Jesus appears to his disciples on Easter evening, as they hide in fear
behind locked doors. In John, Jesus
invites them to receive the Holy Spirit, the promised Advocate or Paraclete (Jn.
14:15), and then Jesus breathes on
them. Jesus breathes and we inhale and then we exhale. Breathing in and breathing out, breathing in
and breathing out, such is the rhythm of new life. Breath to breath. The Spirit is our intimate, close, as close
as breath.
Having
Jesus breathe on the disciples, theologian David Congdon writes, is “John’s
remarkable way of describing how the Spirit is an extension of Jesus’s presence
and power in the midst of his bodily absence (Jn. 20:22).”[1] The Spirit, according to Jesus, “abides with
you” and “will be in you” (Jn. 14:15) and will “be with you forever” (Jn.
14:17).
Holy Spirit. Άγιο πνεύμα (pneuma). The Greek word pneuma can mean “wind,” “spirit,” and “breath.” We might say Holy Breath mixes with human
breath. Just as breath/breathing allows
us to live—where would be without our breath?—so, too, the breath/breathing of
Christ enables a different kind of life. Where would we be without the breath of Christ
who animates our lives?
Didn’t Jesus say, earlier in
John’s Gospel, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn.
10:10)? Not
abundance in life, but abundant life.
And, what is abundant life? A life
that is full, rich in meaning and depth, a life of purpose. It’s sacrificial; it gives itself away. It’s life that is intense, rich in love and
joy and beauty. It’s life lived in
service to God and to neighbor. And it’s
life that has the power to erupt from within death and deadness and
nothingness! It’s the power of
resurrection! That’s abundant life. That’s how Jesus lived. That’s what Jesus was
sent to offer. And that’s what Jesus
continues to share with those who love him.
Significantly,
it should not be overlooked that in John’s Gospel the Advocate or Paraclete is
given on the day of resurrection. Jesus,
the resurrected incarnation of God, breathes upon them the animating life of
God. His Spirit/breath has power. The
Holy Spirit is directly related to the presence of the Resurrected Lord. The Holy Spirit is given to extend
resurrection life to us! Theologian Rudolf Bultmann (1884-1976) described the pneuma, the spirit, as “the divine
power…as it impinges on human existence.”[2] This Spirit is powerful—the Spirit acts, moves
us, and shakes our foundations, calls us into existence and grants life, the
Spirit touches our lives, leaving us transfigured and transformed.
In
his remarkable book, The Spirit of Life:
A Universal Affirmation (Fortress, 1993), theologian Jürgen Moltmann
writes, “The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ, and is as such the Spirit
of the resurrection of the dead.”[3] Moltmann stresses that the Holy Spirit, given
by the resurrected Christ, is a quickening agent in the life of the
believer. “The Spirit of the Father and
the Son,” he insists, “is the divine quickening power of the new creation of
all things, the power empowering the rebirth of everything that lives.”[4]
So,
how do you know the Holy Spirit is present in your life? You’re breathing, aren’t you? That’s a start. Now ask: Where are you coming alive? Where is renewal occurring, trying to occur
within you? What is trying to be born in
you, through you? Where is resurrection
erupting in corners of the heart that were formerly dead or lost in grief or
pain or sorrow? God as Creator is still
creating, still breathing, and through the Spirit continues to create and
recreate us, the Church, the world, continues to breathe new life into us.
And
the rebirth I’m talking about is experienced here and now, in our lives and in
the world. As Jesus demonstrated with
his life, resurrection is not reserved only for life after death. Our lives—again, here and now—can experience
resurrection life, can experience new vitality.
In
fact, this is what John means by “eternal life,” or, better, “life touched by
eternity.” Life touched by
eternity—God’s life—can happen here and now, any time or in the life to come
when time is no more. In her book The Boundary-Breaking God: An Unfolding
Story of Hope and Promise (Jossey-Bass, 2009), Danielle Shroyer reminds us
that “Eternal life is not a ticket we hold but a lifestyle we inhabit.”[5]
The Spirit is Life. And because the Spirit breathes through us
the breath of resurrection, we can sense when and where the Spirit is at work
wherever we are coming more alive. What
is aliveness? Ann Belford Ulanov, former
professor of psychology and religion at Union Theological Seminary (New York),
says, “Aliveness comes down to one thing—consenting to rise, to be dented,
impressed, pressed in upon, to rejoin, to open, to ponder, to be where we are
in this moment and see what happens, allowing the breath of not knowing to be
taken.”[6]
Allowing the breath of not knowing to be
taken. Aliveness requires breath, we
have to receive breath, inhale, and we have to exhale. It requires receptivity of the breath given
and this always requires risk. Where
will the Spirit take us, how will our lives be changed, all because we risked
inhaling the Holy? All of this means
that we need to be open to what is trying to come to life within us. It requires risk. It requires what the poet
Paul Celan (1920-1970) called a “breathturn,” the turning of the breath/spirit
within us.[7]
How
do we know where the Spirit is? How do
we sense God’s presence in our present?
Moltmann, again, is helpful. “The
experience of God deepens the experiences of life. It does not reduce them, for it awakens the
unconditional Yes to life. The more I
love God the more gladly I exist. The
more immediately and wholly I exist, the more I sense the living God, the inexhaustible
well of life, and life’s eternity.”[8]
The
unconditional Yes to life! I believe
with all my heart that the Spirit is always trying to bring us alive—and the
Church alive. The Spirit is inviting us
to risk life, risk coming to life. Where
would any of us be, where would the Church be without this work of the
Spirit? This day of Pentecost should be as
important for Christians as Christmas and Easter. In many respects, Pentecost should be more
important for us, for without the
work of the Holy Spirit, Christmas and Easter would be merely distant
historical events—the life of Christ would be a remote event of history—with no
power to impinge upon our present and transform our lives.
Our
life in Christ, and the ministry of the Church, are only vital and relevant
today because the Holy Spirit is creating and recreating us, forming and reforming
us, calling us to life. Without the
breath of the Spirit, the Church is essentially a curious and ineffective
historical society.
So,
let us receive the Holy Spirit, the breath of the Resurrected Lord. And may we be continuously search after that
holy breath, may we dependent upon that breath for our lives. Let us risk the ancient prayer, Veni Creator Spiritus! Come, Creator Spirit![9]
Let us pray this petition again and again, Veni, Creator Spiritus!
Come, Creator Spirit!
Create and recreate our lives.
Form and reform us!
Bring us to life!
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[1] David W. Congdon, The God Who Saves: A Dogmatic Sketch
(Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2016), 140.
[2] Rudolf Bultmann, Gospel of John, cited in David W.
Congdon, 140.
[3] Jürgen Moltmann, The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation
(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993), 94.
[4] Moltmann, 94-95
[5] Danielle Shroyer, The Boundary-Breaking God: An Unfolding
Story of Hope and Promise (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009) 84.
[6] Ann Belford Ulanov, The Unshuttered Heart: Opening
Aliveness/Deadness in the Self (Nashville: Abingdon, 2007), 15.
[7] Paul Celan, Breathturn (Green Integer, 2006).
[8] Moltmann, 98.
[9] Veni, Creator Spiritus is a ninth century hymn attributed to Rabanus
Maurus (c. 780-856), a Frankish Benedictine monk and theologian.
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