It's Pentecost Sunday, a day when we celebrate the birth of the Church and the giving of the Holy Spirit, as our lesson from Acts (2:1-21) reports. But the Bible makes it clear that it was not just on that first Pentecost that the Holy Spirit was given. It happened to some in Old Testament times (Judges 6:34; 1 Samuel 11:6; 16:13). However, the Spirit was also given during Jesus' own life on earth. Here's the story.
The disciples were still pretty much in despair that Sunday evening over the events of Good Friday, over the loss of their dear friend and, with his apparent failure, the withering of all their hopes and dreams. Yes, there had been some fantastically hopeful news relayed by Mary Magdalene (whatever you may think of her). She had seen, as Peter and John did later, that the stone in front of Jesus' tomb had been removed. They had both even found the linens that had wrapped the body! Then to top it off, Mary Magdalene even reported that she had seen Jesus. But, at least as John tells the story, she seems not really to have understood what it was all about.1 So the disciples were hoping, but not yet certain, not really understanding, and still in despair. I'm not always sure I understand the resurrection, and am not always confident in its reality. How about you?
Then it happened that evening. The doors of the house were locked, because the disciples were under suspicion by Jewish leaders, as followers of Jesus. But then suddenly he stood among them, saying "Peace be with you." Showing them his hands and his side led the disciples to rejoice. They had seen the risen Lord! (John 20:19-20).
The story continues. Jesus reassured the happy disciples with another blessing of peace. (Do not forget that to offer such a blessing in ancient Hebrew culture connoted a wish for "completeness," for the total well being of those being blessed. In John's linguistic tradition, the Greek term translated "peace" here is a wish for complete concord and unity among all those blessed.) Jesus comes to wish the best for his people as well as to offer them unity and harmony with himself and with each other. That's what he wants for you and me.
The risen Lord continues to address his followers. He told his disciples he was sending them, as his Father had sent him (John 20:21). Christ is sending you and me! And then, John says, Jesus breathed on them; he gave them the Holy Spirit! (John 20:23). There you have it. According to John's version of the gospel, the disciples had the Holy Spirit even before Pentecost.
So what? What's the point of all this talk about the Holy Spirit? If you don't believe in speaking in tongues like the Pentecostals do, what does the Holy Spirit have to do with everyday life? Our Bible lessons for today and the title of this sermon tell you. After Jesus had given the Holy Spirit to his disciples, he added, "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained" (John 20:23). By giving us the Holy Spirit, Jesus gives his followers, gives you and me, the authority to forgive. The point here is to remind us that forgiveness is a big part of Pentecost. It's like Martin Luther and the fourth-century African theologian, Saint Augustine, said, "Forgiveness of sin is what the church is all about."2
Certainly, forgiveness is a central aspect of Christian living, and so it makes sense that the church would be all about this reality. Indeed, Rick Warren, in his best-seller, The Purpose-Driven Life, asserts that restoring broken relationships, forgiving, is an aspect of our purpose as Christians. He tells us that we need to become peacemakers in order to get God's blessing, that if we pray first about the conflict, we will discover that God will change our hearts or the heart of the person who did us wrong.3 It's like we have to do something first in order for God to bless us or before God gets involved in forgiving. Forgiveness, like life itself, is a burden, if Reverend Warren is correct. I understand the sentiments of Rick Warren here to stress the importance and value of forgiveness, but I wonder what happened to the Holy Spirit and the grace of God, I wonder what happened to Christian freedom and the joy of living.
Remember Jesus' emphases. He linked the Holy Spirit to forgiveness. He wanted to make it clear in so many ways, that forgiveness and Christian living are works of God.
During the Reformation, Martin Luther preached several sermons on the very gospel lesson that the church has assigned for Pentecost. On two occasions, Luther tried to make very clear how God is involved in the forgiveness of our sin. He started by pointing out how Jesus approached the disciples on that first Easter in the locked house. It is how he approaches you and me today.
When Jesus came to the disciples, Luther claimed, he showed them his hands and his feet, and then his side. Just like I was trying to get you to see when we told the story again, this meeting the disciples had with Jesus that first Easter is like the way he comes to you and to me today. You see, Martin Luther contended, while preaching in Borna, Germany, in 1522, that "the Lord's hands and feet really signify nothing but his works ... And the showing of his side is nothing but the showing of his heart, in order that we may see how kind, loving and fatherlike his mind is toward us."4
In another sermon preached over a decade later, probably just for family and houseguests, Luther elaborated on these points. Commenting on Jesus' appearance to the disciples that Easter evening, the first Reformer pointed out that Christ does not wait for his disciples to go after him. In fact, he goes after them (and us) through locked doors. (You and I have a way of putting up locked doors for Jesus, don't we? That's one of the reasons that it is hard to believe in his resurrection sometimes.) But Jesus breaks though those locked doors of our lives. And when he comes, he comes in a warm friendly manner. That's what the offer of peace is all about.
Luther goes on to add that with this example Christ presents his heart, who he is and what kind of heart he bears to us. Christ treats his disciples and us so tenderly, not reproaching anyone for unbelief and sin. Instead he comforts, strengthens, and lifts them, and us, up. This was done for our good and comfort.5
Isn't this a comforting word? You and I can be confident, certain of a loving God, because he keeps coming back. Jesus will not leave us alone. Our gospel lesson says that the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord Jesus (John 20:20). You and I can celebrate; his presence among you and me can make us happy!
When you realize that God, that Jesus, takes the initiative in your life, then you better understand how the Pentecost message of the giving of the Holy Spirit can make a difference in your life, how forgiveness and life come easy. The Spirit is Christ's presence among us (Galatians 4:6; 1 Peter 1:11), and so forgiveness and the good works of life are his work.
I like the way another great sixteenth-century Protestant Reformer, John Calvin, explained the Holy Spirit. He called the Spirit the power of God.6 The Holy Spirit as God's power gives you and me the power, the strength, and the ability to do God's work. Think of it: If you and I do any good, if our lives have purpose, it is only because God has given us the power, the ability, to do them. That is what the giving of the Holy Spirit is all about.
Our gospel lesson makes this point in another way. It helps here if you know the Hebrew which the Jews spoke. Sometimes the Hebrew word for "breath" (nephesh) is translated as "Spirit" in our English. And the other Hebrew word for "Spirit" (ruach) is used interchangeably with nephesh. Get the point? When John says that Jesus gave the Spirit by breathing on his followers (John 20:22), his point was to make clear that the Spirit is the breath of God! When you understand the Holy Spirit in that way, then the Holy Spirit's role in your life becomes a little clearer. Why as the breath of God, the Spirit is as essential for our doing good works, as essential for us when forgiving others, as the air we breathe is necessary to keep us alive! When you see it that way, life is not as hard.
Forgiveness, like life, does not always come easy. It's so hard to forgive the son-of-a-gun who did you dirty, right? It is so hard sometimes to face another day. But it is not so difficult if you believe Jesus, that you are filled with the Holy Spirit. Because if you believe that, then you can also start to believe that you and I do not do the forgiving, do not give meaning to our lives, do not even have to find our purpose. It's all God's work! After all, his Holy Spirit is the one who has the power to do these things. His Holy Spirit provides the breath, the oxygen we need to live.
Once again, Martin Luther had it just right in a 1540 sermon that he preached in Dessau, Germany on our gospel lesson for today. He noted that only God himself has the power to forgive sins. That's good news, the Reformer claimed, because now we can be certain of our forgiveness. You can be certain of God's forgiveness, even if you are not quite sure that the one who says you're forgiven really meant it, because God gave it.7 Get the point? When somebody says he or she forgave you, believe it! It's not theirs to give. The words of forgiveness are God's, even if the human speaker had some reservations. Take it as if God himself had spoken these words to you!
In the same 1540 sermon, Martin Luther went on to claim what a great treasure it is to hear that you are forgiven, since it is God himself forgiving us.8 That's a blessing for you and me when we are called to exercise the power of the keys, when the opportunity is there for you or me to forgive the troublemaker and difficult person. Maybe we're not quite sorry enough, not quite sure we can forget along with the words of forgiveness. In this same sermon, Martin Luther reminds his hearers and us that our attitudes don't matter, because our attitude will never be sufficient. Forgiveness is God's work, not yours and mine!9
I don't know about you, but that is a wonderful, freeing insight. It takes the pressure off me when it comes to my relationship with God, when it comes to my relationship with you and with others. Forgiveness, like most things pertaining to God, is not a matter of feelings.10 Forgiveness depends on God; forgiveness is a work of the Holy Spirit whom Christ has already given to you and me. What a wonderful, freeing word. It takes the pressure off, makes life a little easier, a little more fun. That is why our gospel lesson says that "the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord" (John 20:20).
In the 1522 sermon by Martin Luther that I have already noted, we find Luther summing up the essence of this joyful, Spirit-filled life just right. He was commenting on Jesus' word in our gospel lesson when he gave us the power of the keys to forgive sins and gave us the Holy Spirit. He said, "As the Father has sent me, so I send you" (John 20:21). Some preachers we noted before see this as an assignment of purpose by God, an expectation that if you do not give such proofs of your purpose you don't have faith. Luther wrote in response: "Not that good works are commanded us by this word; for where faith in the heart is right, there is not need of much commanding good works to be done; they follow of themselves."11 When you have been filled with the Holy Spirit like you, I, and the disciples have, forgiveness and living come easy. Because they are God's job, such good days and purpose just "follow of themselves." Friends, the next time you have a tough task to do, have difficulty forgiving, enjoy it! God, the Holy Spirit, is going along, and he'll do all the heavy lifting for you! Amen.
1. For an example of scholarly consensus regarding how John diminishes the testimony of Mary Magdalene, see R. Alan Culpepper, Anatomy of the Fourth Gospel: A Study in Literary Design (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983), pp. 144, 147, 161.
2. Martin Luther, The Small Catechism (1529), II.III.6, in The Book of Concord, ed. Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000), p. 356; Augustine, On The Creed: A Sermon To the Catechumens (n.d.), p. 16, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 3, ed. Philip Schaff (2nd printing; Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1995), p. 375.
3. Rick Warren, The Purpose-Driven Life: What On Earth Am I Here For? (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2002), pp. 153 ff.
4. Martin Luther, Of True Piety, The Law and Faith, and of Love To Our Neighbor (1522), I.24, in The Complete Sermons of Martin Luther, Vol. 1.2, ed. John Nicholas Lenker (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2000), p. 373.
5. Martin Luther, First Sermon for First Sunday After Easter (1534), pp. 2-5, in The Complete Sermons of Martin Luther, Vol. 6, ed. Eugene F. A. Klug (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2000), pp. 55-56.
6. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559), ed. John T. McNeill (4th printing; Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960), I.XIII.18, pp. 142-143.
7. Martin Luther, The Fruit of Christ's Resurrection and the Authority and Office of the Keys Christ Exercised (1540), II.27-31, p. 35, in The Complete Sermons of Martin Luther, Vol. I.2, pp. 390-391, 393.
8. Ibid, II.50, p. 401.
9. Ibid, II.51.
10. See Martin Luther, Of Christ's Resurrection (n.d.), I.13, in The Complete Sermons of Martin Luther, Vol. I.2, p. 244, where he claims that "feeling is opposed to faith and faith is opposed to feeling."
11. Op cit, Luther, Of True Piety, The Law and Faith, and of Love To Our Neighbor, II.28, pp. 374-375.