Pentecost: Dwelling in the Divine Indwelling
In yesterday’s blog, I juxtaposed two sets of scriptures
that in their essence talk about the gift of the Holy Spirit in different ways.
In the Gospel of John, the Holy Spirit is promised by Jesus to come and lead
the disciples into all truth, and who will serve as the presence of the Divine
within their midst and within their individual lives. But as we read further in
John, this doesn’t happen at Pentecost, as it does in the story in Acts. In John, it happens after the resurrection of
Jesus.
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. 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. (John 20:19-23)
In John, the gift of
the Holy Spirit occurs immediately upon the resurrection of Jesus, and is given
directly by him – by means of his breathing upon them. This is captured
wonderfully in the hymn by Edwin Hatch:
Breathe on me, Breath of God,
fill me
with life anew,
that I may
love what thou dost love,
and do what
thou wouldst do.
Breathe on me, Breath of God,
until my
heart is pure,
until with
thee I will one will,
to do and
to endure.
Breathe on me, Breath of God,
till I am
wholly thine,
till all
this earthly part of me
glows with
thy fire divine.
Breathe on me, Breath of God,
so shall I
never die,
but live
with thee the perfect life
of thine
eternity.
In the Upper room, Jesus had promised the disciples that he
would not abandon them. In fact, after he left, he would come and be with them
in an inner and spiritual manner. I call this the “Divine Indwelling.” This is
how Jesus describes it:
‘I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.’ 22Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, ‘Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?’ 23Jesus answered him, ‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.
Raymond Brown says that it is this divine indwelling that
enables the followers of Jesus to do the things he did, and more:
Belief in Jesus will bring to the Christian power from God to perform the same works that Jesus performs, because, by uniting a man with Jesus and the Father, belief gives him a share in the power that they possess. (Raymond Brown, The Gospel According to John, XII-XXI, p. 633.)
Jesus says to pray in
his name. This is more than simply some sort of magical formula. The word
“in” is significant here. It refers to this divine indwelling. However, it
requires us to make our homes, our abiding places, in the very Divine Presence
that has chosen to abide in us. Again, Raymond Brown:
But Johannine theology has introduced into prayer in Jesus’ name an emphasis that goes beyond the use of a formula. A Christian prays in Jesus’ name in the sense that he is in union with Jesus. Thus, the theme of asking “in my name” in xiv 13-14 continues and develops the indwelling motif of 10-11: because the Christian is in union with Jesus and Jesus is in union with the Father, there can be no doubt that the Christian’s requests will be granted. This context of union with Jesus also suggests that the requests of the Christian are no longer thought of as requests concerning the petty things of life – they are requests of such a nature that when they are granted the Father is glorified in the Son (13). They are requests pertinent to the Christian life and to the continuation of the work by which Jesus glorified the Father during his ministry (xvii 4). (p. 636)
“In my name,” therefore, implies a situatedness, a dwelling
and abiding in Jesus, and having Jesus abide within us. The promised Paraclete,
Holy Spirit is what affects this. The Holy Spirit is God’s Presence abiding
within us. The purpose of this divine indwelling is to continue the works that
Jesus started on earth: proclaiming the Good News, curing the sick, casting out
demons, caring for the poor, healing those who are lame, blind, afflicted with
diseases, clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, working for peace and
reconciliation, advocating for justice.
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