Juan Bautista Mayno (1581-1649): Pentecost (Source)
It is interesting how the great festivals of the church follow the rhythm of the seasons, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. Christmas is our midwinter celebration, while Easter is the start of the lambing season and the Harvest Festival speaks for itself: the final ingathering.
But Pentecost is also important, in being the celebration of the first-fruits of the harvest. We can speak of the birthday of the church, but Pentecost points far more to the person and work of Jesus. Not His Passion and atonement, but His ongoing ministry of proclaiming the gospel. Mark’s gospel is very succinct in this: ‘Repent and believe’. No great introduction or birth narrative. He gets right to the point. John meanwhile finishes his gospel by saying that what is written is there so that readers might believe in Jesus Christ and that in Him they might have Life.
But Luke points to something else. Pentecost, as the festival of the first-fruits, is not just the beginning of the church, but the continuation of the ministry of Jesus. In this the gathered disciples, now numbering 120, are themselves the first-fruits – of the resurrection of Jesus. It is His life and being that animates them. He has committed to them the task of proclaiming the gospel – endowing them with the power of the Holy Spirit to do it.
The Holy Spirit is therefore the means by which they are to fulfil their ministry – by remaining in all things in Jesus Himself, and never apart from Him. What He has done, they should continue to do. Preach the gospel, heal the sick, forgive sinners. All of this is a new narrative – a rival to the principle of survival of the fittest, the strongest, the wealthiest, the most fashionable and convincing and attractive. This is not politics of show business, even if parts of the church have allowed itself to be sidelined into these areas, as being more comfortable and appealing than proclaiming the gospel itself.
But there is something else. The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples, gathered together and united in worship. This was their starting point. The seasons of Advent and Lent are preparations for Christmas and Easter, and have been established by the church. Yet the 10 days between the Ascension of Jesus and the Day of Pentecost were mandated by Jesus Himself who told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until the promised gift had been received. He did not say what it would be or how they would receive it – but they would definitely know it when it came.
And so they gathered and waited: not so much a passive wondering what was coming next, as an active waiting on God: united in worship and in prayer, united as a body whatever their personal differences may have been.
And yes, when the Holy Spirit came, He came with His agenda. He would remind the disciples what Jesus had said and done and did not depart from this agenda. No matter what was to become convenient or fashionable, the ministry of the church was to be Christ-centred. What was central to His ministry would be central to the church. What was incidental or peripheral to His ministry would be incidental or peripheral to theirs.
If Jesus is like the engine of the car, then the Holy Spirit is its power source. Without the Holy Spirit the car will go nowhere. Without Jesus, it can go nowhere.
Every blessing,
Sydney Maitland
