Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

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St. Luke begins his gospel about Jesus with a flurry of activity by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came upon the virgin Mary and she became pregnant. The fetus in Elizabeth’s womb kicked up a storm when the fetus in virgin Mary’s womb entered the house because the Holy Spirit came upon him. The Holy Spirit came upon Zechariah and his locked lips were loosed and he named the child, John. The Holy Spirit came upon Jesus as He was standing in the Jordan River dripping with baptism’s water.

Now, with this beginning to the gospel, what we might expect to see as the story continues is a record of the Holy Spirit coming upon one person after another like a bee pollinating flowers. And we’d expect to see lots of people trying to get the Holy Spirit to come upon them. Trying to get the Spirit’s attention, with hands lifted high, swaying back and forth, singing “Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me…”

But there’s none of that. In fact, in all the rest of Luke’s gospel, there isn’t one account of the Holy Spirit coming upon anyone else after He comes upon Jesus. There are plenty of people whom unclean spirits come upon. But the Holy Spirit comes upon Jesus. You don’t find the Holy Spirit apart from Jesus.

Luke tells us that no sooner does the Holy Spirit comes upon Jesus at His baptism, than the same Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. It’s not the Holy Spirit going off on His own to face the devil; it’s Jesus, led by the Holy Spirit who faces the devil and all of his deadly temptations.

As Jesus begins His ministry, Luke makes it very clear to us that Jesus does what He does because the Holy Spirit is upon Him. Being handed the scroll of Isaiah, Jesus unrolls it to the place where it is written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me…”

To be anointed, is to have olive oil poured over your head. The oil poured over the head signified the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the anointed one . The whole Old Testament prepares us for The Anointed One who is to come. The word in Hebrew for anointed one is “massiach” which we say, “Messiah.” And in the Greek of the New Testament, the word for anointed one is “Christos,” or as we say, “Christ.” So, as it turned out, Isaiah wasn’t writing about himself when he wrote these words 600 years earlier. Isaiah was writing them about Jesus. And Jesus confirms this saying, “Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your ears.”

Everything that Jesus does, we may understand to be the work of the Holy Spirit. And the work of the Holy Spirit is accomplished in everything that Jesus does.

The point to all this is this. The Holy Spirit has come upon Jesus and you and I receive the Holy Spirit only through Jesus. The Holy Spirit does not come upon you on His own, apart from Jesus. I want to make this point because this is a point that needs to be made. There are a lot of people out there, who are searching for a spiritual life. There is a craving for spirituality among a lot of people. But it’s a craving for the Spirit and spirituality apart from Jesus.

I was at Barnes and Noble in Augusta just before Christmas and, as I am compelled to do, I went over to the religion section to check it out. I hadn’t been there in awhile but the last time I was there I remember that along with the wall of books on Christianity there was a couple of sections on an adjacent wall for New Age and Eastern Religions. This time however I was shocked. Now, the amount of space devoted to Christian books is half the size and the space filled with New Age and weird spirituality stuff is twice the size it had been. People are craving the spirit. But, for some reason, they want a spirituality without Jesus.
I’ve recently read that Buddhism is experiencing a real surge and attracting a large numbers of followers. In Australia in particular, a significant number of Christians are abandoning the Christian faith in favor of Buddhism. They’re searching for spirituality apart from Jesus.

I’ve lost count over the years of the number of people who have assured me that they can be very spiritual without Church and all that stuff about Jesus.

And frankly, to be a bit more self-critical, sometimes I’m not so sure what we think we’re actually doing when we talk to others about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and all the other gifts of the Spirit but never do screw up the courage to connect all of these gifts of the Spirit to faith in Jesus. But I suspect that some of the reason for this is that we too have been infected with this idea that we can have the Holy Spirit apart from Jesus.

Why is it that as much as we crave spirituality, we resist Jesus? The question is the diagnosis. It is because we resist Jesus that we crave the Spirit. The Holy Spirit works through Jesus and all that Jesus does is by the Holy Spirit. You can’t separate the two. If you try to have the Spirit and spirituality without Jesus, what you get neither – and you’re left totally empty. But as you receive Jesus and follow Him, you are deeply spiritually satisfied as well.

The problem we have is not with the Holy Spirit but with Jesus. We’d prefer a spirituality without Jesus. And where do you look for spirituality without Jesus? Well, certainly not to the cross and the tomb. Apart from Jesus, you’re free to look for the spirit in much more pleasant places. We search for the spirit by listening to our feelings and getting in touch with our inner self and being open to mysterious signs and metaphysical experiences.

If there’s one thing you can depend on your inner feelings you’re your inner self for, its this. They’re never going tell you to take up your cross and forsake your feelings and your self. And for some reason those mysterious signs and metaphysical experiences never do tell you to drop dead and repent. But Jesus does. And that’s why we’d like to have our spirituality without Him. He is “the stone that the builders rejected” because He is a “stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” (Luke 20:17). (Romans 9:33).

This is what is happening in the Synagogue in Nazareth. Jesus reads from the prophet Isaiah who foretells of One who has been sent to “proclaim good news to the poor; to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind; to set at liberty those who are oppressed and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” “Then He rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And He began to say to them, ‘Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your ears.”

And Luke reports that “they all spoke well of Him and marveled at His gracious words.” They liked what they heard. Until His gracious words began to convict them of their sin. Then they didn’t like what they heard and they were angry and threw Him out.

Good news to the poor is only good news to you if you’re poor. “Does He really think we’re poor?” Liberty to captives is only good news if you’re a captive. “How dare He insinuate that we don’t have a free will.” Recovering sight is only welcomed by those who are blind. It means nothing to those who see just fine – or think they do.

That Jesus really expected them to be happy about all this was an insult. What was He suggesting anyway? That they were poor in righteousness, captives to sin, blind to the truth, oppressed by the very things we covet? “We’ll keep the Holy Spirit, but let’s throw this Jesus off the cliff.” And in doing so, they forfeited both Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit with all His gifts is not given apart from the One on whom He rests. And the One upon whom He rests is Jesus. You cannot have the Spirit apart from Jesus. And we cannot have Jesus apart from His cross because that is where the Holy Spirit leads Him.

At the Synagogue, He passes through their midst and they can’t seem to get their hands on Him, but at Gethsemane He is bound and taken by the hands of men. Before the crowds at Nazareth He walked away but before Pilate and the crowds in Jerusalem He would not walk away. He would not be thrown over the cliff in Nazareth but He would be nailed to the cross at Golgatha. And the Holy Spirit that came upon Him there abandons Him. And He craves the presence of the Spirit with a deeper craving than any man has ever felt. “Why have you forsaken me!”

The Holy Spirit leads Jesus to the cross precisely because we have rejected Him and would like to throw Him off the cliff. “He was despised and rejected by men…” “He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed.” (Is. 53:3). By His poverty we are made rich. By His captivity we are set free. Because His seeing eyes were closed in death our blind eyes will open in life. He was oppressed and we are more than conquerors. By His rejection we are accepted. And “today, this scripture is fulfilled in your ears.” And not just your ears but also your hand and your mouth. For as you receive Jesus in your ears and hands and mouth, you receive not only Jesus but the Holy Spirit who has come upon His Word and this bread and wine – which is Jesus. And your spiritual cravings are deeply satisfied.

Before we conclude we must add just this one more point. Luke begins his gospel by making it very clear that Jesus carries out the work that He is sent by the Father to do as the Holy Spirit is upon Him. As Luke begins his sequel to his gospel – the book of Acts – he begins again by making it very clear that the body of Christ goes forward with its mission and work as the Holy Spirit is given and rests upon it on the Day of Pentecost.

To this day, we are not to look for the Holy Spirit apart from the body of Jesus Christ – the One, Holy, Christian Church. Likewise, the Christian Church has no other way to offer the Holy Spirit to a world that craves spirituality than through Jesus Christ. And although He is bound to face much rejection, for some things just never change, where Jesus is received, the poor are made rich in grace, the captives are set free from their sins, the blind recover their sight until they see Him as He is, and the Lord’s favor lasts not for a year, but an eternity.

Related Entries:

» Issues Etc. – John Kleinig – "Real Spirituality"
» Issues Etc. Highlights
» Sermon – Epiphany 4 – "Teaching With Authority" – Luke 4:31-43 – 1/31/10
» Sermon Index – Lutheran – LCMS
» Sermon – Good Friday – "I Am Is Still I Am" – John 6-11 – 4/6/07
» Sermon – 6th Epiphany – "Christian View Of Wealth And Poverty" – Luke 6:17-24 – 2/11/07

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