That's the Spirit

The scriptures referred to are Acts 5:27-32 and John 20:19-31.

Fairy tales usually end with “And they lived happily ever after.” And you can argue that's why they end at that point: the resolution of the original conflict or the granting of the fondest wish. No need to go further. The second act of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods imagines what could happen after the stories of several fairy tale characters. They are not all that happy. And several movies based on “real life” stories end on a high note, whereas the lives of the real people depicted continued on and sometimes did not go well. When you tell a story you generally end it at a point you select for an effect. Real life rarely gives such a neat ending.

The gospels end the story of Jesus with the resurrection. And yet, because the writers are recounting what really happened, none of them depict the story as completely over. The original ending of Mark's gospel has the angel tell the women Jesus is risen and says: “Then they went out and ran from the tomb, for terror and bewilderment had seized them. And they said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.” (Mark 16:8) It's rather unsatisfying. We know the women told others at some point because how else would we know what happened? Which is why later manuscripts added a longer ending that conflates events from the other 3 gospels. Many scholars think Mark's original ending may have been lost.

Matthew ends with the Great Commission, which is a good way to finish. However it implies that the story continues with the apostles which Jesus sends out. (Matthew 28: 18-20) Luke ends with Jesus' ascension but not before he tells the disciples to stay in Jerusalem and await power from on high. (Luke 24:49-53) That happens at Pentecost, told in the book of Acts, where Luke continues the story of the Jesus movement.

John ends with a note that his gospel does not contain everything Jesus did. (John 21:25) John's gospel seems to be deliberately not recounting the events already available in the other gospels and instead supplementing the story of Jesus with things only he has knowledge of.

And while he doesn't include Pentecost he alone has this moment when the risen Christ breathes on the disciples and says, “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.” Jesus knows the love story of God reaching out to humanity is not over and is preparing the disciples to take over spreading the gospel. And knowing that they will encounter situations he hadn't, he is giving them authority to act in his stead.

But Jesus isn't simply setting up a hierarchy, much less a bureaucracy, to do these things. First he is filling them with the Holy Spirit. Because there's nothing worse than people in power doing things in the wrong spirit.

Some people, when they receive power, become so focused on the rules that they are to enforce, they act as if the rules are more important than people are. Decades ago, in the early days of my nursing, I had a patient dying of brain cancer. Her pain meds weren't working anymore. I asked her doctor if he couldn't prescribe anything stronger. He said no, because she might get addicted! I pointed out she was going to die within the next 2 weeks but to no avail. The rule was applied as if one size fits all. Yet 8 years ago when my dad was on hospice he had a standing order for morphine so that he wouldn't die in pain. In the interim medical authorities had realized that a blanket refusal to give certain drugs because they can be addictive shouldn't apply to dying people who are suffering.

Jesus encountered this “rules over people” mentality when he healed on the Sabbath. The scribes and Pharisees acted as if what he was working on the Sabbath, which was prohibited. But Jesus wasn't asking for money or doing any of the 39 categories of work forbidden by the rabbis. And more importantly, as he asked, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or evil, to save a life or destroy it?” (Mark 3:4) Jesus was not doing work but giving help to people in distress, which is a good thing. His critics had gotten the purpose of the Sabbath laws wrong. “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath,” said Jesus. (Mark 2:27) Its purpose is to give people rest, which again is good. It was not intended to create a barrier to prevent us from acting with compassion. A person filled with the Holy Spirit of the God who is love would know this. Among the qualities Paul calls the fruit of the Spirit is kindness. (Galatians 5:22-23)

On the other hand, some people think that rules or laws or regulations are inherently bad. Thus so-called “sovereign citizens” think they are not subject to the US government and its laws. So they won't get driver's licenses or social security cards or pay taxes. I wonder if they feel that food manufacturers needn't follow the regulations against selling food that is spoiled or contains toxic chemicals? Or that drug makers need not test the medicines they produce to see they are safe and effective and have reliable dosages in each pill? Some rules, laws and regulations are good. Some need to be revised and made better. Some are bad and need to be repealed. But even good rules need to be applied with common sense. And no law is immune from being abused or misused.

Jesus indicated that some laws of the Torah needed to be dropped or changed, like the dietary laws (Mark 7:18-19) or the rules against touching lepers (Mark 1:40-41; cf. Leviticus 13:45-46) or touching menstruating women or touching the dead. (Luke 8:43-56; cf. Leviticus 15:19-27; Numbers 19: 14, 16) He broke these laws, as he did the Sabbath laws, whenever he healed such people.

But he felt some laws needed to be obeyed in a more serious and deeper way. He included in the commandment against murder the anger and contempt that lead to murder. (Matthew 5:21-22) He said that the commandment against adultery also applied to the lustful thoughts that lead to it. (Matthew 5:27-28) He said that the commandment to love your neighbor included your enemy. (Matthew 5:43-48) In fact Jesus said your neighbor is anyone you encounter, regardless of race or religion. (Luke 10:25-27)

No one can state every instance in which a law should apply nor every circumstance in which it doesn't. Even the Bible can't cover every possible application of and exception to God's laws. Which is why God sends the Spirit of his Son to live in us (Romans 8:9) and help us discern the truth. (John 14:17; 16:13)

Sadly, the church doesn't always trust the Spirit to do this. Just as the Pharisees expanded the Torah with the Oral Law, specific rules and extensions not recorded in scripture, so too the church has tried to cover every conceivable permutation of God's moral principles and not leave anything to discretion. But as Jesus objected to the rabbinic overreach of the traditional rules, so too he would probably have trouble with some of the things Christians have elevated to equal value with his commandments.

When I attended Wheaton College, Billy Graham's alma mater, I had to sign a pledge not to drink or smoke or join secret oath-bound societies or use traditional playing cards or dance! It didn't cause me problems because my mom was a nurse and my dad had a drinking problem and I can't dance. I knew from my mother's dinner table discussions of cancer patients that smoking is inherently unhealthy. And while scripture condemns drunkenness but not alcohol, it is toxic to the brain and some people shouldn't touch it because of their susceptibility to alcoholism. Weirdly in the 1970s, they hadn't explicitly forbidden recreational drugs. But secret oath-bound societies? It turns out they meant the Freemasons. And apparently playing cards were verboten because they could be used for gambling and fortunetelling. So the students bought Rook decks. Dancing? This code was drawn up in 1867. These days they've dropped some of the more outdated rules.

The real temptation in multiplying such rules is that it can divert folks from thinking about the more fundamental commandments to love God and to love others. You can see this in certain very strict religious groups and cults. They may have stringent rules about certain behaviors but not about, say, lying, at least to outsiders. They may expect chastity from the laity but let their leaders get away with sexual harassment and assault. They may require financial information from all members to ensure they are tithing but not hold the leadership to accountability in how they spend the funds.

Jesus called the Holy Spirit the Spirit of truth and one sign a Christian group is trying to quench the Spirit is when some folks act or speak dishonestly or try to spin the truth. Proverbs says, “The Lord abhors a person who lies, but those who deal truthfully are his delight.” (Proverbs 12:22)

Another sign that people are not following the Spirit is when they are ruled by fear or use fear to lead others. Paul says, “For God did not give us a Spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:7) If you trust God you need not fear. And you can trust him because God loves you. As it says in 1 John, “There is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear...” (1 John 4:18) Fear is antithetical to faith and love.

A big giveaway that people are not being led by the Spirit is when they don't show compassion or love for others. As Paul says, “...the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Romans 5:5) And 1 John says, “But whoever has the world's possessions and sees his brother or sister in need and shuts off his compassion against him or her, how does the love of God reside in such a person? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue but in deed and truth.” (1 John 3:17-18) Ultimately, though, “The person who does not love does not know God for God is love.” (1 John 4:8)

The reason we need the Spirit of God in us is that laws tend to be external and our problems are internal. As Jesus said, “For from within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, evil, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All of these evils come from within and defile a person.” (Mark 7:21-23) That's why God says in Ezekiel, “I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you; I will take the initiative and you will obey my statutes and carefully observe my regulations.” (Ezekiel 36:26-27) What we need more than an ever expanding list of external laws is a change of heart.

We need to internalize God's laws. In Jeremiah God speaks of making a new covenant with his people. “I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts and minds. I will be their God and they will be my people. People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me. For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me...” (Jeremiah 31:33-34) We will no longer need to be taught about God and what he expects of us because his law will be a part of us. We will follow “the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:2) and be free from the rigid written law which cannot take into account intentions or make compassionate exceptions.

Laws are not all bad. They can be like training wheels, helping us stay upright while following Jesus. One day we will internalize the necessary sense of balance and we won't need the training wheels any longer. The Spirit provides us with that sense of balance that keeps us from veering off into justice without mercy or into mercy without justice, from falling into legalism on one side or lawlessness on the other.

Christianity is essentially about becoming like Jesus. But as C.S. Lewis points out, becoming like Jesus is more like painting a portrait than following rules. Christians are to be living portraits of Jesus. And he is the image of God, which is what we were originally supposed to be. (Genesis 1:27) So let the Spirit select your palette, move your brush, help you bring out what makes Jesus Jesus. And as you become more like him, you will find that you are becoming more yourself, the person whom God created you to be: the image of the God who is love. (1 John 3:2)