God appeared frequently to saints of the Old Testament. He came as a smoking oven and flaming torch to Abram (Genesis 15:17), and later as three men before Abraham’s tent by the oaks of Mamre (Genesis 18). He showed Himself to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:2), and to Israel in a fiery cloud (Exodus 16:10). When He appeared to Korah, the earth opened and swallowed the rebels, and He appeared to Manoah’s wife with the good news about a son (Judges 13:3) and to Samuel with grim news for the house of Eli (1 Samuel 3:21). Time would fail me if I enumerated all of Yahweh’s appearances to kings, prophets, judges, women.
All those appearances pale in comparison with the appearance of God in and as Jesus. Those who saw Jesus saw the Father, and after His resurrection Jesus appeared to many witnesses and promised to appear again. The Old Testament epiphanies are fleeting: Yahweh is here, then He’s not, like the flicker of a flame. Jesus stuck around. He didn’t pop in and then ascend in the smoke of a sacrifice, like the Angel of Yahweh did to Manoah. He could slip through a crowd when necessary, but He was there, tangible, visible, audible, localized in a boat on the sea of Galilee or in the temple courts or out in the wilderness praying to His Father. His disciples got to spend three years learning the timbre of His voice, watching the expressions of His face, feeling the energy of His passions—the voice, face, passions of the Son of God.
But then . . . He left again. The Son pitched his tent in flesh, lived, died, rose, and then packed up the tent and disappeared almost as quickly as He had come. How is this different from the epiphanies of old? What makes this an event worth celebrating as the Epiphany of God? Light shines in darkness, but then the light goes out, goes elsewhere, and what then? Does darkness descend?
We have to match Epiphany with Pentecost to solve this puzzle. Jesus came and left, but He did not leave the world in darkness. He appeared and disappeared, but He didn’t leave the world without an epiphany of God. He left, but He did not leave us orphans. He came back to us, in the Spirit. The light of Jesus returned forty days after it left, when the lightsome Spirit descended on the disciples. The epiphany of God in the Son is definitive, even if temporary, because it is quickly followed by the appearance of God the Spirit.
It’s not a very satisfying answer. The Spirit here is as invisible as Jesus is in heaven. At least at Pentecost, the Spirit made the apostles human torches, but we don’t even have that to go by. We are left searching for an apparent God. The Spirit is light and the Spirit has come, but what good is invisible light? The Spirit has come, but where can we find God in the solidity of flesh?
John, the apostle of incarnation, provides the answer. In his first letter, he makes this astounding claim: “as He is, so also are we in this world” (4:17). He sent His Spirit, but that Spirit shows Himself in flesh too, our flesh. By shining in the darkness, and by fueling us with the oil of His Spirit, Jesus lit us up so that we can be lights in the world, lamps on a lampstand.
What John says is evident all through the New Testament, once we begin looking for it. Nearly everything Scripture says about Jesus is said about His disciples who have become like Him by the work of His Spirit. He is Son, we are sons. He is King, we are kings and priests in Him. He is the chief cornerstone of a new temple, we are all living stones. He is a dwelling place of God, but the Spirit inhabits us too. He is in the Father and the Father in Him, but by the Spirit they dwell in us and we in them. He is Christed by the Spirit, but we are christened by the very same Spirit. He died and rose, we die and rise in Him. In sum: “As He is, so also are we in this world.”
Jesus came and went away. He appeared and disappeared. But the Epiphany of the Son is not ephemeral but permanent in Pentecost. It is thick and sturdy as flesh, as tangible as the flesh of Chinese Christians gathering in secret for worship, as substantial as Nigerian Christians suffering with joy at the hands of Muslim persecutors, as dazzlingly visible as nuns caring for disabled children in an Indian slum.
Peter J. Leithart is pastor of Trinity Reformed Church in Moscow, Idaho, and Senior Fellow of Theology and Literature at New St. Andrews College. His most recent book is Athanasius (Baker Academic).
Comments:
Or, did they get a double dose?
and connected it to the words of the Ascended Christ to Saul, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting."
Saul persecuted Spirit filled Christians after Pentecost. But, Jesus identifies himself with these Christians. What is done to them is done to Christ. Perhaps this is the reborn Paul's first insight into being "united with Christ."
So when Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit on them on in the Upper Room on the evening He was resurrected, that was...what?
Thus , having been forgiven themselves and thus recieved The Spirit , they are able to wait prayerfully , with expectant faith, in oneness of mind and hearts , in the company of The Mother and the Spirit descends , not just on them , but , to even help the hearers of their words , to enable them thus , to start The Church , for having recieved The Spirit of unity , they are one and thus able to speak to a world that is even able to hear them , in spite of their differing tongues !
The measures thus advocated by The Church, for believers , for the ongoing guidance and 'filling ' of The Spirit that can be thwarted by the opposing, divisive and rebelling spirit of the world or of the enemy !
I think there is some confusion here. Christ ascended forty days after the Resurrection. Ten days later, the Apostles received the anointing of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The Christian feast of Pentecost echoes the Jewish feast of the same name, celebrated *50 days* (hence the etymology of the name) after Passover as the time when the Jewish people received the Law from Moses. In fulfillment of this, on the 50th day after Christ's Pascha, the Holy Apostles received the Spirit.
One thing Dr. Leithart does not specifically mention (though he alludes to it), is that at Pentecost the anointing of the Spirit is the preparation of the Apostles to become the Church, Christ's body. The Spirit of the Son seals the church and establishes it; as the Spirit of Adoption, He makes us Sons. This can be seen in the Orthodox Mattins service for Pentecost Sunday:
As he was well-pleased of his own authority
The un-mastered Spirit comes down from the Father,
Making the Apostles wise with tongues,
Might of the Father, one in form, setting the seal
Upon the life-bearing word, which the Saviour spoke.
God the Word, all-sovereign, healed the minds
Of the Apostles of sin, and made ready
An immaculate dwelling for himself;
Now the light of the Spirit dwells in them,
Equal in strength and consubstantial.