Jesus is in us

STUDY

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‘WHILE Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.’

The setting for this outpouring of God’s Spirit was in the home of Cornelius, a centurion of the Roman Empire. Cornelius lived in Caesarea, a city on the shores of the Mediterranean and the seat of power of the Roman governor. The Greek historian Polybius said that centurions were chosen for their careful deliberation, constancy and strength of mind.

If, in the mind’s eye, we take ourselves into that home, stand with the family and friends of Cornelius, picture the apostle Peter poised before us, perhaps we too can feel the Spirit of God fall upon us.

It was while Peter was speaking that the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. The Jewish believers were astounded that the Spirit was poured out on the Gentiles. Immediately, the Gentiles were baptised. There are clear parallels in this ancient narrative with the first Pentecost in Jerusalem. In Scripture, we are to see with the heart.

It is the Spirit that animates the inner life. Filled with the Spirit of Jesus, Pentecost is the moment that the community begins to live the life of Jesus. Behind the Christian Pentecost lies the Jewish Pentecost, the Feast of Weeks or Shavuot. In the Book of Exodus, Shavuot is the Jewish celebration marking the wheat harvest in the land of Israel but, more importantly, it commemorates the day on which God gave the Torah to the tribes of Israel. Shavuot is the moment that the people of Israel began to live the life of the Torah. For the Jewish community, it is living the Torah that gives life. The Christian community placed the life and Spirit of Jesus alongside, or in contrast to, that of the Torah for the Jewish community.

Jesus said: ‘Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in the midst of them’. In the Jewish tradition, it is said that where two are sitting together and words of the Torah are spoken, the Divine Presence, the Shekinah, rests with them. In Islamic mysticism, the Sakinah is sent into the heart of believers; it brings stillness; it is the Divine Presence. There is a strong resonance with the handing over of the Torah, the Spirit of Jesus at Pentecost – in the home of Cornelius with Peter – and the Sakinah descending into believers’ hearts. In the 21st century, though there be real differences of doctrine, we are called to see and honour the Divine Presence in the followers of other world faiths.

In the First Letter of John, we read, ‘Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God’. To be born of God is to be of the essence of God, to have the DNA of God running through our being. The author wants us to see that, in living the life of Jesus, a life of self-sacriice, of self-emptying, we are of God, born of God. In the Gospel of St John, Jesus said, ‘Abide in my love’. We are to absorb ourselves in the Eternal Essence that pervades all things, and be at one with the Spirit of Jesus. This is divine intoxication.

Jean Vanier writes: ‘Jesus is in us and we are in Jesus’.

The Rev Scott McKenna is minister at Edinburgh: Mayield Salisbury.

This article appears in the September 2018 Issue of Life and Work

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