A word for Pentecost

The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. Genesis 2:7

Jesus breathed on the disciples and said “Receive the Holy Spirit”. John 20:22

What a strange thing breathing is! That quiet little motion - in-out, in-out, in-out - that we hardly notice most of the time, but without which we cannot live. How many millions of times do we do it throughout our lives? How often do we stop to think about it?

To breathe is to be alive. To stop breathing is to die. Breath is life.

Well, forgive me for stating the obvious. But there are times when the obvious, the absolutely commonplace, can also be very wonderful. And if that’s true of just “ordinary” breathing, how much more is it true of the scene John gives us? Picture, please, that moment when Jesus, risen from the dead, appears to his frightened disciples and breathes on them with the simple words “Receive the Holy Spirit”.

When we think about the coming of the Holy Spirit we probably think most often of Pentecost and the dramatic events described in Acts 2: the “rushing mighty wind” and “what seemed to be tongues of fire”. And quite right too. That was the event that kick-started the Christian church, and it was massive. 

But I for one am really pleased that we have this other account too. It speaks to me of the fact that you can’t lay down hard and fast rules about how the Spirit comes. Sometimes he comes quietly, even privately, a breath; and sometimes he comes with the power of a volcanic eruption. 

How do these two stories - these two comings - relate to one another? Was the one described by John a kind of symbolic coming, paving the way for the real thing in Acts 2? That’s a question the scholars debate, and I certainly wouldn’t dare to offer a strong opinion. But the clue to the John passage lies, surely, in the link with Genesis 2, where we read how God “breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living being”.

By telling the story this way John seems to be saying something like this: “In the beginning God created all things. The climax of his creation was man. But he was a purely inanimate object - clay, dust - until God chose to breathe into him his divine breath. Only then did he live. And now see what Jesus is doing! His rising from the dead marks the start of a new creation. The first one went badly wrong; but instead of washing his hands of Project Humanity, God decided to start again, and it is his son Jesus who gives supernatural life to the first members of a whole new human race. He, the Son, does what the Father had done at the beginning with the breath of his mouth, so a new creation is launched, and new life is given.”

Fine. But what does this mean for us? Lots of things! But in essence this: as followers of Jesus we aren’t just people who have developed a taste for “spiritual” matters and so come to faith and become part of the church. No! We are that, if you like, but we are also far more. We are (please read the next bit really slowly...) members of a whole new race; we are a new humanity; we are being remade by God in the likeness of Christ; we have the very life of God within us; we have been born again by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Which leads to a simple but vital question: Does it show?

Here are some famous words from Paul, but translated in a strictly literal way: “If anyone is in Christ - new creation! The old things have gone. Look, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Well, how does your life, how does mine, match up to that?

Breathe on me, breath of God,

Fill me with life anew;

That I may love what thou dost love,

And do what thou wouldst do. Amen.