St Luke and the Holy Spirit
It is from St Luke that we have the account of Pentecost. He was the author of the book we know as ‘The Acts of the Apostles’ but which might more appropriately be called ‘The Acts of the Holy Spirit’. In our last issue, Bishop Dominic wrote about St Luke’s insight into the Easter story. Here, he considers what St Luke teaches about the Spirit.
St Luke’s gospel, more than any other, is full of references to the Holy Spirit. Luke describes John the Baptist, his mother Elizabeth and even his dumb-struck father Zechariah, as filled with the Spirit. Jesus himself is conceived by the Spirit and the Spirit reveals to Simeon that he will see the messiah. John the Baptist announces that Jesus will baptise with the Holy Spirit and when Jesus is himself baptised, the Spirit descends in the form of a dove.
Jesus is led out by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted and then returns to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. In a climactic moment in the synagogue, Jesus is revealed when he identifies himself with the prophecy of Isaiah, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me’.
Matthew and Mark make little reference to the Holy Spirit but Luke mentions the Spirit all the time. For Luke, it is the Holy Spirit that is behind all that happens to Jesus and all that happens in the life of the church. Luke’s second book which we call the Acts of the Apostles, has been called the Gospel of the Holy Spirit because it is an account of the Spirit of God at work in the activity of the apostles.
Some theologians have said that by the time Luke came to write his gospel, the church had realised that the Second Coming was not imminent. Instead Luke sees the coming of Jesus in the life and gift of the Holy Spirit. For Luke, the coming of the Holy Spirit brings about a New Age and this new age is open to all who call upon the Holy Spirit to lead them and to make Jesus real in their lives.
For Luke, the kingdom of God is a present reality and Christ is among us here and now. Luke does not deny the second coming or life after death, but he doesn’t want the church to avoid the present and keep looking ahead to the life to come. In the same way, we must not spend our time avoiding our present difficulties by looking at the past, but we must recognise the presence of Christ and his Kingdom here and now - in our own lives, in our churches and in the life of the diocese today. But we can only do that if we invoke the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, and like the characters in Luke’s gospel, allow ourselves to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
+Dominic