Interpretation

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John 20:1923

Casey Thompson
Interpretation 2014 68: 187
DOI: 10.1177/0020964313517534
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John 20:1923

Interpretation: A Journal of
Bible and Theology
2014, Vol. 68(2) 187189
The Author(s) 2014
Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0020964313517534
int.sagepub.com

Casey Thompson

Wayne Presbyterian Church, Wayne, Pennsylvania

Email: CThompson@waynepres.org

A few years ago during a service at my church, a man marched down the middle aisle. He stopped
where a bride normally would, looked up at the preacher and full of the Holy Spiritor perhaps
just full of spiritsshouted Hallelujah! Then he walked out of the service.
Fourteen ushers and three staff people followed him out. Our patron saint of church administration was one of them. Fearlessly, she interrogated him: What are you doing?
Praising God! he said.
Unfortunately, she returned, We dont do that here!
Well, you should.
Not all Christians are comfortable with the Holy Spirits work. Many of our congregants have
little experience of it nor can they speak about it with any clarity. They can nearly make the same
claim as the Christians in Ephesus, No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit (Acts
19:2). Okay, that is a stretch. But they might say, No, were not sure what you mean when you talk
about the Holy Spirit. They might feel about the Spirit the way Elizabeth felt about Darcy in Pride
and Prejudice, I hear such different accounts of you as puzzle me exceedingly.
How can you tell when it is the Spirit taking over and when it is just a man shouting in church?
What are we to make of these things?
John 20:1923 provides an opportunity to explore the work of the Spirit, the final gift of Jesus
to his disciples, with the spiritual descendants of those disciples. I offer a few markers for how to
talk about it here, and will start with a fundamental one. In theological language, of course, the
Spirit is the third person of the Trinityand here, we are in danger of drowning our congregants in
theological language if we become too technical (i.e., that each person of the Trinity is one mode
of being in action, each distinct and yet inseparable). What we essentially mean when we talk about

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Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology 68(2)

the Spirit is Gods capacity to be with us, among us, in uswhich is an extraordinary capacity
around which some have difficulty wrapping their minds. It is, however, the gift of Jesus to us in
this passage.
Second marker: The Spirit does not obliterate our agency, does not quell our own part of the
struggle, and does not make us the puppet of God. To borrow a statement from the Presbyterian
Church:
How does such an experience come to each of us? In a blinding, overwhelming, mystical sense
of being caught up into oneness with God? Not in the Reformed tradition. Gods love does not
obliterate our own free struggle. God honors too much the dignity, truth and actuality which
belong to the individual Christian subject. . . . (Arnold B. Come, quoting Barth, in Presbyterians
Today, September 1985; online at http://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/today/
holy-spirit/)

When we affirm this, we affirm that the Spirit does not put us on autopilot. God works with us. We
are an important part of the equation. We are not the most important part of the equation. But
Christian discipleship is an important way in which God loves the world, so important that God
sends the Spirit of Christ to be within us.
Third marker: The Spirit gives different gifts. We are not going to get them allwhich is a
blessing because it does not mean you need to be good at everything to be a Christian. Again, let us
hear from Paul:
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. . . . To each is given the manifestation of the
Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to
another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same
Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another
prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another
the interpretation of tongues. (1 Cor 12:410)

There are other gifts from the Spirit, too: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:2223). Elsewhere, Paul talks about the spiritual gift of
administrationlike the saint acknowledged above (a gift for which no one clamors for oneself,
but everyone wants someone to have). There is hospitality, and being a good listener, and perseverance when everyone else wants to give up on someone or something, and knowing just what to say
when someone is hurt, and knowing when to say nothing, and making the perfect chocolate cake
for someones birthday that makes them feel like a million dollars, and knowing when to turn over
the tax refund to a ministry that needs it just at that moment, and the art of encouragement. These
may seem lesser gifts to our congregations. Why cant I speak in tongues? Now thats a cool gift
of the Spirit! They may seem lesser gifts until we are on the receiving end of the gift, and then they
mean everything. The Spirit gives different gifts. What are the gifts of your congregants? Are they
using them for the way God wants to love the world? This is not a minor thing. It has eternal consequence. Are they using their gifts so God may love the world?

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An elder in my church, whose spiritual gifts are not limited to making chocolate cakes but certainly include them, once told me that Presbyterians have the opposite reaction to many communities of faith when the Spirit shows up. Presbyterians, she said, get very quiet. I think she is right. It
is a sacred hush. That is why our administrator did not like a man hollering out Hallelujah in the
midst of a sermon; it disrupted her attention to the Spirit.
But the Spirit gives a variety of gifts, which means we should not close ourselves to certain
experiences because it means closing ourselves to the Spirit.
This brings me to marker number four: the Spirit will knock heads with us. If the Spirit thinks
we are cordoning ourselves off, living too much for ourselves, denying Gods invitation to us in
way after way after way, the Spirit does not sit meekly by. This is how Paul talks about the head
knock he received:
I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? I
answered, Who are you, Lord? Then he said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you are
persecuting. [Remember, Paul calls the Spirit the Spirit of Christ.] I asked, What am I to do,
Lord? The Lord said to me, Get up and go to Damascus; there you will be told everything that
has been assigned to you to do. (Acts 22:610)

I once met a young man who described his journey of faith as having been mugged by the Spirit.
The secondary report is true. Gods search for us is not a passive one. Sometimes it feels aggressive. Our congregants should hear that if it feels like something is trying to get ahold of you, pay
attention.
A final marker: The Spirit will also pray for us when we cannot with sighs too deep for words
(Rom 8:26). This means that even when we feel completely lost, utterly demoralized, without hope,
absent of words even to describe what we are feeling, then turning our attention to God is enough
(with open arms), and the prayers will ribbon from you into heaven, the glimmer of God within you
returning home, advocating for your peace, the forgiveness of your sins, the repair of your heart,
your reunion with God.
This gift is for all who rejoice when they see the Lord.

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