Jesus
Changed the Meaning of Pentecost: Not
the Law, but the Holy Spirit
Homily
for Pentecost (Seventh Sunday after Pascha) (25 May 2015)
Acts
of the Apostles 2:1-11…………….John 7:37-8:12
Today we celebrate the
Great Feast of Pentecost, the day when the promise of God the Father to send
the Holy Spirit was fulfilled.
The two readings from the
Holy Bible for today both mention this feast, because it was a Jewish holy day
before it became a Christian holy day, and Jesus and His disciples celebrated
it.
It still is a Jewish holy
day—Shavuot, the celebration of the giving of the Torah, the Law, to Moses and
the Hebrew people. It comes 50 days
after Passover—just as for us Christians the feast of the giving of the Holy
Spirit comes 50 days after Pascha. The
Greek word Pentecost means “50 days.”
When the disciples were
all together in one place to celebrate on the 50th day after
Passover, as described in the Acts of the Apostles, they had no idea of what
was going to happen to them. They were
simply gathered for the holy day like all the other Jews.
And when Jesus stood in
the Temple on the last day of the festival and proclaimed that He was the light
of the world and also that anyone thirsty should come to Him and drink, no one
knew that He was talking about the Holy Spirit that He would send from the
Father—the Paraclete, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, who would lead
believers into all the truth.
And that is the crucial
difference between the Jewish Pentecost and the Christian Pentecost. Both are from God, but the Jewish Pentecost
is about the Law and the Christian Pentecost is about the Holy Spirit. I often say that the coming of Jesus changed
everything—and this is another example of that.
For the Jews, the Law
given by God to them through Moses guided every aspect of their lives. It was God’s way of showing them what to do
in order to live in good relationship with God and with each other. Understand and obey the Torah and you will
have favor with God. This is what they
celebrate at Pentecost.
But for us Christians, it
is the Holy Spirit given to us by the Father through the asking of Jesus that
guides every aspect of our lives. The
Holy Spirit shows us what to do in order to live in right relationship with God
and with each other. The Holy Spirit
empowered the disciples to speak all languages so that they could preach and
teach Jesus’ message of salvation to all peoples.
In his Letter to the
Galatians, St Paul writes that the Spirit brings “love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” In the First Letter to the Corinthians, he
says that the Spirit gives various gifts to people to use for the good of
everyone, such as wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, and so
on. This is what Jesus meant when He
told the disciples to wait for the promise of the Father, and when He said, “I
am the light of the world. Whoever
follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
Jesus promises us
enlightenment and wisdom—the ability to see clearly and to make good
choices. He doesn’t promise us rules
that we can follow without thinking. He
didn’t say that when the Holy Spirit comes it will lead you to the Law; he said
that the Holy Spirit “will lead you into all truth.” He changed the meaning of Pentecost, setting
us free from the Law and giving us the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
And so, for this great
gift, we give thanks and praise and glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit, One God, unto the ages of ages.
Amen.
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