Holy Spirit – the basis of discipleship

It is remar­kab­le and not coin­ci­den­tal that Pen­te­cost fell exact­ly on the day when the Jews cele­bra­ted Shavuot. God wan­ted to make it easy for the Jews and help them to reco­g­ni­se the con­nec­tion bet­ween the gift of the Holy Spi­rit and Shavuot. Shavuot is the feast of the first­fruits and the word of God. On this day, the peo­p­le cele­bra­ted the fact that the Torah was given to them at Sinai. Through the Holy Spi­rit, the Torah was writ­ten into the hearts of Jesus» fol­lo­wers on Pen­te­cost. It is the sign of the new covenant.

In his ser­mon on Pen­te­cost, the priest descri­bes how the Holy Spi­rit sett­led on the heads of tho­se gathe­red in the form of a fiery ton­gue. Hans whis­pers to Emil: «Now I know why the mon­ks wear ton­su­res.»

It is fasci­na­ting and no coin­ci­dence that Jews from many dif­fe­rent count­ries gathe­red in Jeru­sa­lem for the feast of Pen­te­cost. This was alre­a­dy the case at the death and resur­rec­tion of Jesus. Both events took place at the same time as one of the gre­at Jewish pil­grimage festivals.

On Pas­so­ver, the Jews cele­bra­te their libe­ra­ti­on from Egyp­ti­an slavery. Jesus» death and resur­rec­tion crea­te the con­di­ti­ons for us all to be freed from our per­so­nal cap­ti­vi­ty. Through Moses, God ins­truc­ted the peo­p­le of Isra­el to count seven weeks plus one day after the Pas­so­ver (Exodus 23:15–22) and then Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks). The name Shavuot This is becau­se the sche­du­ling is based on the coun­ting of the weeks after Pas­so­ver and not accor­ding to the calendar.

In the New Tes­ta­ment, which was writ­ten in Greek, the feast is cal­led Pen­te­kos­tos (fif­ty, also Pen­te­cost). Fif­ty days after the Pas­so­ver, gre­at cele­bra­ti­ons were once again held in Jeru­sa­lem. Shavuot. The who­le town was full of life. The second pil­grimage fes­ti­val has a natu­ral and his­to­ri­cal signi­fi­can­ce. The Jews cele­bra­ted the grain har­ve­st, the recep­ti­on of the Torah at Sinai and the coven­ant that God made with Isra­el. In the midst of the­se cele­bra­ti­ons, God pours out the Holy Spi­rit on his followers.

Feast of first fruits

God has given his peo­p­le a land flowing with milk and honey, but also many dif­fe­rent kinds of fruit, vege­ta­bles, fruit and grain. On Shavuot it is time to thank God for the first har­ve­st. A cele­bra­ti­on against for­get­ting the good­ness of God. The­re has always been a gre­at dan­ger that, when things are going well for man, he for­gets God, who makes ever­y­thing grow and flou­rish (Gene­sis 6:10–12). God crea­tes every basis for life. Man can sow and reap, but only God can make things grow (1 Corin­thi­ans 3:6).

It is exact­ly the same in the suc­ces­si­on. We can open our hearts to God, seek Him, but the fruit is given by the Spi­rit of God. «If, on the other hand, the Holy Spi­rit rules our lives, he will cau­se com­ple­te­ly dif­fe­rent fruit to grow in us: Love, joy, peace, pati­ence, kind­ness, good­ness, faithful­ness, gent­le­ness and self-con­trol» (Gala­ti­ans 5:22 NLB). Pen­te­cost is a day against for­get­ting that the­se things can­not be taken for gran­ted, but are a gift from God.

Accor­ding to Jewish tra­di­ti­on, an enti­re night is dedi­ca­ted to the stu­dy of scrip­tu­re during this fes­ti­val. Among other things, the book of Ruth is read becau­se this sto­ry takes place during the har­ve­st. The con­scious tur­ning of the Moa­bi­te Ruth to the God of Isra­el (Ruth 1:16+17) is a first fruit among the many Gen­ti­les who fol­lo­wed her exam­p­le in the cen­tu­ries that followed.

Befo­re Jesus retur­ned to his Father, he gave the ins­truc­tion that the disci­ples should remain in Jeru­sa­lem until the Spi­rit of God comes. Only then should they go out into the world and bring the good news to all peo­p­le (Acts 1:4+8). The reason is that wit­hout the Holy Spi­rit, the chan­ces of suc­cess are zero. Every fol­lower of Jesus Christ is included in the mis­si­on to explain the gos­pel, the good news, to other peo­p­le. The wil­ling­ness to do this in a tactful and loving way is our part. The Spi­rit of God is respon­si­ble for suc­cess and open hearts. Not­hing works wit­hout Him. It would be like kno­cking down a brick wall with your bare hands, wit­hout a sled­ge­ham­mer, or roas­ting meat in a gas bar­be­cue with an emp­ty gas cylinder.

Feast of the Word of God

At Shavuot, the Jews ori­gi­nal­ly offe­red two loaves of bread as a wave offe­ring. But, «Man needs more than just bread to live. He also lives from every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord» (Deu­te­ro­no­my 8:3 NLB). That is why the Shavuot is Feast of first fruits also a Feast of the Word of God. On this day, the Jewish peo­p­le cele­bra­te the fact that the Torah was given to them at Sinai (Exodus 19). Even the cir­cum­s­tances were simi­lar. At Sinai the­re was fire, storm and smo­ke. At the Pen­te­cost event in Jeru­sa­lem, the­re is talk of a roar like the roar of a migh­ty storm and of flames.

Coun­ting the days bet­ween Pas­so­ver and Shavout, the so-cal­led coun­ting of the omer, is a con­scious ritu­al for the Jews. This time tea­ches first and fore­most that the free­dom given and the ins­truc­tions given by God are deep­ly and inse­pa­ra­b­ly con­nec­ted. Leo Trepp (1913–2010), a rab­bi says: «Free­dom wit­hout com­mit­ment leads to nihi­lism. This is what the cen­sus tells us.» And a say­ing of the wise is: «The more Torah, the more life. The more lear­ning, the more wis­dom.»

We are in dan­ger of thin­king that God is a spoil­sport who rest­ricts our free­dom. God’s Word pro­vi­des the right frame­work for the free­dom we have been given. It is life-enhan­cing and leads into the expan­se. In a coun­try wit­hout a fede­ral con­sti­tu­ti­on, arbi­trar­i­ne­ss and anar­chy reign. The Torah is the con­sti­tu­ti­on that grounds the coven­ant bet­ween God and his peo­p­le. Free­dom wit­hout God’s word is like an art pain­ting on can­vas wit­hout a pic­tu­re frame. The Torah can be unders­tood as a mani­festo of human digni­ty, as a mar­ker of how peo­p­le should tre­at each other, natu­re and other people’s lives.

The first Pen­te­cost was also a mira­cle of hea­ring. For­eign Jews who did not speak Hebrew cal­led out: «[…] How can that be? The­se peo­p­le are all from Gali­lee, and yet we hear them spea­king in the lan­guages of the count­ries whe­re we were born!» (Acts 2:7–8 NLB). Thanks to the Holy Spi­rit, they unders­tood unknown lan­guages. In the same way, the Holy Spi­rit deci­phers God’s word for us so that we can under­stand more and more of it.

«To the Jews who now belie­ved in him, Jesus said: «If you abide in my word, you are tru­ly my disci­ples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free» » (John 8:31–32 New Testament).

Fol­lo­wers of Jesus remain in his word. God’s Word and the Holy Spi­rit belong inse­pa­ra­b­ly tog­e­ther. They are mutual­ly depen­dent. The Spi­rit of God does not make us free spi­rits, but binds us to God’s word. That is why the Jews stu­dy the Scrip­tures for one night on Shavuot.

Feast of the Holy Spirit

Through the Holy Spi­rit, the Torah is writ­ten into the heart of a fol­lower of Jesus. Jere­mi­ah gives us a pro­phe­tic out­look on Pen­te­cost: « «But this is the new coven­ant that I will make with the peo­p­le of Isra­el in that day,» says the LORD. «I will fill their minds with my law (Torah), and I will wri­te it on their hearts. And I will be their God and they will be my peo­p­le» » (Jere­mi­ah 31:33 NLB). Pen­te­cost marks the begin­ning of a coven­ant in which God lives in and with the fol­lo­wers through his Spirit.

Through the Holy Spi­rit, the Torah is writ­ten into the heart of a fol­lower of Jesus. The same pro­cess is descri­bed else­whe­re with the repla­ce­ment of the heart of stone with a heart of fle­sh (Eze­kiel 36:26). This means that the Holy Spi­rit not only brings the let­ter into our hearts, but also mer­cy and the abili­ty to ful­fil God’s ins­truc­tions. An important aspect of this new coven­ant is the new begin­ning through for­gi­ve­ness (Jere­mi­ah 31:34). This is why Paul wri­tes: «He has enab­led us to be ser­vants of his new coven­ant, a coven­ant that is not based on writ­ten laws, but on the Spi­rit of God. The old way leads to death, but on the new way the Holy Spi­rit gives life» (2 Corin­thi­ans 3:6 NLB).

Fol­lo­wing Christ wit­hout the Holy Spi­rit is not pos­si­ble. In Greek, the Spi­rit of God is also cal­led para­cle­tos cal­led. This means «being cal­led to the side of ano­ther to help him». The Holy Spi­rit is the gua­ran­tee of suc­cess in disci­ple­ship against all fail­ure and is on duty around the clock. The­re are peo­p­le in need of care who hire a per­son from Pol­and to be with them ²⁴⁄₇ and sup­port them in all situa­tions. The advan­ta­ge of the Holy Spi­rit is that he never sleeps and per­forms super­na­tu­ral miracles.

The book of Ruth ends with the wed­ding of Boaz and Ruth. The Holy Spi­rit is the seal that con­firms a fol­lower as God’s own and thus assu­res him that he belongs to the bri­de with whom the bri­de­g­room Jesus will cele­bra­te the wed­ding after his return. «Through Christ you too have now heard the truth, the good news that God saves you. You have belie­ved in Christ, and he has con­firm­ed you as his own with the seal of his Holy Spi­rit, which he pro­mi­sed long ago.» (Ephe­si­ans 1:3 NLB). A seal of par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on in the new coven­ant that was estab­lished through Jesus Christ.

In the nar­ra­ti­on of the Omer, the Jews remem­be­red that free­dom wit­hout com­mit­ment leads to not­hing­ness. God’s good ins­truc­tions in the Torah pro­vi­ded the frame­work for the peo­p­le who were final­ly free after a long cap­ti­vi­ty. Through the Holy Spi­rit, the Torah is writ­ten into the heart of a fol­lower of Jesus. The con­se­quence of this is also free­dom. St Paul descri­bes the con­nec­tion bet­ween free­dom and the Spi­rit of God: «But the Lord is the Spi­rit, and whe­re­ver the Spi­rit of the Lord is, the­re is free­dom» (2 Corin­thi­ans 3:17 NLB). Pen­te­cost enables a free­dom that does not lead to not­hing­ness, but into the eter­nal coven­ant with God. A free­dom that neither rest­ricts nor exploits its neigh­bour, but values and hono­urs them.

Possible questions for the small group 

Read the Bible text: Acts 2:1–13; Jere­mi­ah 31:33–34

1. What did the Jews cele­bra­te on Shavuot (his­to­ri­cal and natu­ral refe­ren­ces)? Why did the out­pou­ring of the Holy Spi­rit take place pre­cis­e­ly during this festival?
2. What is the con­nec­tion bet­ween the Holy Spi­rit and har­ve­st? What is the fruit of the Holy Spirit?
3. What is the con­nec­tion bet­ween the Holy Spi­rit and the Torah? What does it mean that the Torah is writ­ten in a heart?
4. Why is the Holy Spi­rit indis­pensable in fol­lo­wing Jesus?
5. Whe­re the Spi­rit of God is, the­re is free­dom. How do you under­stand this connection?
6. Pray for one ano­ther for fresh ful­film­ent through the Holy Spirit!