By Brother Matt Henson
The Lenten Adventure invites us into a time of contemplation and confession. We traveled from our recognition of mortality in Ash Wednesday to the cross and resurrection—the celebration of resurrected life! We tend to miss the steps leading us from resurrection to ascension and on into Pentecost. We are content to stay on the mountaintop of resurrection and live our lives as resurrected people. Yet, during the season following Easter, Jesus will point us to a posture of receiving the Holy Spirit into our lives.
In E. Stanley Jones’ book The Christ of Every Road: A Study in Pentecost, he writes, “Pentecost, where experience becomes immediate, alive, morally and spiritually transforming, God-filled, aflame and adequate to meet life. At Pentecost Jesus’ announcement of the central purpose of his coming was fulfilled: ‘I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” [John 10:10] (27). Pentecost, as we will see in the next several weeks of devotions, is God’s empowering of our lives, transforming and filling us with the fullness of life.
Jones also writes, “At Pentecost potential life and actual life were fused into a living whole. As I believe that to be the dominant need of our age the theme and purpose of this book will be: Pentecost, the meeting and fusing of potential and actual life” (27). In Christ’s death and resurrection, we are invited to a renewed life free from our sins and free to follow Jesus in life, death, and resurrection. Our ability to live this life comes from the Holy Spirit at work in our lives. The potential for the fullness of life is present, and we can talk about the Holy Spirit’s work. Yet, the life is only potential until we receive the Holy Spirit into our lives.
Prior to Jesus’ ascension, he told the disciples, “And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). The season after Easter is a season of waiting with great expectation for the Holy Spirit. We are invited to receive the Holy Spirit, recognizing our life is not at its fullest until we have been clothed with power from on high. Just as the Lenten Adventure was filled with fasting and preparation for Holy Week, the season after Easter is one of celebration that our Savior is alive and a recognition of our need for a Pentecost experience where potential and actual life are fused.
Are you living the fullness of life? Have you experienced the fullness of life that comes from the experience of the Holy Spirit? Has potential and actual life been fused in you? As we celebrate the appearances of Jesus after resurrection and we remember the emotional and experiential roller-coaster of the disciples between Easter and Pentecost, may we daily be placing ourselves in position to experience the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for resurrection. Thank you for new life. In this season of our Christian year, focus my life on the fullness of life in you through your Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
