Now that we are celebrating Easter, our eyes have already begun to turn towards the celebration of Pentecost. And so it should be, since Easter life is love abundant and overflowing. Christ arose in the fullness of the Spirit so as to share that Spirit (and Christ’s own life) with others. Easter thus requires Pentecost as its needed horizon. Turning our gaze from Easter to Pentecost is required by the resurrection of Jesus itself, or, more exactly, by the overflowing love of God manifested in Christ’s resurrection from the dead.
The Gospel of John is a powerful witness to this truth. For John, viewing the resurrection as the victory of overflowing love takes us back to Christ’s coming into flesh as the one and only Son. According to John 3:16, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”Christ entered the world through the love of Father in order to mediate that love to others as the mediator of life abundant and eternal. Out of the abundance of the Father’s love, Christ receives the Spirit, who is given without measure (3:34) and remains with Christ (1:33). This abundant Spirit remains with Christ all the way to the cross where love attains its highest definition. At the cross, divine love crashes through the barriers of sin and death and manifests its power in the victory of Christ’s resurrection. Indeed, the victory of divine love over sin and death fully manifested at the resurrection continues to flow outward through the giving of the Spirit to involve others, for “out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given” (1:16). Christ thus came for such a moment as this, for such a moment that occurs when the risen Christ bestows his Spirit upon others. For Christ came that we might have life and have it to the full (10:10). Those who drink of this life from Christ will find it welling up from within them throughout their life, taking them all the way to life eternal, where they will never thirst again (4:13-14). The life of the Spirit as the river of divine love overflows Christ as the source of new life to others, leading them on a journey of ever-increasing love as well. Christ is thus the one in John out of whose inner being a river of the Spirit will flow to those who believe. John 7:38 can indeed be translated so as to make Christ the one who imparts these rivers of the Spirit, as Joel Marcus notes.[1] Drinking of the Spirit from the Father through Christ, we participate in that river of life as witnesses and instruments of Christ the Spirit Baptizer.
That moment when Christ arose in the fullness of the Spirit so as to impart the Spirit to others occurred when the intended recipients were at their lowest point. Hiding out of fear of the Jews, the disciples stood at the point of their deepest sorrow and their greatest failure. It is here, in this context, that Christ appears to them raised from the dead. But he greets them with words of acceptance: “Peace be with you!” (20:19). Unbeknownst to the disciples, Christ had already entered their deepest sorrow on the cross, and he bore it for them and overcame it so that they might know the joy of living. And so the disciples rejoice at his appearance, not only at the sight of their Messiah raised from the dead, but also at the grace he so abundantly extends to them (20:20). He then tells them to receive the Spirit, whom he will pour forth from the heavenly Father upon them (20:22). This entire event is filled with grace. The river of living water overflows Christ and will rest upon his disciples embracing them with the Father’s love, the very love that the Father shared with the one and only Son from all eternity (17:24). Just as the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father, all will share in that exchange of love in unity (17:23). They will serve in the power of that love, not only one another, but as living witnesses to the world. If you love me, Jesus said to Peter, feed my sheep (21:17).
Easter directs us to Pentecost, because the love that was victorious in Jesus’ death and resurrection cannot be stagnant. It overflows the faithful sojourn of Jesus so as to fall upon us, shaping us in Christ’s image, for he is the Spirit Baptizer to whom the Spirit bears witness.
Those who wish to explore these ideas further should read my book, Jesus the Spirit Baptizer: Christology in Light of Pentecost (Eerdmans, 2018).
[1] Joel Marcus, “Rivers of Living Water from Jesus’ Belly,” Journal of Biblical Literature 117, no. 2 (Summer 1998): 328–30.