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The Spirit of the Messiah

This is a primal mystery of union. Jesus, the Word made human flesh, was the promised sprout of the stump because the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, filling him. That same Spirit of gifting is upon us, filling us.

When, midway through his ministry in Judea, Jesus sent his followers out to preach and heal, he pulled them close to him, and in a sacramental moment, breathed on them. It signified that he was passing his Spirit to them, signifying the life-breath of the creator and re-creator going into the sprout of a new humanity. It was a gift and a blessing, specially given for the special work that he’d asked them to do, a forecast of greater things to come.

That breath of giving was the sprout from the stump of Jesse branching out to bear fruit after its kind. Where the king of the ancient line had healed, now he called his friends and siblings to heal. What the Son of David had preached, he empowered them to preach.

They were to go out as emissaries of the king, as emissaries that bore the same power of kingship that was upon their leader. They bore power to bind and loose, to work with authority, to bless and to shake the dust of the apostate off of their feet.

“Greater works you will do than those you’ve seen me do,” he said. Why? Because they, filled with the Spirit of good kingship, of truth and healing, had the power to do so in his name, the name of the heir of a strange and unseen throne, carrying the king’s seal to make visible an eternal kingdom that had no borders and yet was ever a place of boundaries.

Here is a beauty and a wonder: in his patience and wisdom, God—Father, Son, and Spirit—has chosen to be one who waits to remake and to renew. The maker of all, who has made all makers, breathes the Spirit on us through the lips of his son (made like us). And so, like the seventy, we are sent.

*all custom images in this reading plan are Copyright 2015 by Martin French. Used with permission.