Thinking with C. René Padilla about the Holy Spirit (Part IV: English Version)

Preface

This is the fourth essay in a six- or seven-part series on C. René Padilla’s essay “The Holy Spirit: Power for Life and Hope.” The series’ first three English-version essays are here, here, and here, respectively. Its first and second Spanish-version essays are here, here, and here. Mi padre y yo hope you enjoy the series ¡Saludos!

The Spirit of God in the Mission of the Church

Padilla’s essay considers the Spirit of God’s work in creation and history (Part 1), in Jesus’ mission (Part 2), and in the life and mission of the church (Part 3). The last post treated Padilla’s teachings on the Spirit’s work in Jesus’ mission. Now we turn to Padilla’s teachings on the Spirit’s work in the mission of the Church.

Padilla begins by linking Jesus’s mission with the church’s. “The Holy Spirit who is active in Jesus’ mission is also active in the life and mission of the church.” Padilla explicates this linkage by returning to Old Testament.

Already in the Old Testament there are traces of God’s promise that at the end of times the Holy Spirit’s ministry will not be limited to a select group (i.e., Israel) but will be extended to the whole people of God regardless of ethnic background.

We might expect Padilla to support this claim by beginning with texts from the book of Genesis—e.g., the universal fall of humanity (Gen. 3) or God’s promise to bless the nations through Abraham (Gen. 15)—and then proceeding to the Prophets. But Padilla elects not to take this route. Instead, he goes straight to the Prophets: “Ezekiel 36:26-27 and Joel 2:18-32 deserve special mention as two passages that are in the background of New Testament teaching on this subject.” 

Ezekiel’s text focuses upon the Spirit’s transforming work among the people of God. Padilla writes: “The prophet Ezekiel foresees a new era in which Israel will receive a heart inclined to obey God’s commandments, that is, ‘a new heart,’ ‘a heart of flesh’ in place of their ‘heart of stone,’ a heart that will open the way for the enactment of a ‘new covenant’ and God’s promise: ‘you will be my people, and I will be your God’ (Ezek 36:26-29).” The Spirt of God brings this promise into reality. “The fulfillment of this promises, reiterated by Jeremiah (Jer. 31-33), will be mediated by God’s ruach.”

Joel further explains the Spirit’s role in renewing and extending the people of God. “According to the prophet Joel, the messianic outpouring of God’s ruach will not be limited to Israel.” Here Padilla quotes Joel.

And afterward, I [i.e., God] will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. (Joel 2:28-29)

Padilla highlights the human scope of the Spirit’s outpouring. “The sphere of action of God’s ruach includes men and women, young and old. No one is excluded.” Padilla also notes this passage’s role within Joel. The Spirit’s promised outpouring “is the climax of a whole series of elements that, beginning with Joel 2:18, are combined in order to give a vision of salvation that God will bring into effect for his people.”

Padilla turns to consider how the New Testament treats Old Testament discussions of the Spirit’s outpouring upon the people of God. He starts with Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist. Padilla writes:

The promise becomes clearer in the preaching of John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah, who defines the difference between his own ministry and that of Jesus in the following terms: ‘I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire’ (Lk 3:16; see Mt. 3:11; Mk 1:8). In the final chapter of his Gospel, Luke returns to John the Baptist’s announcement by quoting Jesus’ words to his disciples right before his ascencion: ‘I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” (Lk 23:49). The reference to the Spirit is not explicit, but it seems clear that the content of the Father’s promise to which these words refer is the outpouring of the Spirit, with which the disciples will be ‘clothed with power from on high.’

Padilla continues his laser focus on how Luke presents the Spirit’s work in Jesus’ mission (see this series’ previous post). The same Jesus who “returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit” (Lk 4:14) and to declare himself the long awaited liberating messiah (Lk 4:18-19) is the one John said was more powerful than himself, and who would baptize “with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Lk 3:16). And after his resurrection, it is this Jesus, preparing for his ascension, who tells his disciples to wait in the city for the promised, powerful Spirit who will cloth them.

Luke represents Jesus’ latter promise in the opening of Acts. And, as Padilla notes, “this time [the promise has] an explicit reference to the Holy Spirit: ‘Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 1:4-5).” Ever the careful reader, Padilla helps us see how Luke links the Spirit’s role in Jesus’ mission with the Spirit’s role in the mission of the church. The Prophets spoke of both (see Isaiah 11; 58:6; 61:1-2; Ezekiel 36:26-29; Jeremiah 31-33; Joel 2:18-32), presenting both as divine promises. But it is the promised sending of the Spirit, Padilla writes, that is “the Father’s promise par excellence.”

Padilla again notes this glorious promise of God’s mission to the nations. “This is made evident,” Padilla writes, “by several expressions that are repeated in the context of [Lk 24 and Acts 1] and suggest a missiology that takes as its starting point the outpouring of the Spirit: ‘witnesses’ (Lk 24:48; Acts 1:8), ‘power’ (Lk 24:49; Acts 1:8), and ‘to the nations’ and ‘to the ends of the earth’ (Lk 24:47; Acts 1:8).” The Spirit that empowered Jesus to fulfill his mission will empower Jesus’ disciples to fulfill their mission to the nations.

But despite being the resurrected Christ, the disciples still did not understand their Spirit-empowered mission. Padilla flags that Acts 1:8—“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth”—contains Jesus’ answer to Acts 1:6: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?” This question reveals that “the disciples have not given up the nationalistic messianic aspirations that apparently encouraged them to follow Jesus from the beginning.” But Jesus’ mission wasn’t to establish a nationalistic messianic reign. Instead, Padilla argues, “Jesus’ project, however, is not the reestablishment of Israel’s kingdom but the formation of a new humanity in which god’s purpose for human life and for all of creation will be fulfilled.” The disciples will participate in this project as “witnesses,” who, Padilla continues, “beginning in Jerusalem, will spread the good news of the kingdom ‘to the ends of the earth.’ And for that purpose they will receive the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Before turning to Act’s treatment of Pentecost, Padilla invites readers to consider the implications of his presentation of the promised Holy Spirit for an accurate interpretation of Acts 1:8. This passage, Padilla argues, is not “a missionary mandate.” It is “the ratification of the risen Lord’s promise to send his Holy Spirit to his disciples (see Lk 24:49; Jn 20:21) in order to empower them for the fulfillment of God’s mission ‘to the ends of the earth.’” Recognizing that many will find this reading of Acts 1:8 shocking, Padilla bolsters his claim.

The Lord’s premise is that this mission cannot be carried out merely on the basis of human effort, but in the power of the Spirit. When the premise has been forgotten, the cost that throughout history the church has had to pay in terms of failures and frustrations has been exceedingly high. ‘The Lord of the harvest’ has so designed the crop that the gleaning of it does not depend on sophisticated techniques, or on human strategies, or on financial resources, but on the Resource that he himself provides for that purpose.

Jesus required the Spirit’s empowerment to fulfill his earthly ministry. The church requires the Spirit’s empowerment to fulfill its divinely appointed call to be Jesus’ witnesses throughout the world. Padilla’s chastising Christians who place their trust in techniques, strategies, and financial resources to bear witness to Jesus throughout the globe carries the tone of a member of the Majority World who has suffered much from Western missions projects shot through with racism, classism, and imperialism, rather than the social-leveling vision of Joel or the liberation themes that pervade Luke.

But here we should raise two questions. First, is Padilla championing a false dilemma? Perhaps Acts 1:8 is a ratification of Jesus’s promise to send the Spirit and a missionary mandate. Padilla has not given us an argument against this possibility. Second, what role does Padilla see Ezekiel 36 playing in these passages from Luke and Acts? Perhaps the answer is “none.” For whereas Padilla repeatedly links Joel to these texts, he says nothing explicit about Ezekiel’s ties. Thus we are left wondering how to understand the different emphases of these prophetic passages within the broader biblical presentation of the missio Dei—the mission of God.   

Intermission

I originally planned to treat all of Padilla’s discussion of the Spirit of God in the mission in the church in one post. I’m departing from that plan. Instead, this shall be the first of two or three posts on that section of Padilla’s essay. Given that section’s length, this route is a mercy to readers and me!

Saludos y’all.