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The Pentecostal Equalizer
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The Holy Spirit is, well, spirit (2 Cor. 3:17-18). It’s above our pay grade to know exactly what that means. We know it means that the Spirit of God is present everywhere in the universe (Ps. 139:7-12). In fact, the Spirit mediates the presence of God the Father and Jesus in the world (e.g., Rom. 8:9). Because the Holy Spirit is spirit, he does not have a body in the world. He transcends the material world.
Why is this significant? It is significant because the Spirit does not face any limitations based on this physical, material world. The Spirit does not flow more easily in men than women because of their bodies. The Spirit does not flow more easily into the rich and powerful than in the poor and worldly insignificant. The Spirit does not flow more easily through a Jew than a Gentile. The Spirit is the great equalizer.
The Spirit is the great equalizer such that in Christ “there is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is not ‘male and female’
(Gal. 3:28).
Accordingly, the Day of Pentecost is the great day of God’s equalizing as the church is born. We see that equalizing in Acts 2:17, where Peter tells the crowd on the Day of Pentecost that what they are seeing will mean that “your sons and daughters will prophesy.” The Holy Spirit does not play favorites, as Peter would learn in Acts 10:34 as he faced new Gentile believers.
On the Day of Pentecost, there were Jews present from all over the world (Acts 2:7-11). They spoke all sorts of different languages, and the Holy Spirit didn’t care. Those boundaries were transformed. In Acts 6, the church would deal with the fact that Aramaic-speaking Jews were getting better treatment than the Greek-speaking Jews. But on the Day of Pentecost, the Day of the Spirit, none of those earthly things mattered. Everyone received the Spirit equally.
As humans, it is very hard to fight against the “favorites” that have resulted from the Fall. In the world, blessed are those who use power to their own advantage. In the world, blessed are those elite who disregard or despise those beneath them. In the world, blessed are the rich who hoard and use their wealth for their own selfish interests.
But in the kingdom, God is mindful of the “humble state of his servant” (Luke 1:48). In the kingdom, “he has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” The Beatitudes paint kingdom values that are upside down from those of the world (Matt. 5:3-10).
It is incredibly hard even for the church to fight against the gravitational pull of the world. The powerful make the rules, and they make the rules to suit the powerful. Dr. Lyon alludes to such things when she mentions “systemic justice.” Systemic justice refers to the attempt to make the rules of society work equitably for everyone and not just for a select few. Because churches are typically associated with human institutions, they are not immune to these dynamics.
The Bible assumes there will be leaders. It is not opposed to hierarchy per se. It does not expect everyone to do the same thing. But it is against injustice, and it has as an implicit goal getting everyone at least to a baseline. Everyone counts to God, and everyone is a bearer of the image of God. Nobody is ignored in God’s kingdom, not even the sparrows. And God calls some to fight on earth now to work to restore the balance God intended.