Jesus said, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” John 16:17
Thought for the Day: The Truth about our Passions and the Holy Spirit
The simple answer to How does Jesus change our passions? is by the Holy Spirit. Basic Christian belief is that God calls us into relationship with him. By the prodding of his divine Spirit upon our human spirit, God opens our hearts to his Son, Jesus, who brings us into a new reconciled relationship with him. It is not that we are born with a passion to follow Jesus, much less to accept him into our lives through this passion. Rather, it is his passion for us, his reaching out to us, his calling us to himself through the work of his Spirit that places this irresistible passion for him within us.
His Spirit transforms our minds in such a way that what looks like foolishness—the cross upon which the divine man Jesus died in our place because of our sinfulness—is seen as the greatest, radical act of one-way love in the history of the world. Most Christians call this moment conversion. In an instant, or over a period of time for many, our eyes are open to the reconciliation that a God of justice—the payment on the cross for our sinfulness—and mercy—the substitution of Jesus for us on the cross—offers us at no cost. Because there is no cost to us, and because we receive something we do not deserve, we call this grace. Grace is a free gift. The Rev. Paul Zahl calls grace one-way love. It is a love dependent on its source, not its recipient. It is love given without merit to the receiver. We do not earn God’s love and grace. Instead God gives them to us.
At the same time we receive this love, we realize that we must tell God we are sorry for what we have done wrong. The juxtaposition of God’s free and wonderful grace with our inability to be good all the time—in fact some would argue our inability to really do much good at all—causes us to repent, to say we are sorry for our wrong behavior. In the face and presence of God’s holiness and glory, our eyes are opened to the truth of who we really are.
Repentance, the act of saying we’re sorry, is acknowledging that when compared to God we are always wrong, always unworthy of love. For many this is a hard pill to swallow because we say, Hey, I’m not that bad. Remember, I’m not the BTK killer! Yet the Spirit helps us realize it is not the BTK killer with whom we should be comparing ourselves but a holy God, who is the very definition of love and goodness.
While walking with his disciples after the Last Supper and before arriving in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus does some of his greatest teaching. He says, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin (John 16:7-8). The Holy Spirit helps us because he convicts us of our sins. The Holy Spirit convicts me and keeps me from committing sins I am tempted to undertake. The Holy Spirit, active in my life and in the lives of all Christians, keeps us from running off the rails. He is responsible for the fruit in our lives that John the Baptist said he failed to see in the lives of the priests and Levites. As Christians, we are utterly dependent on the Holy Spirit.
Perhaps Paul explains the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives best in Galatians 5:16-25:
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires [passions] of the flesh. For the desires [passions] of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires [passions] of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
Self-examination, repentance, prayer, and worship:
Before you pray, take some time to reflect on the most important human relationships in your life. Perhaps there is one in particular that is troubled and about which you are concerned. Ask the Lord to assist in correcting/reconciling that relationship, and then pray a prayer like the following:
O God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Savior, the Prince of Peace: Give us grace seriously to lay to heart the great dangers we are in by unhappy divisions in our relationships in life, especially those in your Church; take away all hatred and prejudice, and whatever else may hinder us from godly union and concord; that, as there is but one Body and one Spirit, one hope of our calling, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, so we may be all of one heart and one soul, united in one holy bond of truth and peace, of faith and charity, and may with one mind and one mouth glorify you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Spend further time in prayer and worship before studying the Gospel of John below.
Study: John 9:13-41, The Pharisees Investigate the Healing
13They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, "He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see." 16Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath." But others said, "How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?" And there was a division among them. 17So they said again to the blind man, "What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?" He said, "He is a prophet."
18The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19and asked them, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?" 20His parents answered, "We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself." 22(His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.) 23Therefore his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."
24So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, "Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner." 25He answered, "Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see." 26They said to him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?" 27He answered them, "I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?" 28And they reviled him, saying, "You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from." 30The man answered, "Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. 32Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33If this man were not from God, he could do nothing." 34They answered him, "You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?" And they cast him out.
35Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" 36He answered, "And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?" 37Jesus said to him, "You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you." 38He said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him. 39Jesus said, "For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind." 40Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, "Are we also blind?" 41Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, 'We see,' your guilt remains.
Reflection Questions:
1) Jesus taught about spiritual blindness through healing a person physically blind. What is the main point that Jesus is making regarding spiritual blindness?
2) The formerly blind man responds to Jesus by worshiping him. All Jews know that only God is to be worshiped. Notice that Jesus does not correct him. In verse 41, what are the Pharisees guilty of?
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