THE RELATION OF THE ASCENSOIN TO THE PENTECOSTAL EFFUSION
OF THE SPIRIT
That the departure of the
Incarnate Son to the Father was a necessary condition of the coming of the
Spirit from the Father is taught explicitly in Jo. xvi. 7 εαν μη απελθω, ο παρακλητος
ου μη ελτη προς υμας. And as a matter of fact, as the
Evangelist writing after the event remarks, there was ‘no Spirit’, no coming or
effusion of the Spirit, until Jesus has been glorified (Jo. vii. 39). The
sending of the Spirit was the direct and almost immediate consequence of His
glorification, i.e. His return to the Father (Lc. xxiv. 49, Acts ii. 33). There
was an interval of “not many days,” which was necessary in order that the Church
might be prepared by a period of waiting and prayer, an that the Coming might
coincide with the Pentecost when Jerusalem would be full of pilgrims from all
parts. On Christ’s part all was ready from the moment of the Ascension.
The two phrases which St. John
uses of the Ascension explain the relation in which it stands to the Descent of
the Spirit.
1. The Ascension was a
departure, to be followed by an arrival (απελτω . . . ελθη). It
was the withdrawal of a visible Presence, the terminus ad quem of the
earthly life and the terminus a quo of a Presence purely spiritual. The
two modes of Christ’s presence could not be conterminous or coexist; the second
could not begin till the first hand reached its end. The ascension completed
the days of the Son of Man, the life which He lived in the flesh. The Resurrection
had begun the great change; from Easter morning He was already ascending (Jo.
xx. 17 αναβαινω);
the final rapture on the Mount of Olives ended the ascent (αναβεβηκα) and ushered in that life in the Spirit
in which He could come to His own again, and abide with them for ever.
2. The Ascension was the glorification
of the Son of Man (Jo. xii. 16 εδοξαστη
‘Ιησους, xvii. 5 νυν δοξασον με ου, πατερ, παρα σεαυτω): the humanity, perfected by suffering
(Heb. ii. 10, v. 9) and victorious over death, entered the Divine Presence to
take its place in union with the Person of the Eternal Son at the right hand of
the Father. But the glorification of humanity in Christ has for its end the
endowment of humanity in the rest of the race. He ascended up that He might fill
all things (Eph. vi. 10) At the righteous, victorious Head of the Church He
claimed and received for her the promised gift of the Spirit (Acts ii. 33) by which
members of the Christ are to be in due course brought to the glory of their Head.
(Henry Barclay Swete, The Holy Spirit in the New Testament: A Study of
Primitive Christian Teaching [London: Macmillan and Co., 1910], 373-75)
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