That Elusive Holy Spirit

As you may remember your Bible history, Samaria was the land to the North of Jerusalem. It was formed when the kingdom of Solomon was broken up into two. The Southern kingdom that included Jerusalem was called Judah and the Northern kingdom was Israel later to be called Samaria. You will also remember that the Jews of the South detested the Samaritans even though they were all descendants of Abraham (remember the parable of the good Samaritan). That is the setting of our account in Acts for today.

While we read this account because it mentions the Holy Spirit coming to the newly baptized Christians in Samaria to coincide with the Spirit descending upon Jesus at his baptism, this text deals with several other issues. The first is the overall theme of Acts which talks about the expanding missionary work of the early Christians starting out locally proclaiming to Jews then expanding until the whole Roman empire (and beyond) and all people are included in those who are accepted in the church. While we do not read it, we also meet Simon the magician who, seeing the healing done by the Apostles, desires it for himself. While it seems that he may truly believe, his desire to receive the Spirit was not so he could bring others to Jesus, but profit to himself. Lastly we see the Apostles working out how and what the Holy Spirit is and does. 

This account in Acts is just one of the ways the Spirit comes to Christians: after they were baptized in the name of Jesus. In other places the Spirit comes to people before they are baptized and at other times when they are baptized. While fully understanding the Spirit is impossible, I suspect that the Spirit visits people as they are most open to receiving God’s gifts and the fact that Acts accounts so many different ways is more an account of the Apostles slowly learning about the action of the Holy Spirit. What is clearly shown in Acts is that God sends the Holy Spirit into our lives – we are baptized into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit – and that is not for our own benefit but for the benefit of others. It is the Spirit that gives us our gifts, whatever they may be, so that we can meet the days ahead with a holy and certain hope. More importantly God gives us the gift of the Spirit so that we may follow Jesus all of our days proclaiming God’s salvation to all the world by our words and deeds. How will the world around you hear and see Jesus? Where will the Spirit take you this week? What is the Spirit calling you to do? Listen to our story from Acts. The Apostles did not know where they were being sent or who they were to visit or what their task was. They just followed the Spirit’s guidance. Pray that the Spirit will inspire you to follow Jesus into the world and share his love.