Prayers for Revival – Gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 1:5ff)
In general, Jewish people reject Jesus as being the Messiah for one central reason. It is because Jesus did not do what the Messiah was expected to do. Christians speak of Jesus “dying for their sin,” “saving their soul,” or “getting into heaven,” but none of these concepts were anywhere close to Jewish expectation for the Messiah. For them to accept such notions would not be in continuity with Judaism, but would be a completely different religion. As simply as possible, the Messiah was meant to save Israel from their enemies and establish justice on earth. I take the time to mention this because my prayer today was partially inspired by the following two quotations from leading modern Jewish scholars, explaining why they do not accept Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. The first is by Gershom Scholem:
“It is a completely different concept of redemption which determines the attitude to messianism in Judaism and Christianity.. . . In all its shapes and forms, Judaism has always adhered to a concept of redemption which sees it as a process that takes place publicly, on the stage of history and in the medium of the community; in short, which essentially takes place in the visible world, and cannot be thought of except as a phenomenon that appears in what is already visible. Christianity, on the other hand, understands redemption as a happening in the spiritual sphere, and in what is invisible. It takes place in the soul, in the world of every individual, and effects a mysterious transformation to which nothing external in the world necessarily corresponds…The reinterpretation of the prophetic promises of the Bible which applies them to the sphere of “the heart”…has always seemed to the religious thinkers of Judaism an illegitimate anticipation of something which could at best come about as the inward side of an event which takes place essentially in the outward world; but this inward side could never be separated from that event itself.”
The second is by Schalom Ben-Chorin. Note especially the underlined phrase, it will come back later:
Schalom Ben-Chorin – “The Jew is profoundly aware of the unredeemed character of the world, and he perceives and recognizes no enclave of redemption in the midst of its unredeemedness. The concept of the redeemed soul in the midst of an unredeemed world is alien to the Jew, profoundly alien, inaccessible from the primal ground of his existence. This is the innermost reason for Israel’s rejection of Jesus, not a merely external, merely national conception of messianism. In Jewish eyes, redemption means redemption from all evil. Evil of body and soul, evil in creation and civilization. So when we say redemption, we mean the whole of redemption.”
The following prayer is for the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are meant to, as Gershom Scholem articulated, take “place publicly, on the stage of history and in the medium of the community.” They do not take place in the “invisible world” but in the “visible.” Contra Gershom Scholem (and contra many Christians), Christianity does not speak of a “spiritual” salvation in which nothing in the external world corresponds. The Gifts of the Spirit, particularly miracles and healings, but the others as well, are the tangible signs of the New Creation coming to birth in our midst, showing that God intends to redeem not our invisible and ethereal “souls,” but our entire lives and world, including all physical, bodily, sensory, emotional, relational, communal and cultural aspects of our being. These Gifts are not meant simply to authenticate the message, as often times in both the ministry of Jesus and the apostles, the sign came first, and the message explained the sign. This is because the signs are functioning as signs. They are pointing to something else, to a reality called the Kingdom of God, the age of redemption when all will be made new. These Gifts bring effects on the visible and historical world, demonstrating the gracious and transformative nearness of God’s Reign. They confirm the testimony of Christ, the proclamation that in the midst of this present darkness, the light of life has shined forth in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, heralding the inevitable restoration of the entire creation. We earnestly desire the gifts of the Spirit because, as the Spirit is the downpayment of our inheritance, the Gifts are tokens, indeed, manifestations of the New Creation’s presence here among us, even now, the initiation of the earth’s re-creation. Contra Ben-Chorin, in the midst of this world’s unredeemedness, there truly is an enclave of redemption — the Church operating in the gifts, fruit and wisdom of the Holy Spirit, doing the works of Jesus.
This prayer was inspired by the preceding ideas as well as language from 1 Corinthians 1:4-9.
Almighty God, who calls your Church to bear unceasing witness that Jesus the Messiah died for our sins and rose from the dead on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures: so now confirm the testimony of Christ in our midst; may your Church never be lacking in any gift of your Holy Spirit, that the signs of creation’s restoration may abound among us, joyfully affirming to the world, that, in the midst of this present darkness, an enclave of redemption indeed exists, bearing the seeds of resurrection life, while eagerly awaiting the full revelation of our Lord at His coming, Jesus the Messiah, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
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Both quotations came from Jurgen Moltmann, The Way of Jesus Christ (London: SCM Press, 1990).
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