The Seven-Fold Spirit

At the end of the Tree of Life, Bonaventure has a beautiful prayer based upon Isaiah 11:2:

“We, therefore, pray to the most kind Father through you, his only-begotten Son, who for us became man, was crucified and glorified that he send us out of his treasures the Spirit of sevenfold grace who rested upon you in all fullness:
The Spirit, I say, of wisdom, that we may taste the life giving flavors of the fruit of the tree of life, which you truly are;
The gift also of understanding, by which the intentions of our mind are illumined;
The gift of counsel, by which we may follow in your footsteps on the right paths;
The gift of fortitude, by which we may be able to weaken the violence of our enemies’ attacks;
The gift of knowledge, by which we may be willed with the brilliant light of your sacred teaching to distinguish good and evil;
The gift of piety, by which we may acquire a merciful heart;
The gift of fear, by which we may draw away from all evil and be set at peace by submitting in awe to your eternal majesty.”

On the one hand, I might disagree with the seven-fold spirit being used for our personal gain. For Isaiah 11 is speaking of a community of justice, established when the one true king comes to rule over Israel as the great just empire, in which the perfect law of God would be done and all people within would rest in peace and security and plenty.

On the other hand, the way Bonaventure uses it is by asking for the seven-fold spirit to come upon us through the life and teachings of Jesus, recognizing that it is only Jesus that we can receive true knowledge and true piety—which Bonaventure calls compassion—and true counsel. There is much truth here, and we should pray this prayer and understand it fully.

A Great Necessity

“There is then a great necessity imposed upon us to be good, since all our actions are within the view of the all-seeing Judge.” –Bonaventure quoting Boethius

Judgement Day

Why should there be a judgment day? Why doesn’t Jesus just change people from within and let the world be changed? Because, first of all, Jesus doesn’t force people to do what is right. Whether they have the Spirit or not, every person makes their own choice to do evil to others or to do good. And it only takes one evil person to ruin a whole community—as we saw in 9-11.

The goal of eschatology is justice in community. We cannot abide to have Idi Amins in the community of God. The oppressors must be weeded out. In the community will only be the merciful, the forgiving, the helpful, the servants, the ones who live for God. No one else will be welcome.

How does God know who will be who? He will ask witnesses to come. But witnesses will only show what others do or don’t do, not what they “believe.” And, in the end, this is what faith is: acting for God, according to God’s will. All scripture says what Bonaventure quotes: “All the secrets of all will be revealed to all… each will receive according to his deeds.” Because our deeds show us for who we really are more than what we say we believe.

Some Thoughts on Jesus' Life

Well, I'm overnight at the church with folks who need to not freeze to death, so I don't have Bonaventure to consult. But since I only have one section to go, Bonaventure's conclusion, I thought I would offer some concluding thoughts on Jesus' life.

It says in Paul that those who have faith are saved. But it is interesting that in the Greek he does not say that those who have faith "in" Christ will be saved, but rather those who have the faith "of" Christ. I know most translations say "in", but the Greek doesn't support that, as Richard Hays radically proclaimed in his monograph on Galatians.

What does that mean? What I get from that is that it is those who follow the model of Jesus' faith are those who are saved, not necessarily those who sign a statement of doctrine. Jesus' life is one to have as a model of Christian life. Not just sometimes, but exclusively.

This does not mean, however, that we should follow Jesus' every action literally. We don't need to speak Aramaic, wander through Galilee or preach to crowds. In the New Testament, they saw Jesus' life as having principles of the life of the one who will enter into God's kingdom.

For instance, we should live sacrificially for others, giving up our well-being, even perhaps our very lives for the sake of others.

We should live a life of meeting other's needs.

We should be drawing people to God in word and deed.

We should be kind to others, even if that means saying some harsh things.

We should be ready to change our lives for God's sake.

We should be pure, innocent, but ready to be crafty for God's will to be done.

Of course, it is difficult, actually impossible, to live this way. This is why we need, as humans, Jesus' teaching as well as his life. Jesus taught us to repent, to confess and to turn away from sin. This is a process, not a one time event.

We are to follow Jesus. This means living like Him, living in his footsteps. But if we make a misstep, then we turn back. The Christian life is direction, not perfection.

A Catholic Church?

By the time of Bonaventure, there was no way he could truthfully say that the Church is “unified as a single whole.” The Eastern and Western church had declared each other heretics, and both declared any church which disagreed with any part of the Nicene Creed (even a single word!) to be heretical. Perhaps the church wasn’t as divided as it is today, but the seeds of that division were already planted and few of the church has turned away from it.

The Work of the Spirit

Bonaventure, like a good Catholic, sees the working of the Spirit as the creation of the Church—the organization of Jesus’ body with people as members of it. But the Church isn’t the result of the Spirit so much as we see the true Church by the working of the Spirit. The Spirit is not in the building of buildings, organizations or hierarchies. Nor is the main work of the Spirit in tongues in miracles. Rather, the work of the Spirit is this: faith in God by His former enemies, and love for enemies in the hearts of God’s people.

Descent to Hell

Why did Jesus go to hell?

(One thing, however, it was not “hell” or simply a place of punishment, but Sheol, which had both hades and a place of paradise)

Scripturally, there are two answers.

First, in order to preach the gospel to those captive to death. Jesus is the first to explain to the masses already dead why they are where they are. People who lived lives that were as good as anyone else had it explained to them that they needed to repent to be a part of God’s kingdom. And to those who were without bodies, but righteous in God’s eyes, Jesus explains that they will receive new bodies and that through Him, they can not access God and make requests.

Secondly, Jesus “took captivity captive”—he took those who had repented in their lives, and had faith in God, and he brought them into the presence of God, as a part of his kingdom.

Bonaventure has Jesus going to hell after his ascension. That… doesn’t make sense to me. He’d go to Sheol after he died and gets exalted some in his resurrection and then he is exalted the rest of the way in his ascension.

The Ascension

Why did Jesus ascend? It would be so much better if he were here, with us. Then we wouldn’t be so divided because he would be guiding us. No one could say, “Jesus isn’t like you say” because there he’d be, in front of us. No one could deny the power of God. It wouldn’t be in secret—we’d be living for him, in his presence.

So why does he hide? Because he knows where the power of the universe is. He is invited to be at the center of the universe, where the greatest work can be done. He left us with the task of doing what needs to be done, by His power.

Free-Will Christendom

Bonaventure quotes passages of Jesus sending the disciples out to all the world to preach the gospel, and he names it “Jesus given dominion over all the earth.” Well, I do believe that Jesus was given dominion, but is his sending the disciples out a sign of that dominion. He is sending them out as ambassadors, not as rulers.

Rather, the disciples are giving out an invitation to be a part of a spiritual kingdom. Everyone may, if they so choose, abandon their citizenship to this world, to these nations, to all the systems corrupted by Satan, and become a citizen of Jesus’ kingdom, of the just law and the just ruler, where the poor are cared for. But this is not dominion, for every person must make their own choice as to whether they accept citizenship in this kingdom. No one is born to it, everyone must accept it, willingly.

So Jesus, in a sense, does have dominion, but only over those who willingly surrender themselves to him and his kingdom.

Why The Resurrection?

Jesus was resurrected because he had offered himself like a sacrifice.

“My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors.” Isaiah 53:11-12

It is the law of reversals—that which you grant for the sake of others’ will be granted to you on the last day. But as a hint of what is to come, and to grant us the Kingdom to live in now, Jesus was resurrected from the dead. And this offer is not just for Him, but for all of us who choose to live a righteous life before God and to sacrifice themselves for the sake of others.

Angels

"Angels appear attractive to the devout and severe to the wicked.” -Bonaventure

The Battle

“Now that the combat of the passion was over, and the bloody dragon and raging lion thought that he had secured a victory by killing the Lamb, the power of the divinity began to shine forth in his soul as it descended into hell.” -Bonaventure

I love the battle imagery that Bonaventure uses here. It is so true, it was a battle. And just as the witch thought that the battle was one-sided and that Aslan was defeated, the evil one was mistaken in the outcome of the war. For his greatest defeat was yet to come.

The Burial of Jesus

God bless Joseph and Nicodemus! They may have been cowards, but they were there for Jesus when they could truly offer him assistance.

Blood

In Bonaventure’s eighth section, he speaks much about the blood of Christ. And well he should, given the Catholic theology he believed. The blood, so they say, is the grace of God, granted through the mass. It is for this reason that Mel Gibson has mass volumes of blood flowing out of Jesus in his Passion of the Christ. Some called that film “realistic”, but Gibson wasn’t working toward realism in the scenes that showed blood. Rather, he was symbolically demonstrating the pouring of Jesus grace and salvation upon everyone who came to him.

But in my anawimic (not Catholic) theology, this is in error (although I have nothing but esteem for my Catholic brothers and sisters). It is not the mass that offers God’s grace, but the martyrdom and the sacrifice of God’s people. It is the suffering and rejection of those who do mercy, of those who follow Jesus, that is where the grace is poured out. The one who lives for himself all week and then comes to receive the mass, even after confession, does not necessarily receive God’s grace.

Rather, God’s grace is for the poor, the persecuted, the lowly, the rejected, the outcast. God reserves His grace for those who need it. And the ones most in need of salvation are those who society has rejected. God is there for them. And the blood of Jesus was shed to show that those who live the life of Jesus would get the opportunity to live the second life of Jesus.

Torn Veil

Why was the temple veil torn in two? Because it was the priests that killed Jesus.

Yes, technically, they had the Romans do the dirty work, but Pilate had declared him innocent, it was the priests who manipulated the political situation to have Jesus killed. It was the priests who declared him guilty and worthy of death. It was the priests who arranged to have him arrested, who had judged him before he even went on trial. The priests— those who were the rulers of the Jewish people throughout the world, who were charged with the upholding of God’s law, who were the mediators of God’s grace and covenant— they took the most righteous man and declared him guilty and killed him. They took the one that best represented God’s will and they put him in shame outside the city of God.

Because of this, the cult, the very temple/priest system itself was no longer worthy of God’s glory. The glory that filled the Holy of Holies from the beginning of the temple, the presence of God that was represented by the lights on Hanukah—that glory departed from the temple, leaving destruction in its wake. All of the spiritual power that the Temple represented, it was gone. The priests didn’t know this—they weren’t aware of God’s presence for a while. So for them the veil ripping was a problem they had to take care of, possibly a form of vandalism. But for God is was the decisive moment—no longer would the presence of God be found in the Temple. Rather, it would be found in the person of Jesus and His people.

Fulfillment of the Law

Jesus said that it was completed after he was given vinegar to drink (John 19:28). What was finished? His fulfillment of the Old Testament. He said this after Psalm 69:21 was fulfilled. It was almost that Jesus had a list of Scriptures he needed to fulfill and once the last one was done, then he could let himself die.

But Jesus’ fulfillment of the Hebrew Bible isn’t just as the Bible as prophecy. He didn’t just see the book as a bunch of texts about the future that was going to be fulfilled in his life. Rather, he saw the Hebrew Bible as expressing three lives—the sacrificial life, the moral life and the national life, and he fulfilled both of these. The sacrificial life is the life of the anawim, suffering and being condemned and then being raised from the dead. The moral life is the life of love and generosity and of speaking the truth. The national life is the kingdom of God in crisis, but remaining submissive, remaining moral, continuing to trust in God, no matter what. In this last hour, Jesus fulfilled all of these. In Matthew, we have a number of Scriptures that were fulfilled as the sacrificial one. In Luke, we have Jesus concerned for the pregnant in the future Jerusalem as he was being attacked. In John, we have Jesus fulfilling his responsibility as a son to provide for his aged mother. In Luke again, we have Jesus speaking blessing to the thief next to him. In Matthew again we have Jesus knowing that he can destroy those around him, but chooses to be destroyed himself. Jesus fulfilled all these roles perfectly, and when he had done he knew he could rest and so he set aside his work by saying, “It is finished.”

Mockery

Bonaventure describes the mockery given by the soldiers. But what is rarely noticed is that the soldiers are actually engaged in anti-Semitism. They are mocking Jesus for being king, especially King of the Jews. They are making fun of this complete stranger, not because they know him for who he is, nor because he is some criminal, but rather because it was said by someone that he was the ruler of the Jews. So they mocked him by bowing to him, giving him a crown of thorns, a reed as his scepter and then punching him and abusing him. This is because, out of their frustration of living in a foreign land, of having to work with this stubborn people, they wanted to take it out on someone. They saw the Jewish people as deserving mocking, deserving beating.

Two things to note then: That although they meant it in a mocking way, Jesus truly did deserve the crown, truly did deserve the scepter and the bowing. Much of what is done to him is done to display the reality, although unknown to the soldiers. Secondly, we need to remember that if any of us take part in anti-Semitism, then we are actually participating in the acts of the soldiers who crucified our Lord. We are participating in putting the sign over Jesus’ head “King of the Jews”. We continue the work that they had ceased long ago.

“He is your King and your God who is accounted as a leper and the last of men”- Bonaventure

Jesus' Trial Before Pilate

Trial before Pilate:
Bonaventure mentions Isaiah 53 “like a sheep is silent before his shearers” in this context. Of course, in John, Jesus was not silent at all, but had an interesting spiritual conversation with Pilate. It is this conversation, in John, that convinces Pilate that Jesus is innocent.

Bonaventure mentions the fault of “the Jews” of handing him over to Pilate, using John’s language. Of course, in the Middle Ages, “the Jews” meant all of the Jewish people, which John clearly did not mean. In all the gospels it is clear that the blame of Jesus’ death goes squarely on the priests and the Sanhedrin, and, in Matthew, the staunch supporters of the priests who would get up early in the morning for a trial at the priests’ word. But the Jewish people in general cannot be implicated in Jesus’ death. First of all, all the early church was Jewish. Secondly, the NT makes it clear that many Jewish people were faithful to Jesus—even on the council, like Nicodemus and Joseph of Aramathea. And many others do good to the church, even though they are rejected by the priests and council. This is one of the middle ages sorriest prejudices, and one glad to have the church leave behind.

However, the priests and council are certainly condemned for sending Jesus to Pilate. They wanted to see Jesus crucified—not just dead. They wanted Jesus hung in shame, outside the city, as a non-citizen. And they forced Pilate to condemn him to this, even though Pilate had declared him innocent. Pilate saw the political situation clearly, so he felt like he had to act as he did. But the priests knew exactly what they were doing. They knew how to get rid of enemies, no matter how righteous or just they are.

And it is this shameful death that Jesus needed himself. The crucifixion of Jesus wasn’t originally the priest’s idea—it was Jesus’. And this, exactly because it is the most shameful death, the one that put one outside the city, and that actually denied one’s citizenship in Israel. That is true, for the member of Israel is blessed, but the one hung is cursed by the law. Jesus had to be cursed to be put outside of Israel, no longer a part of the kingdom of God. In that way, when God blessed him, Jesus was free to begin a new kingdom of God, free from the law, free from the curse, free to follow the new law of love and repentance.

“And you, lost man, the cause of all this confusion and sorrow, how is it that you do not break down and weep?” –Bonaventure

Trial Before the High Priests

He was subjected to blasphemies and insults for speaking the truth. But he knew that they weren’t able to understand the truth. To look at whom they see as a shameful individual and see the glory of God in him? They could not. Now, Jesus asks us, His followers, to see the glory of God in people and situations that are shameful around us. Can we open our eyes and see the work of God?

Bonaventure correctly acknowledges that the trial before Annas is the facedown between two High Priests—one worthy, one corrupted. One who speaks the truth, one who cannot hear the truth spoken. One of the old world that is passing away, one of the new world that is coming.

It is interesting to note that Bonaventure mixes together Jesus’ confrontation before Annas and his meeting with Caiaphas and the council. Annas was the high priest before Caiaphas, before the Romans forced him to step down. John has a confrontation before both high priests, giving a complete rejection of Jesus by all the rulers of the Jewish people. But still, the two trials should be kept separately. Annas’ is unofficial, but significant for the future of the temple (as he gained the high priesthood back again), but Caiaphas’ is official and the ultimate rejection of Jesus.

All Alone

When the disciples scattered, even though Jesus knew that it was a fulfillment of prophecy and it must occur, I suspect that at that moment he felt such a deep loneliness. For now he was alone, as alone as any man has ever felt. Faced with a desperate situation, intellectually he knew what he must do. But emotionally, he longed for another to be with him, support him.