Discuss Luke’s presentation of the Holy Spirit in the life and ministry of Christ and identify three aspects of Luke’s Spirit Christology that contribute to the understanding and development of Christian discipleship.

Luke presents Jesus as one who is empowered by the Holy Spirit in order to fulfil his messianic task (Luke 4:18-19). Scholars however dispute the nature of this empowerment, the activity the Spirit enables and the functions it performs. This essay grapples with these scholarly disagreements and seeks to establish a clear position within them that faithfully reflects Luke’s text. Drawing on Luke’s presentation of the Holy Spirit in the life and ministry of Christ, I will demonstrate first that, for Luke, the Spirit empowers Jesus both to proclaim the gospel and to perform miracles, second, the Spirit anoints Jesus as the soteriological presence and the epicentre of the new eschatological age, and third that Jesus’ obedience to the leading of the Spirit, though not enabled by the Spirit, is a vital feature of his ministry and identity. I will conclude by discussing how these understandings of Luke’s Spirit Christology can inform Christian discipleship today.

Hallmarks of Luke’s Spirit Christology

Before exploring my main theses, it is important to establish some broader points about Luke’s presentation of the Spirit and Jesus which provide a helpful steer to that exploration. Pneumatology is clearly one of Luke’s special interests, but it is of course not the only one. Like the other Evangelists he is deeply concerned with communicating who Jesus is. Although, as we will discuss, Luke does portray some aspects of Jesus’ relationship with the Spirit as paradigmatic for all Christians, he also works hard to emphasise the uniqueness of Jesus’ and his ministry. For example, although the disciples experience a Spirit baptism analogous to that of Jesus (Acts 2:3-4 c.f. Luke 3:22), Jesus is also presented as the uniquely ontological ‘Son of God’ (Luke 1:35).^[1] Luke’s description of the Spirit “overshadowing” Mary is reminiscent of the Spirit hovering over formless creation in Gen 1:2 and is suggestive of a new creation; Luke sees the Spirit’s work in Jesus as initiating the dawn of a new eschatological age.^[2] He presents Jesus ministry in epoch-defining typological terms, as the Davidic Messianic King (Luke 1:32-33), both conceived and anointed (Luke 3:22) by the Spirit for the “unique task of inaugurating Israel’s redemption”.^[3] This task involved the recapitulation of the destiny of Israel, God’s original and failed son (Ex 4:22-23), in order to obediently fulfil God’s purpose for the nation.^[4] Clearly Jesus’ anointed footsteps are not ones which others can or should expect to walk in. As we shall see, the unique elements of Jesus’ anointing that Luke emphasises provide important guiding lights in the exploration of Luke’s Spirit Christology to which we now turn.

Empowered for Proclamation and Miracles

We begin our study by considering the nature of the Spirit’s empowerment of Jesus. Turner concludes his survey of scholarship regarding Luke’s Spirit Christology by noting “there is little unity on the question of the essential nature of the gift of the Spirit.”^[5] A key question regarding the nature of Jesus’ anointing has to do with the activity it enables. Luke’s gospel portrays an obvious relationship between the presence of the Spirit and prophetic witnessing. Within the birth narratives Elizabeth, Zechariah, and Simeon’s contact with the Spirit results in their prophetic declarations (Luke 1:41-45,1:67-79, 2:27-35 respectively). While not explicitly mentioned, the Spirit can also be clearly linked to Mary’s Magnificat; it has already ‘come upon her’ so that she can conceive (Luke 1:35). Jesus himself explicitly relates his Spirit-anointing to his announcement of the Kingdom: “The Spirit of Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim…” (Luke 4:18). He also encourages the disciples that when they face persecution the Holy Spirit will teach them what to say (Luke 12:12). Because of Luke’s clear linking of the Spirit to speech, scholars particularly but not exclusively Pentecostals, are agreed that the Spirit’s role in the life and ministry of Christ is prophetic; it empowers his verbal witnessing, teaching and gospeling.^[6] However, this point of agreement forms the basis for further disagreement. While some, such as Menzies, Schweizer and Haya-Prats, see speech and witness as the totality of what the Spirit enables, Green, Turner, Talbert and Atkinson push for a broader view of the Spirit’s enabling which incorporates the power to perform miracles.^[7]

There are parts of Luke’s gospel that do appear indicative of the narrower, witness-only view of the Spirit’s empowerment. For example, Luke re-words Jesus’ own explanation for how he performs exorcisms and, unlike Matthew who has Jesus say he casts out demons “by the Spirit of God” (Matt 12:28), has Jesus state he does so “by the finger of God” (Luke 11:20). The deliberate omission of the Spirit here is noteworthy.^[8] Similarly, in Luke 9:1, and Luke 10:19 the disciples are delegated “power and authority” by Jesus to heal the sick and cast out demons significantly prior to their reception of the Spirit at Pentecost, suggesting that such power and authority is not derived from the Spirit. This does raise questions over whether or not Luke considers the Spirit’s anointing to be the source of Jesus miraculous power. An appreciation of Luke’s typological portrayal of Jesus affords some helpful insight here. Firstly, with his use of the term “finger of God” Luke connects Jesus miracles to those of Moses (Exod 8:15). Here then, Luke has Jesus deliberately draw attention towards the New Exodus nature of his act rather than divert attention away from the Spirit’s role in it.^[9] Secondly, Turner notes that Luke’s portrayal of Jesus sending the seventy-two is based on the anointing of the seventy elders in Numbers 11:16-30. He concludes that, much like the Israelite elders receiving a portion of Moses anointing, it is possible for the disciples to receive an “extension” of Jesus power and authority without receiving the Spirit itself.^[10]

Ironically, both Menzies and Turner argue that the thoroughly Jewish nature of Luke’s pneumatology adds strength to their conflicting cases. Menzies writes at length to evidence that Jewish texts clearly distance the miraculous from the work of the Spirit.^[11] Turner, surveying similar material, concludes the opposite, stating that the Jews were in fact expectant that miraculous power would be a feature of Spirit anointing.^[12] There is not space to survey such Jewish literature here, or to review either Turner or Menzies’ endeavours, I would however, suggest that Stronstad’s identification of Jesus as a typological prophet like Elijah and Elisha is instructive here.^[13] In Luke 4:22 Jesus compares himself to these thoroughly Jewish prophets who are well known for their miraculous feats. Luke continues to cast Jesus in their typological pattern, portraying him as performing parallel miracles: controlling nature (Luke 8:22; c.f. 1 Kgs 17:1, 2 Kgs 2:14, 19), raising the dead (Luke 7:14; c.f. 1 Kgs 17:17, 2 Kgs 4:13), multiplying food (Luke 9:12, c.f. 1 Kgs 17:16, 2 Kgs 4:3, 42), and healing lepers (Luke 5:12, c.f. 2 Kgs 5:8) in order to demonstrate that Jesus is anointed by the same Spirit as Elijah and Elisha. In light of this, it is hard to believe that Luke would expect anything other than for his Jewish audience to connect Jesus’ miraculous power to the Spirit.

Finally, Green notes that although the work of the Spirit is regularly connected to speech and verbal witness, given that Luke also portrays Jesus at other times performing miracles without any accompanying words (Luke 4:40-41, 6:17-19) it is “erroneous either to argue… that for Luke teaching outweighs the miraculous in importance or to suppose that for Luke the Spirit’s empowerment is narrowly related to Jesus’ ministry of proclamation”.^[14] To conclude then, Luke does indeed present the Spirit as empowering Jesus for his messianic task by enabling both his prophetic proclamations and his exercising of miraculous power. The question now arises as to whether the Spirit performs any other functions in the life and ministry of Jesus.

The Spirit as Soteriological Presence

James Dunn’s provocative book, Baptism in the Holy Spirit, proposes that the primary function of the Spirit in the life of Christ and Christians is conversion-initiation: the “bringing [of] the recipient into the new covenant”.^[15] For Dunn, this soteriological function of the Spirit is not at odds with the view of the Spirit as empowerment for proclamation and miracles outlined above. He states “It is the Spirit of prophecy which [also] brings life. It is the Spirit of life whose coming [also] inspires prophecy and commissions for mission.”^[16] But is this soteriological view of the Spirit a faithful reflection of Luke’s text? It is important to note that Dunn’s aim was to construct an overarching New Testament pneumatology. As such he synthesises Luke’s work, including Acts, together with John and Paul’s. In contrast, the concern of this essay is to establish Luke’s specific view of the Spirit in relation to Jesus’ life and ministry. As Atkinson, Menzies, and Talbert identify, there are some clear differences between Luke and Paul’s pneumatologies.^[17] These differences do not necessarily undermine Dunn’s conclusions about the New Testament’s overarching presentation of the soteriological function of the Spirit, but they do highlight the need to read Luke on his own terms as we will now do. As we shall see, Luke does present the Spirit as performing a soteriological function in Jesus’ life and ministry but not in the way described by Dunn.

Foundational to discussions over the conversion-initiation role of the Spirit in Luke is the baptism of Jesus. Here the voice of God declares, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22). Dunn describes this as both the point when Jesus is initiated into his Messianic task and also when he receives his eschatological sonship and enters the New Age.^[18] Turner however rightly notes that this fails to acknowledge that Jesus eschatological sonship has already been “more than fully assured” by his conception (Luke 1:35) and tentatively embraced by the boy Jesus in 2:40-52.^[19] Further, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray with a filial posture, addressing God as ‘Abba’ (Luke 11:2). This would not be appropriate unless they were already able to embrace their own eschatological identities prior to Pentecost. As we will go on to discuss, Jesus’ anointing with the Spirit in Luke 3:21-22 has more to do with him embracing and living out his divine sonship than the bestowal of it. This does not however mean that Luke has nothing soteriological to say about Jesus’ relationship to the Spirit.

To understand Luke’s view on the soteriological function of the Spirit, we first need to understand his view of salvation. Zechariah’s proclamation (1:67-79) provides a good overview of Luke’s view on the matter. Here salvation is described as rescue from enemies (vv71, 74), liberation from fear (v74), and the bringing of peace (v79), through the forgiveness of sins (v77),  resulting in renewed faithful service to God (vv74-75).^[20] Turner summarises this well: “For Luke… ’salvation’ means… the in-breaking of the kingdom of God...” as opposed to some static status of forgiveness.^[21] Luke applies his broad view of salvation to much of Jesus’ ministry describing His Spirit-enabled healings (Luke, 6:6-10), proclamations of forgiveness (7:50), and teachings - when obeyed - (8:11-12, 19:9-10) all as salvific.^[22] Where Jesus heals, exorcises, forgives, restores and is obeyed, salvation comes. In this way he is the locus of soteriological activity; the epicentre of the in-breaking of the new eschatological age.^[23] In summary, Luke does indeed hold that the Spirit performs a soteriological function in the life and ministry of Jesus; it anoints him as the mediating channel of God’s liberating, reconciling, transforming and salvific presence.^[24] 

The Leading of the Spirit and Obedience

A further function the Spirit fulfils in Jesus life and ministry is that of leading him. This function of the Spirit is introduced early by Luke in the account of Simeon who is “moved by the Spirit” (Luke 2:27). The Spirit most explicitly leads Jesus in the temptation narrative (Luke 4:1-13): “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led in the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days being tempted by the devil” (Luke 4:1). Unlike Matthew and Mark who portray Jesus as simply being led “into” the wilderness (Matt 4:1, Mark 1:12), Luke portrays Jesus as being continually led in the Spirit whilst there.^[25] Luke does not explicitly state how the Spirit leads Jesus but he does imply that the Spirit provides Jesus with the wisdom to ascertain and align himself with God’s will.^[26] By allowing the Torah to determine his actions, Jesus walks in obedience to God. It is this obedience that is important for Luke.

The important connection between the Spirit and obedience is made especially clear in the infancy narratives where Luke intentionally emphasises the piety and obedience of those who encounter the Spirit either explicitly, as with Elizabeth, Zechariah and Simeon (Luke 1:6, 2:25), or implicitly as with Mary (1:30, 2:22-24) and Anna (2:37). In the temptation account central for Luke is that, unlike Israel, Jesus is obedient to the Spirit’s leading. V4:1 is a clear typological reference to the presence of God leading Israel in the desert (Deut 8:2), a connection further implied by the symbolic forty day period of Jesus’ wanderings. In addition, the very nature of Jesus temptations is analogous with those of Israel. He cites the lessons learned from Israel’s failures as his defence (Luke 4:4 c.f. Deut 8:3, Luke 4:8 c.f. Deut 6:4-15, Luke 4:12 c.f. Deut 6:16).^[27] Here then Luke is developing his case that Jesus is the recapitulation of the story and destiny of Israel and demonstrating his messianic credentials. By resisting the temptation to exploit the Spirit in his own way and instead aligning himself with God’s will, Jesus proves he is worthy both of the Spirit and his role as the leader of the New Exodus.^[28] Now he is ready to embark upon his ministry which will require continued obedience to the Spirit’s leading, as most poignantly expressed in Jesus’ Gethsemane prayer: “not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42-44).

It is in the context of obedience that we can revisit the idea of eschatological sonship. Whilst, as stated, Jesus’ sonship is more than assured by his birth, this still needs to be stepped into.^[29] As Wong helpfully puts it, although Jesus was ontologically God’s son, he still needed to existentially embrace this reality.^[30] This is what Jesus does during his time in the wilderness.^[31] So too, by their obedience do those around him embrace salvation and their eschatological identities. As already seen, obedience to God which restores people's identity as God’s children is part of Luke’s understanding of salvation (Luke 1:68, 74-75). Jesus himself states, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice” (Luke 8:21, c.f. 3:7-9). Similarly, it is the disciples alignment to God’s will that gives them the right to address Him as Father (Luke 11:2a, c.f. 3:7-9).^[32] 

To summarise then, alongside empowering him for his witnessing and miracles, and anointing him as the soteriological presence, the Spirit also leads and guides Jesus. This leading requires Jesus’ wilful obedient following. Through rendering this Jesus affirms his messianic credentials and existentially embraces his divine sonship. Having established these features of Luke’s Spirit Christology, we now turn our attention to the contribution they might make to our understanding of Christian discipleship.

Applicable Contributions from Luke’s Spirit Christology

Luke believes that the Spirit’s anointing is for all the Church. In his second volume Acts, Peter declares the fulfilment of Joel’s prophecy regarding the Spirit being poured out on ‘all flesh’ (Acts 2:16-21, c.f., Joel 2:28-32). He then carefully portrays the disciples Spirit-empowerment as analogous with Jesus’. As we have noted however, because Luke portrays Jesus in unique and typological ways we need to be careful about which aspects of his Spirit Christology we expect to apply to disciples today.^[33] Acts assists interpretation here. Where the disciples are shown to exercise Spirit-empowerment in ways similar to Jesus we can assume Luke is implying such empowerment is paradigmatic for contemporary Christians. Prophetic witnessing is one such universal function of the Spirit. The infancy narratives, Jesus words in Luke 12:12 considered above, and various parts of Acts (2:4-33, 4:8, 4:25, 7:55, 13:9-10, 19:6) make this clear. Miracles in keeping with Luke’s view of salvation also feature in Acts (3:1-11, 5:12-16, 9:33-34, 9:36-41, 9:11-12, 20:9-12) suggesting miraculous empowerment should also be considered paradigmatic for the Church. This poses a potential challenge to non-Pentecostal and non-Charismatic branches of the Church.^[34]

At the same time Luke’s Spirit Christology also presents an evangelistic understanding of Spirit-enabled witnessing and miracles which should challenge Pentecostals and Charismatics. Luke views Jesus’ ministry as soteriological; his proclamation and miracles brought people into God’s eschatological Kingdom. Yet, within my own Charismatic tradition, the desire for Spirit-inspired prophecy and miracles is remarkably self-focussed. Many conferences aim to increase prophecy and the miraculous within the Church. Far less effort is spent applying these things outside of the Church as a means of bringing salvation and the Kingdom to those who are not yet believers. This, however, seems to be Luke’s understanding of the real purpose behind the Spirit’s anointing: to heal the sick, save the lost, and restore the outsider (c.f. Luke 4:18-19, 5:31, 19:10), not simply to encourage those who are already disciples (c.f. Luke 10:20).

Finally, for existing disciples, Jesus’ openness to the leading of the Spirit stands as another paradigmatic example. However we must be careful here not to infer too much. While the Spirit led Jesus at specific times to specific places for specific purposes, we must understand this as part of his unique ministry anointing.^[35] What can be considered paradigmatic is Luke’s suggestion that the Spirit led Jesus into the knowledge of God’s will so that he could align himself with it. Acts evidences the Spirit as similarly leading the early Church (8:29, 10:19, 13:2, 13:4), and highlights the dangers of resisting that leading, (5:9, 7:51-52). According to Luke’s Spirit Christology, Christians should anticipate the Spirit leading them towards the will of God, and through rendering obedience to God they will that they embrace and live out their eschatological identity.

Conclusions

In summary, we have established that Luke presents the Spirit as empowering both Jesus’ witness and miracles and intends this to be understood as paradigmatic for the Church also. Luke does not conceive of the Spirit as a marker of Jesus’ soteriological status but does present the Spirit’s anointing of Jesus as a soteriological presence whose salvific ministry mediates the release of the eschatological New Age. In following Jesus the Church today should therefore apply its paradigmatic Spirit-anointing more evangelistically outside of the Church. Additionally, Luke presents Jesus as being led by the Spirit, receiving the wisdom required to ascertain and align himself with the will of God and thus embrace his eschatological identity. This too is paradigmatic for believers. In stating all this we have endeavoured to avoid detracting from or misapplying the Spirit's unique anointing of Jesus in his role as Messiah. Given my Charismatic background, and my reliance on Pentecostal sources in this essay, I recognise that a bias towards a Pentecostal reading of Luke here is likely. I do however believe I have faithfully represented Luke on his own terms and humbly suggest that any such bias is in fact inherent within Luke’s own presentation of the Holy Spirit in the life and ministry of Christ.

Bibliography

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Dunn, James. “Baptism in the Holy Spirit: Yet Once More—Again.” Journal of Pentecostal Theology 19.1 (2010): 32–43.

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Johnson, Luke Timothy. Prophetic Jesus, Prophetic Church: The Challenge of Luke-Acts to Contemporary Christians. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2011.

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———. Luke 18:35-24:53. Thomas Nelson Incorporated, 1993.

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———. The Prophethood of All Believers: A Study in Luke’s Charismatic Theology. A&C Black, 1999.

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