Spirits are real.  Historians or philosophers may refer to the spirit of an age.  There is the American spirit.  When someone cheats, it is against the spirit of the game.  In biblical Greek, the word for spirit is pneuma.  It is the word for the wind or an active unseen force.  I want to begin looking at how pneuma is used in scripture.  A secondary goal is to discern from scripture how to expect and desire the Spirit to work in our lives.

By my count Matthew uses pneuma 19 times in roughly eight different sections.  First off, Jesus birth is occasioned by the Spirit.

Matthew 1:18 “she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit” and 1:20 “that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit” serve a multitude of theological purposes (Trinity, Dual-Nature of Christ, Jesus’ sinlessness, etc.), but in the context of the story the inclusion of pnuema explains a basic narrative question, “If Joseph isn’t the dad, where did the baby come from?”  Matthew’s Gospel begins with the Spirit like how Genesis 1:2 begins with the “Spirit of God hovering over the waters.”

Both verses also add the modifier “Holy” to Spirit.  Good theologians know this refers to the person of the Trinity that is not the Son or the Father.  But, at the basic level the modifier assures Matthew’s readers that 1) This is a pretty special Spirit 2) They and Joseph should expect big things from this child.  The title Holy Spirit will develop as Matthew’s Gospel unfolds.

Matthew 3:11 “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” and Matthew 3:16 “he saw the Spirit of God descending” involve the Spirit in Jesus’ Baptism.  Matthew 4:1 “Jesus was led up by the Spirit” adds the Spirit’s involvement in Jesus’ life and ministry even into his temptation and provision.  This Spirit-conceived child has grown up into a Spirit-commissioned man and Spirit-guided man.

John the Baptist testifies that Jesus’ ministry will employ the Spirit.  Then Matthew gives us the viewpoint of Jesus at the baptism saying “[Jesus] saw the Spirit of God.”  Interestingly, Jesus’ viewpoint doesn’t add some qualifier of “Holy” or “Life-giving” but plainly attributes the Spirit to God.  Jesus is not seeing this Spirit for the first time.  For everyone else, the scene at the baptism came as quiet a shock.

The Spirit of the Baptism leads Jesus into proximity with the devil.  Questions about free-will or God’s goodness aside, it is important to see that the first act of the Spirit after commissioning Jesus and empowering Jesus isn’t to make Jesus’ life better or more comfortable.  The words of James 1:2 ring true, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.”  We must be taught to count trails as joy precisely because it is counterintuitive.

The third block of references to pneuma in Matthew occur in Matthew 5:3 “blessed are the poor in spirit”; 8:16 “he cast out the spirits with a word”; 10:1 “he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits”.

This block of spirit references occurs in the initial part of Jesus’ ministry in Matthew.  In Matthew’s telling Jesus first teaching is “Repent” (4:17) and his second teaching is “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (5:3).  Jesus’ life began with the Spirit, and Jesus’ ministry will tend not just to morality, philosophy, religion, injustice or simply disease.  Jesus’ ministry deals with spirit and spirit stuff.  But Jesus doesn’t say “Let me tell you how to live spiritually fulfilling lives” but “blessed are the poor in spirit.”  Furthermore, Jesus ministry begins as one of spiritual combat.  From Jesus’ telling, some spiritual forces have been oppressing people robbing them of the Kingdom of Heaven, and Jesus is here to throw these enemy combatants out.

The fourth block of references to pneuma  occur in Matthew 10:20 “It is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father”; 12:18 “I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles”; 12:28 “If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons”; 12:31-32 “blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven… whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.”  This block all revolves around Jesus’ authentic message connected to the Spirit and the messages from the Pharisees and others that are inauthentic.  Certainly, the Pharisees have questioned Jesus’ motives and methods since Matt 9:11 and the calling of a tax collector, but by 9:34 (“He casts out demons by the prince of demons”), the opposition is overt and spiritual.

Matthew 10:20 is conditioned by 10:19 “When they deliver you over.”  Jesus is preparing his rag-tag disciples for great persecution.  Jesus’ disciples can expect words from God’s Spirit to flow from their mouth in the context of persecution.

The persecution has begun by 10:18. Matthew is citing Isaiah 42:1-3 to illustrate how it should come as no surprise that Jesus should face opposition.  The most recent cause for the opposition was that Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath, which set the Pharisees on a path of figuring out “how to destroy him” (12:14).  Jesus’ life but also his spiritual authority is in danger.  Isaiah comforts with the message that this is to be expected.  Then in Matthew 12:28-32 Jesus engages the Pharisees’ spiritual threats and accusations.

Jesus has been accused of using the power of Satan to cast out demons (12:24).  In 10:28 Jesus points out that if he is casting out demons, then this is a good thing, like Kingdom of God good.  Then in 10:31-32 Jesus provides his counter attack.  Every sin is forgivable (good news for us) and even every word against the Son of Man is forgivable (good news for Peter), but if you blaspheme or speak against the Spirit it is an eternal problem.  The basic point.  If the Spirit of God in your view of the world is “actually” the spirit of Satan, then you are completely broken.  The spiritual world isn’t muddied and confusing and filled with spirits of varying degrees of rightness.  You are on the Kingdom of God team where the Spirit empowers the Son to release captives, or you aren’t.

The fifth block of pneuma references could be attached to the fourth block.  Narrative wise, Jesus is still engaged with the Pharisees who for some reason are still talking with him.  However, this reference has more to do with the practical understanding of Jesus’ spiritual-work.  Matthew 12:43 “When an unclean spirit has gone out of a person” and 12:45 “then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits” explain the spiritual reality we aren’t aware of.  In this world of spiritual evil and God’s Spirit, humans experience this “occupation,” which Jesus points out doesn’t really end.  The spirits come back each time in force.  Jesus’ bleak description leaves us desiring that someone would first bind the strong man (12:29).  Jesus is pointing out that the world at this point is in a spiritual stalemate of wins and losses.  Something must change to tip the scales.

The Spirit and certainly the spiritual world are active in Matthew 13-22.  Chapter 17 has both the transfiguration and the healing of a demon possessed boy.  However, pneuma is not used until 22:43 “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord,” which is referencing Psalm 110:1.  The Spirit inspires scripture; lead Israel’s history; and most importantly always points God’s people to the promised one.  But why is this point, that there is a separation between David’s line and the Christ, so important.  After all, 2Samuel 7:13 establishes that the eternal throne of the Christ will be from David’s line.  The Pharisees loved v13 without v14 “I will be his father and he will be MY son.”  Certainly 2Sam 7 refers also to Solomon, but it assures that goal of the David line isn’t ancestor worship but that one day an heir would claim divine sonship.

The seventh block is 26:41 “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” and 27:50 “And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.”  These verses could be viewed separate but 27:50 flows as a real-life application of 26:41. Jesus was warning his disciples of the danger of being a flesh + spirit being.  It poses a challenge.  We may desire with all our spiritual self for something, but our flesh in weakness will fail.  Jesus in his flesh asks, “Let this cup pass from me” (26:39). A cup is not an instrument for the spiritual self but for cracked lips. But Jesus knows, “If this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done” (26:42).  Jesus knows that his body, a body soon to be beaten and scarred and very very thirsty, will accomplish something spiritual.  His weak flesh will accomplish something that a spirit alone cannot.

Roman crucifixion was meant to break a man’s reputation, his body, but also his spirit and the spirit of any would-be followers.  The idea was “Your messiah is false, see.”  At Jesus’ death, he was abandoned by his friends, his body wasn’t in his own control, and he even felt abandoned by God, but his spirit was his own.  His spirit remained till the deed was done.  Jesus apheimi his spirit.  The word means released, sent away.  He didn’t drop his spirit.  It didn’t slip through his fingers.

What can we learn from how Matthew uses the word spirit?  First, I hope this exploration gives us a clearer understanding that the Spirit and our spirits are not mystical forces that drive us toward destiny and fate.  Will we find the Spirit is a mysterious cloud that moves us toward fuzzy spiritual truths and concepts?  Or, will the Spirit be revealed as a definite mover with clear motives in all that God does?  Specifically in Matthew, we learn that the spiritual world is clearly marked off into God’s team and the other team.  Jesus comes as the liberating, or even better, invading force.  Also, we are introduced to the theme of spirit and flesh.  Jesus recognizes that they don’t always pull together in the same way; however, his death and what it accomplished certainly proved that when flesh and spirit flow together great things happen.

There is one last reference to pneuma in Matthew.  Matt 28:19 has “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  Other than 10:20’s promise that the Spirit would speak for disciples in times of persecution, Matthew doesn’t offer a buddy-buddy view of the spirit.  Instead, his Gospel ends with Jesus final marching orders, which feature the Spirit.  Someone has come and bound the strong man, we now should go carrying the banner of the Father, Son and Spirit declaring what Jesus in the Spirit has done.