“PENTECOST: 7 points about the 7-week party”

 

Introduction

     Have you ever traveled to a different country?  I don’t mean a country like the U.S.A. which is not all that different, but a truly foreign country – one where people speak another language, and where this strange language was all you could see on signs and menus.  You might have felt a little lost or disoriented at first.  You might have been pleasantly surprised by a resident of that country speaking to you in English.  If you were lucky, perhaps this person became your guide and helped you to feel at ease in your new surroundings and perhaps taught you how to order your favourite local dish – and make purchases – in the native language.

     Something like this happened at Pentecost – the Jewish festival during which the followers of Jesus received the Holy Spirit in a new and powerful way.  Actually, it was a crowd of Jewish pilgrims from all over the Roman empire who had journeyed to Jerusalem to celebrate the festival – they were the ones who had an experience similar to that of the tourist I just described.  As these pilgrims gathered in the Temple precincts, they were astonished to hear a group of people speaking in their native languages.  What a shock!  This was the last thing these travelers had expected to hear – people telling them about what God had done, in a way that made sense to them, in a way that they could understand without difficulty, in a way that made them feel at home.

So, what is Pentecost all about?

 

1.     A promise made by the risen Jesus

 

     Have you ever noticed that Christians tend to talk about Jesus as if he was still alive?  They talk about Jesus in the present tense, as if they spoke to him on a regular basis, as if he was a part of their daily lives.  That might strike you as a bit weird.  I mean, everyone in the western world who has been to the movies knows that Jesus’ life ended with him being nailed to a Roman cross.  Strangely enough, Christians seem to celebrate Jesus’ crucifixion; in most churches, there is a graphic depiction of the death of Jesus hanging above the altar – front and center – sometimes, as large as life.  All our evidence indicates that from the very beginnings of the “Jesus movement”, Jesus’ followers experienced him as being alive and present with them, both personally and when they gathered as a community. 

So, what happened during the 50 days between Jesus’ crucifixion and the day of Pentecost, that day on which Jesus’ followers began to publicly proclaim that he was alive again?  Here’s how St. Luke tells the story:

 

“After his suffering [Jesus] presented himself alive to [the apostles] by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days … While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “…you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now … you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

When [Jesus] had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight…

Then they returned to Jerusalem … When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers… together the crowd numbered about one hundred twenty persons.” (Acts of the Apostles 1.3-15, extracts)

 

St. Luke tells us that the risen Jesus, just before his ascension, promised his followers that they would soon receive the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

2.     Promise of power for a worldwide mission

 

     Throughout the Bible, there are stories of the “spirit” of God being given to people who were entrusted by God with a mission.  Most of the time, it was prophets, priests and kings who received God’s Spirit to empower them for their task of speaking for God, leading the worship of God or ruling the people of God.  Jesus tells his followers that they will receive power so that they can act as “witnesses” of his resurrection throughout the world.  Jesus tells them to wait in the city of Jerusalem until they have been “baptized” in the Holy Spirit.

3.     Occurred after the Ascension of Jesus

 

     The event in the middle of the above passage is called the “Ascension” of Jesus, the last time his followers saw him after his resurrection from the dead.  For a 40-day period following his crucifixion, reports started to spread among the disciples that Jesus’ tomb had been found empty and that Jesus himself had been seen – alive – by different people (e.g. Gospel of St. Luke, chapter 24).  On the 40^th day, Jesus “ascended” to the right hand of God, the place of ultimate power and authority.  From his privileged place beside God’s throne, Jesus rules over the entire creation as “Lord”; that is to say, as supreme ruler.  This is why Jesus tells his followers that they will soon embark on a mission, beginning in Jerusalem and then reaching to the farthest corners of the earth.  The world needed to be told who its true ruler was – not people like the Roman emperor, who ruled through cruelty and brute force, but rather a humble man, who exercises authority through the power of love and who sends his followers into the world as “witnesses” to who he is.

 

4.     Gift of courage to proclaim Jesus as Lord

 

     When the disciples eventually undertook their mission to the wider world, their basic message was “Jesus is Lord!”  While this might strike us as just another harmless religious phrase, in the first century Roman empire, it was a controversial and dangerous thing to say.  Caesar, the roman emperor, was hailed throughout his empire as “Lord”.  Caesar claimed to be the ultimate ruler of the world, holding the power of life and death over all his subjects.  As we read the book of Acts, we see just how much trouble the early Christian missionaries caused by proclaiming Jesus – not Caesar – as Lord of the world.  It was the Spirit who gave them the courage to put their lives on the line to proclaim the liberating truth to everyone that their true Lord loved them, had died for them, and had risen from the dead and was establishing his kingdom through his Spirit-filled followers.

 

5.     A commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt

 

     And so, following the Ascension, the apostles and over a hundred other followers gathered in a room near the Jerusalem Temple and spent their days in prayer and anticipation of what Jesus had promised.  Meanwhile, another major Jewish festival was fast approaching.  It’s important to remember that Jesus was crucified during Passover, the Jewish national holiday.  During the 50 days following Passover, most Jews spent their time preparing for the next big festival, Pentecost.  Of course, during this same period, the disciples had been experiencing Easter and the appearances of the risen Jesus.  Pentecost was a 7-week-long celebration that began with the barley harvest and ended with the wheat harvest.  At some point in Israel’s history, this festival came to be associated with an event which occurred after the “Exodus” (during the first Passover) from Egypt, where they had been enslaved many centuries before.  This way, Pentecost at the time of Jesus marked the arrival of the Israelites at Mt. Sinai, where God gave Moses the 10 Commandments and reaffirmed his commitment towards the nation of Israel whom he had chosen to be his own people, entrusted with the mission of showing all the other nations of the world how to live:

 

“Moses went up to God; the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “…tell the Israelites: You have seen …how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19.3-6)

 

Wait & pray.  And so, these 120 Jesus-followers gather in their nation’s capital, next to their national shrine, and wait and pray.  We can only imagine what was going through their minds during those 10 days spent in that room – memories of Jesus, what he had said and done, what he had said to them personally, horrific memories of the crucifixion… and then the shock of hearing that Jesus was alive again (some had seen him for themselves), and now the prospect of a world-wide mission – it was a lot to take in.  One thing was certain – nothing had happened as they had expected, from the moment they first encountered Jesus until now… The God of the Exodus, the God of Sinai, the God of Jesus was about to do something new.  They could only wait and see what that would mean – for their nation and for them…

 

6.     The dream of “one world” begins to come true

 

     Remember the story about the tourist travelling to a foreign country?  Listen to how St. Luke recounts what happened to the disciples after 10 days of praying and waiting:

 

“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together... And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.  And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that…in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.”

(Acts 2.1-11)

 

This is a reversal of what had happened at the Tower of Babel, the moment back in Genesis when God had created different languages in order to prevent the builders of the Tower from collaborating, and therefore putting an end to their prideful project of “reaching to heaven” (cf. Genesis 11.1-9).  God’s plan had always been for there to be one humanity, united in love of the Creator; human sin (including the first of the deadly sins, pride) caused that plan to go off the rails.  Through Jesus and the Spirit, the Creator’s plan of a humanity united under God is getting back on track.

Remember John Lennon’s song “Imagine”?:

 

“Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger

A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people

Sharing all the world

 

You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will live as one”

     John Lennon’s dream – though he probably didn’t see it this way – was actually the dream of God that we find in the Bible.  One humanity, living in a world of peace and justice – that’s the Creator’s plan!  As we read the book of Acts, we discover that the members of the early Christian community shared all of their possessions with each other, so that no Christians in Jerusalem were better of than any of the others. Everyone’s needs were taken care of (cf. Ac. 2.44-45; 4.32-35). Sadly, as Lennon mentions in his song, those who claim to follow God often prove to be part of the problems of this world, as opposed to part of the solution.  Once again, don’t forget the saints!  The saints are proof that genuine humanity is possible, and beautiful.  You know a saint when you see one.  Also, let’s remember that we are part of the “Catholic” Church.  “Catholic” means “according to the whole”, that is to say, “universal”.  We belong to the Church that is for all people, regardless of ethnic background, gender, social status or any of the other things that cause people to gather into “tribes” or subcultures, clubs or special interest groups.  The Catholic Church is the place where EVERYONE belongs.  That’s good news!

     What we see in the story of Pentecost is “unity-in-diversity” – through the work of the Spirit, people who speak different languages are enabled to communicate with each other, with the goal of forming one new people of God, filled with the Father’s Spirit and loyal to God’s Son, Jesus.  Father, Son and Spirit – sound familiar?

 

7.     A revelation of the Trinity, God’s 3-in-1 reality

 

     Jesus showed us that the Creator is more mysterious than anyone had imagined.  In his Gospel, St. John tells us that the Creator sent his Word – through which He had spoken all things into existence – into the world as a human being named Jesus of Nazareth (Jn. 1.1-2, 18).  The theological term for this is the INCARNATION.  “The Word (of God) became flesh” (Jn. 1.14).  God sent his Son into the world to do what only God could do in order to save the world from sin and death (Jn. 3.17).  The creator had revealed himself to his people in many different ways throughout Israel’s history, but by becoming human, God revealed as much of himself as he possibly could.

     In St. John’s Gospel, Jesus makes 7 statements about himself that begin with the words, “I AM…”.  This is a deliberate echo of what God had said to Moses in the story of the burning bush.  When Moses asked God what his name was, God replied,

“I AM WHO I AM.” (Ex. 3.14)

Jesus’ “I AM” sayings are 7 ways that Jesus describes who he is as the Word of God made flesh (human).  Jesus expanded his followers’ understanding of “God”.  Jesus prayed to “the Father” and also claimed to be “one with” the Father (Jn. 14.9-10). 

     Once the disciples had their Pentecost experience, and as they continued to experience the Spirit’s presence and power with them and in them, they eventually grasped that the only way they could speak truthfully about the Creator was in terms of the Father, the Son and the Spirit.  There is unity-in-diversity even within God.  The 3 distinct persons – Father, Son & Spirit – together form 1 God.  This is the most profound mystery we will ever encounter.  It’s important to remember that the doctrine of the TRINITY was not discovered by scholars wracking their brains trying to understand God.  Rather, Christians came to understand God as 3-in-1 because of their experience of Jesus and the Spirit.  The Creator revealed himself through his Son, and then through his Spirit.  This is why the Sunday after Pentecost (May 23) is called Trinity Sunday (May 30).  On Pentecost, the revelation of God as Trinity is completed.