You say Shavuot ... I say Pentecost -- Celebrating with Fun and Fire

It's easy to forget that the Gospels were written by Jews in the first century.  The gospels assume a lot of background knowledge to make their point. Pentecost, for example.  The day of Pentecost on the Jewish calendar is Shavuot or the Festival of Weeks.  It is one of three major feast days (along with Passover and Sukkot) in which attendance at the Temple was required for all Jewish men.

The Day of Pentecost (Shavuot) occurs on the 50th day after Passover.  It celebrates not just the first harvest but it also celebrates the day the Jews received the Torah or the Law.  The website Judaism 101 notes that it is important to remember that Jews celebrated the GIVING of the Torah rather than the RECEIVING of it because the Jews were ALWAYS in the process of receiving it.

To set the stage for Shavuot is the celebration of Passover -- where the Lord spared the Hebrews from the final plague that took the first born in every household in Egypt.  It was the final plague that convinced the Pharaoh to give the Jews their freedom in Egypt and how the Lord brought them out of bondage to freedom and the Promised Land.

Then there is the period between Passover and Pentecost called the Counting of the Omar. It lasts 49 days.  The Counting of the Omar is meant to remind the Jews of their journey from bondage (Passover) to freedom when they received their own law (Shavuot) and were redeemed spiritually from idolatry and immorality.  The counting reminds the Jews that the freedom they received is not complete until they'd received the Torah.  It was a period of partial mourning where weddings, parties and dinners with dancing are forbidden.

Then, on the 50th day, comes the celebration.  It was elaborate and joyful.  Those who lived near Jerusalem brought fresh figs and grapes.  Those from far away brought dried figs and raisins.  An ox with horns bedecked with gold and wearing an crown of olive leaves lead the procession into the city.  A flutist played as the pilgrims walked to the city.  When the procession arrived at Jerusalem's gates, the chief priests and other officials would meet them and welcome them.  Men of great prominence entered the city gates first followed by the rest.  This holiday came to an abrupt end with the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD but has seen a resurgence.

But with this in mind, let's look again at the passage in Acts that describes the descent of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus had been crucified on Passover - he was the sacrificial lamb.  Now, after the period of mourning, it was Shavuot/Pentecost.  The mourning was over - freedom was being made complete with the God's giving of his Holy Spirit to advise them on his law.


Mark writes:

 "When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.  Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.  They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them."

It is the 50th day after Passover and they are all together to celebrate with the rest of the city.  The Lord picked this day to give them the Holy Spirit.

"Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven."

It was a day of obligation where every God-fearing Jew would want to be in Jerusalem.  This meant that Jerusalem was full of Jews from all over the diaspora.  The audience for Peter and the disciples would not be the usual suspects around the Temple.

'When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken.  Utterly amazed, they asked: 'Aren't all these who are speaking Galileans?  Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?  Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs -- we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!  Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, 'What does this mean?'"

Judaism was centered in Jerusalem.  But Jews were spread out over the entire known world and they had become diverse in their cultures, beliefs and language.  What held them together was their shared practise of Judaism.

Look at the Jews history.  When Abraham left UR, he took his family with him.  He was promised that his descendants would become as numerous as the stars or the grains of sand.  After they were given the promised land, it wasn't the end.  They didn't just all puts down roots and live there for eternity; generation after generation.  Jerusalem has been the subject of strife for hundreds of years and Jews had moved away while retaining their spiritual connection with the city.  .

For example, in 582 BC King Nebuchadnezzar initiated a 3rd wave of deportation of Jewish residents in Judea to Babylon.  Many Jewish families fled as refugees to Egypt.  They put down roots and stayed there even when it was ok to return to Judea.

In 539 the Jews received permission from King Cyrus to return from exile to Jerusalem and rebuild the city and the Temple.  Not everyone came back.  But Babylon kept its ties with Jerusalem as a rival center of Jewish culture; always subordinate to Jerusalem with its Temple.  

In 350 BC when Jerusalem and the countryside revolted against Artaxerxes III of Persia and lost Artaxerxes burned Jerusalem down and sent all who had supported the revolt to Hyrcania on the Caspian Sea.  New colonies were set up there and beyond.  Some came back but not all.  The Maccabees named their sons Hyrcannus after their sojourn in exile before they returned to rule.

The passage lists the diverse nationalities.  Look at a map.  Look at the geographic spread represented.  It's like a March on Washington, DC that draws participants from every state including Alaska.

And then there's the language.  Imagine a Super Bowl where a Texan, a Puerto Rican, an Orthodox Jew and Deaf man sit together listening to the announcements.  The Texan hears them with a twang; the Puerto Rican in Spanish, the Orthodox Jew in Yiddish and the Deaf man watches it in ASL.  From just 1 announcer giving just 1 announcement!  How is that possible?  It's as if each listener had a headphone connected to a translation app.

"Some, however, made fun of them and said, 'They have had too much wine.'"

Some things never change.  A friend of mine said that celebrations for major Jewish holidays are all similar.  "We suffered  a lot.  (Moment of Silence)  Let's eat."  It's a party.  There is music.  There are golden oxen  There are huge crowds bearing gifts.  There's bound to be a lot of public drunkenness.

"Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd:  'Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I have to say.  These people are not drunk, as you suppose.  It's only nine in the morning!  No, this is what was spoken by the Prophet Joel:  

'In the last days, God says, I will pour our my Spirit on all people.  Your sons and daughters will prophesy.  Your young men will see visions.  Your old men will dream dreams.  Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.  I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke.  The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.  And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'

Therefore let all Israel be assured of this:  God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?'

Peter replied, 'Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.  And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off -- for all whom the Lord our God will call.'

...Those who accepted this message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day."

Another tradition with Pentecost was the random giving of speeches in the Temple courts.  Educated men would stand and lecture on the importance of the holiday and what it meant to the people.  Stories would be told about Jewish heroes in the past.  Stories would be told about the bravery of their ancestors and the greatness of Moses and of the Lord.  When Peter stood up to speak - people listened.

But people more than listened, they were in a meditation mind set.  They were remembering what the Lord had done for them.  Peter was telling them what the Lord would do for them.  Not everyone believed him but 3,000 is a large number of people to respond.

Pentecost was chosen for its symbolic importance.  Just as Jesus' crucifixion parallels the Passover lamb, the giving of the Holy Spirit by the Lord to his people parallels his giving of the Torah to his people.  The Jews who responded understood that.