A Formal Introduction

(From Acts 2)

When Jesus told us of the Holy Spirit, my brother apostles and I were not impressed. More than that, we were confused and frankly, disappointed. After all, we had been with Jesus for three years. We followed him, we obeyed him (well, sometimes we obeyed him), and we listened to him. His words carried the promise of many wonderful things: hope, peace, justice, and most of all, love.

However, I have to say that listening to Jesus wasn’t always so easy. I mean, Jesus told us some pretty shocking things too, like the day he told us that we must eat his flesh and drink his blood. And following him wasn’t always so easy, either, like when we had to follow him into Samaria. Once, he even told us that following him meant that we had to carry our own cross, and that the greatest act of love was to lay down our lives for our friends.

So, his words about the Holy Spirit (John 14) were not terribly well received. Jesus told us that the Holy Spirit already lived within us, and that this Spirit would teach us all things and remind us of what Jesus had taught. All I can say is that, speaking for myself, it was hard to understand exactly what Jesus was trying to convey. A spirit living inside of me? That was hard to grasp. At the time.

Of course, the death of Jesus was a terrible shock to us. Yes, I know that he told us in advance. But it was still hard to believe. I mean, the very idea of crucifying the innocent and righteous Son of God, the person who could command all the power of heaven, legions of angels, as he himself said, was too much for most of us.

And yes, Jesus also predicted his resurrection. But again, we had a hard time with that one as well, even though we actually saw him alive again. You have to understand that we, all of us disciples, were constantly struggling to keep up with what he said and with what he did. Jesus was always way out in front and try as we might, we could never quite keep up.

But despite all of that, we loved him and lived in awe of him. We lived with the vagueness of some of his sayings, and the pointedness of others. We lived with the growing animosity of our religious leaders toward him (and by extension, we feared, toward us as well). We lived with all of that because we truly believed in him. There was no one like him. And perhaps what Jesus said was true, that the Holy Spirit was actually living inside of us. Something surely was, because we stayed with Jesus despite many reasons why we might abandon him.

And then, after he was raised from the dead, he inexplicably abandoned us! He left us! That was, perhaps, the biggest shock of all. You can read his parting words in the Gospels. Yes, he did tell us in advance that he would be leaving us to rejoin the Father. But he didn’t say when that would occur and we naturally assumed that he’d be with us longer. At least we hoped he would.

We had to adjust to life without Jesus. After all, we had, earlier, learned to adjust to life with Jesus, and let me tell you that was quite an adjustment. Now, life without Jesus seemed the bleakest possible existence. Honestly, it was as if the breath had literally been sucked out of our lungs. Speaking for myself, his absence left me in a deep depression. I felt totally lost.

Jesus’ final words to us were not much of a consolation (Matthew 28). We were to go to the ends of the earth, bringing the Gospel to the world. Honestly, doing that without Jesus seemed impossible. Where would we even begin?

The Holy Spirit would be with us, he said. But up to then, this undefined Holy Spirit seemed abstract, a poor substitute for our in-the-flesh Lord. You must realize that we had walked with Jesus every day! We ate with him, slept with him, listened to him, laughed and cried with him. 

But even though we were still not too clear on the Holy Spirit, we were about to find out.

Following Jesus’ own instructions, we were in Jerusalem at Pentecost. I have to say that, following the events of the past few months, Jerusalem was not our first choice. Galilee, where most of us were from, seemed a lot safer. 

It was another holy week in Jerusalem, not unlike the week when Jesus was killed. In our Jewish faith, Pentecost was the Festival of the Weeks, relating to the time of the wheat harvest. It was also a commemoration of the giving of the Torah. And like the Passover week, the city was filled with people, including pilgrims from far and wide.

Overall, this time brought with it an unwelcome resemblance to the Passover celebration of just forty-nine days earlier. As a result, we kept out of sight as much as possible. We had no intention of arousing the chief priests, elders, Pharisees and anyone else connected with the death of Jesus. And anyway, we were all still suffering from the cloud of numbness that had surrounded us since the departure of Jesus. No one had the energy to get out amid the crowds.

Without Jesus, of course, we had no leader. There was no one to give us instructions, to guide us, to challenge us, to comfort us. Peter attempted to step into the role of leader and I have to say that, given the shoes he tried to fill, he did an admirable job. But of course, Peter never claimed to be a leader like Jesus. No one could claim that. Still, we all accepted his leadership.

Thanks to a generous but anonymous benefactor, we had a place to meet. Actually, it was the same individual who had supplied the “upper room” where we had celebrated the Passover meal. This room, though, was at ground level, and following the typical architecture of the day, it was largely open to the street. However, to create the most privacy possible, we had closed off all openings with heavy curtains. So, we met in the dark.

During our time together, which was at the morning hour, we had been sitting, mostly in silence, brooding about what can best be described as our loneliness, and our lethargy in the absence of Jesus. From time to time, one or another of us would recount a story of our time with him. And that would enliven us, if only momentarily. Then, the silence would return and we would fall back into our stupor.The room had a gloomy feel, with only a sliver of light seeping in from around the edges of the heavy curtains. In reality, the dusk-like darkness seemed to mirror the mood of the group. But we thought it necessary because we certainly did not wish to draw attention to ourselves.

However, attention is just what we got. We had been together for over an hour when suddenly, we heard it: a wind like we’d never known before. A fierce wind, a rushing wind, coming from God-knows-where. And then we felt it as it powerfully flowed like a raging gale through our meeting room, blowing through the heavy curtains, out into the busy street. 

We attempted to rescue the serving items on our table but that proved fruitless, as the violent wind scattered them across the room. And with the curtains blown asunder, light from the street streamed in, exposing us to the passers-by, who peered in with great curiosity.

Within moments, we were all on our feet, each one attempting to find a way to tame the chaotic force that had so roused us from our melancholy. But our attempts were futile against such a tidal wave of wind.

However, that was only the beginning. While the wind continued to blow, a ball of fire literally exploded in our midst, hovering above us before dividing to alight above each one in the room. We looked at one another in amazement, as these tongues of fire seemed to attach themselves to us without causing injury.

The Pentecost depicted in a 14th-century Missal

By now, a crowd was gathering outside, people from the street who had been passing by and who were witnessing first the wind and now the tongues of fire. Then, we began to speak. However, as if guided by some external force, we spoke, not in our local Aramaic language, but instead, in the languages of the visitors to Jerusalem. Many languages, in fact. Languages that none of us actually knew. And yet the words were coming out of our mouths, praising God and lifting up the name of Jesus.

Of course, the privacy that we had desired was, by now, long gone. The crowd from the street had grown and continued to grow. And they began to marvel at the words that they heard from our mouths, noting that we were Galileans who could not possibly have known their local tongues. Some, however, decided that we were simply drunk.

Then Peter, filled with what we later realized was the long-awaited Holy Spirit, stood up 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 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 out 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.’”

And Peter went on to actually preach to the crowd about Jesus. It was the first time any of us had the opportunity to preach about Jesus, and let me tell you, it was wonderful!

The crowd was so impressed that many became followers of Jesus that very day.

Peter’s words were inspired. Later, he said that he had no idea what he was about to say and that the words just came when he needed them. 

So, what did it all mean? For me, and I believe for most of us, this was our formal introduction to the Holy Spirit. The Spirit that Jesus had described. Yes, we knew that this Spirit had been with Jesus and with us all along. But until Pentecost, with the wind, the fire, the tongues and with Peter’s preaching, we hadn’t been formally introduced. Now, we had, and now, we knew that the Holy Spirit would be with us, just as Jesus had been with us.

Jesus promised the Holy Spirit and he did not disappoint us, after all, despite our doubts. And his promise to us is a promise to you, too. And it’s a promise that is still good, even today.