Acts 2:1-13 When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. 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 we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs– in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
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Pentecost, the 50th day after Easter, celebrates the sending and indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit. Luke writes in Acts 2 that tongues of fire descended upon the disciples and they began to speak the gospel in a variety of comprehensible languages. Many call this event the “birthday of the Church”.
A few of the many items of note in Acts 2 are as follows:
1. Pentecost shows that every believer, regenerated by the Spirit of God, becomes a symbol of holiness himself/herself. In past times, God displayed his glory to Moses in the burning bush, led his people Israel by a towering traveling fire, and spoke of holiness in terms like a refiner’s fire. At Pentecost, that holiness of God was bestowed on these disciples; as representatives of all followers of Jesus. We too are now, in a sense, “burning bushes” that display God’s glory and holiness because of the Spirit of Jesus’ work in our hearts.
2. Pentecost shows that the message of the Church is to always bring glory to Jesus Christ by effectively communicating the gospel. In Acts 2, the miraculous and cacophonous tongues of fire were not to bring acclamation or glory to those disciples, but rather to work through them to speak of the glorious gospel of Jesus; suffering, crucified, dead, then risen… Our Redeemer. When the disciples received the pentecostal filling, they could not help but speak the truth of the good news of Jesus Christ.
3. Pentecost shows proof of the reversing of the curse of The Fall (Genesis 3). In this instance, it reversed the curse of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11) where people tried to reach God’s level in their own self-absorbed and idolatrous ways. As a result, God confused their communication by mixing out the multitude of languages that could not be understood by most of the others; and therefore they abandoned the tower building project. Pentecost, on the other hand, shows the opposite: A unification takes place by way of the language of the preaching of the gospel of Jesus.
4. Pentecost shows that Jesus is still actively at work in his Church. As promised on the mountain previous to his ascension, he would send his Holy Spirit; the power of God amidst upcoming tasks, trials, persecutions, and martyrdom. Pentecost proves Jesus is both gloriously at the right hand of God the Father and also indwelling and active in our hearts.
5. Pentecost shows that the Word of God always comes true, in God’s perfect timing. The Old Testament prophet Joel foresaw the day when God would “pour out his Spirit on all people” (Joel 2:28-32, quoted in Acts 2). During past times, only some people of God were filled with the Spirit and often only for a short period in order to speak a prophetic word or accomplish an important task. Pentecost shows that ALL followers are now filled with the Spirit of God.
6. Pentecost shows that not one culture or language is to be elevated above any of the others. When the Spirit descended in Acts 2, the disciples spoke the gospel in many other languages simulataneously. Not the primary biblical languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek, but the languages of the very people that were in Jerusalem on pilgrimage from many other far off lands. When the Spirit-filled and Spirit-fueled gospel went forth, it then became heard and understood by all these other language-speakers, cultures, and nations all at the same time. This event both made culture less important as the gospel was heard simultaneously by the differing peoples, and it also made culture more important as the gospel went forth to them all regardless their national or linguistic backgrounds.
May the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, our redeemer, continue to fill both our hearts and our mouths that we too may be used to speak of this wonderful good news of salvation; the forgiveness of sins, the reversing of the curse upon mankind and the earth, and the going forward as his people with great joy, grace, and power.
MARK 15:33-41pp (also Mt 27:45-56; Lk 23:44-49; Jn 19:29-30)
33 At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”–which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”35 When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.” 36 One man ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said. 37 With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. 38 The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!” 40 Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. 41 In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.
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Imagine that you were that centurion, that Roman regiment commander who oversees 100 soldiers, that military leader who has orders to stand guard at the crucifixion of Jesus that day. Public executions like this took place often enough that likely it was not your first or your last crucifixion, so in a way it had gotten to be routine for you, but something about this one transfixed you in a deeply emotional way.
Though the Jews had clearly missed the Messianic expectation, here was an outsider, a Gentile Roman centurion, who became unexpectedly sparked towards making a faith proclamation about Jesus. So we will investigate by answering three questions: Who was this centurion, what did he say, and what can we learn?
1. Who was this centurion?
There seem to be two views regarding the identity of this soldier. The first view, held by Church tradition, was that this man was Longinus, from the 4th century apocryphal “Acts of Pilate”. Since then, he’s been regarded as a saint in the Roman Catholic tradition. Can this be proven? No, and the late date (4th century) which was hundreds of years after all eyewitnesses had been dead can be viewed as potentially suspect.
The second view is that we don’t know the exact identity of this centurion as he is not named in the narrative, and possibly this could be purposeful. There are other centurions mentioned elsewhere in the gospels (Mt. 8, Lk. 7 displays the faith of another centurion), and in Acts (Cornelius in Acts 10:22, another named Julius in Acts 27:1), but we don’t know anything else about our centurion standing guard here at the cross; whether he’s the same centurion named in other New Testament narratives, we just don’t know. Most likely, he is not.
This centurion is not named and that lack of information possibly tells us something. Current scholars like Richard Bauckham (Jesus and the Eyewitnesses) have done extensive investigation into the gospel narratives (and their history/culture/etc) and they have something fascinating to say. Bauckham’s thesis, which he argues convincingly, is that the gospel narratives were written based on eyewitness accounts; they are 1st century biographies (different than modern/postmodern biographies; another topic altogether) and therefore when an eyewitness was known within the early church, their name was attached to their account. An example like this is that Cleopas was the only one of two disciples named in Luke 24 and therefore he would likely have been the “source” because others would have known his name, known of him, and could go and question (or even challenge) him about his testimony.
With that in mind, since this centurion in Mark 15 is not named, he was most likely either not alive, not around the vicinity anymore, or not known within the christian community; possibly because he had not become part of the growing group that were following Jesus. This would tell us something of the faith depth of his declaration about Jesus in verse 39.
2. What did this centurion say?
Having been stationed at the foot of the cross, this centurion clearly had seen and heard Jesus. Something about Jesus’ words, behavior, and demeanor were other-worldly. This was obviously a crucifixion unlike all the others so this centurion was deeply moved to the point of verbally proclaiming, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”
Though it seems like there might be a conversion taking place, we must stay close to the text and not read anything into the text that’s not there. It would be easy to run with verse 39 and proclaim something to the effect that this centurion was the first Gentile converted after Jesus’ death, how exciting that is and so on, but that would be assuming too much. Instead, we must not presume anything beyond what we know, for we only know what we’re told plus what we can accurately determine from context along with other clues.
All we know is that this man standing guard, this Roman military centurion, a Gentile, made the public declaration that Jesus must have been a son or the son of God (or of the gods); the Greek article o (otouo) has some flexibility depending on context. We could make much more of a statement of faith than what’s really there, but that would be improper because the text doesn’t give us any more than that. Regardless, the centurion viewed the powerful death of Jesus as signifying a certain level of divinity and he bravely vocalized that in spite of his professional allegiance to Caesar as his Roman god and lord.
Now, if the centurion was indeed Longinus, then he did make a valid profession of faith, or at least the beginnings of a life of faith culminating in his sainthood. If the centurion was left purposefully unnamed in the gospels because he was not enfolded into the new and growing movement of Jesus, then maybe it was not a profession of faith, but rather simply a declaration of awe and intensity over the events and uniqueness of the dying Jesus.
3. What can we learn?
Regardless the centurion’s identity and the intended meaning of his public statement, we must grasp that this is a seminal moment that broadcasts an important topic: Jesus is an includer who brings people together from all national, socio-economic, geo-political, generational, and racial backgrounds of life into his glorious kingdom. This especially as the gospel of Mark was aimed towards a Roman audience.
As the great includer, Jesus’ kingdom, his merited redemption (earned via his perfect life and sacrificial death on the cross) is available to people from every corner of the earth, from every hue of skin color, cultural background, and generation. As we read in John’s Revelation 5:9 “…you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation…”
This was (and continues to be) an enormous issue. Up until this point, the kingdom of God seemed (falsely) to be only for the Jews. There were some from other backgrounds who came into Judaism, but only if and when they jumped through judaistic religious hoops, and even then were not considered as full and equal to those who could trace their ancestry back to the original twelve tribes of Israel.
This was incorrect thinking on the part of the Jews because from the very beginning God did indeed make it clear that his kingdom should spread out across all nations. We get this in early seed form all the way back when the Covenant was instituted with Abraham. In Genesis 12:2-3, God initially calls Abram/Abraham and commits, “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you”. The Prophet Isaiah expands on this in Is.49:6 “I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth”. In the New Testament, as this theme became much more clearly understood (and, over time, more faithfully instituted), this is expanded upon by the Apostle Paul in Galatians 3:8 “The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you.’” All nations! ALL!
Certainly this was one of the topics that infuriated the religious leaders of Jesus day and, after his death, in the new and growing “Way” as observed in the book of Acts as well as many of the epistles. The life and message of Stephen, Peter, James, John, and then Paul, Barnabas, and Silas were all about the Great Commission of preaching Christ Crucified beyond the religious and national borders out to Judea, Samaria, and beyond. Far beyond to all nations.
In this “Death of Jesus” account in Mark 15, we get a glimpse of this very first Gentile who was strongly compelled to publicly proclaim Jesus’ death on the cross to be significant in a divine way.
So how might all this be shocking and offensive to the 1st century culture to hear and read these reports? The answer to this question should be self-evident. The religious establishment from the very beginning has dragged their feet even to the point of violently opposing this idea of including outsiders into their inner circle.
The good news of God, however, is that Christ Crucified wasn’t only for the Jewish people (who rejected him), but for all nations.
Jesus: The great includer; to Jew and Gentile alike.
1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, 2where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’ “5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 So if you worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’ “9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here.10For it is written: ” ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; 11they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ “12 Jesus answered, “It says: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” 13When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
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In the second part of this three-part Lenten series, the focus will be on the cryptic interchange between Jesus and the devil, specifically relating to the quoting of scripture back and forth. What exactly was the point of that and what can we possibly learn? In this devotion, we will see that Jesus spoke the Word and that the Word spoke of Jesus.
1. JESUS SPOKE THE WORD. Fascinating, this interplay between good and evil. Considering the crucial nature of this cosmic battle, one might think Jesus would have instead tapped more fully into his divine nature and zapped the devil right off the face of the earth. But he didn’t, and he wouldn’t, because that would have short-circuited his mission which would inevitably lead him towards the cross; thereby sealing the redemption of creation and mankind.
Instead, Jesus simply quoted scripture. Three times he quoted the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy (8:3, 6:13, and 6:16) to thwart the devil’s attacks. Strange as it seems on the surface, of all the potential debate tactics that could have been used, this turned out to actually be the most powerful and efficient; it did the trick. As the Apostle Paul writes, the sword of the spirit is indeed the Word of God (Eph 6:17). So like any instrument or weapon, to be most effective, it must be most properly comprehended and wielded.
Something very interesting to note in all of this is that the enemy knows the scriptures too; very well indeed. This is obvious from the fact that he also quotes scripture back at Jesus, but something is missing: Though the adversary knew the scriptures, he didn’t “know” (in the fullest worshipful sense) the God of the scriptures; the God who would complete his redemptive plan out of love for his people. The New Testament (Jas 2:19) informs us that even the demons “believe” (and shudder) so there is evidently quite a difference between intellectual assent to theological doctrine and deep heartfelt worshipful faith. Out there in the lonely wilderness, we get a quick snapshot of that distinction.
About Jesus: Jesus knows the scriptures, he understands them, and his conversations and teachings are infused with them. He is so saturated with the Old Testament scriptures that he drips them, so to speak, whenever he opens his mouth. This specific phrase used three times in our narrative, “it is written” (to refer back to the Old Testament scriptures), is used by Jesus 63 times directly in the New Testament. 63 times!
This is a large relative percentage of what the Bible has recorded him as saying! And not only that, there are many more times Jesus referenced (and inferenced) the scriptures without prefacing with that specific three word phrase.
It needs to be reminded that our Lord held a very high view of scripture. Let’s allow the full-orbed consequences of that to sink in deeply.
In our present day, there’s a movement towards emphasizing only the “red letter” words of Jesus; downplaying the history of the gospels and Acts, minimizing the teaching of the apostles, and especially discarding the reliability and relevance of the Old Testament. But that wasn’t Jesus’ approach at all. He taught as if the Old Testament scriptures (“Law and Prophets”, “Law and Writings”, even “Moses and Elijah”, being synecdoches; a part standing for the entire whole) were both reliable and authoritative. He built and based his life, works, and teachings on that certainty. [More on this in a moment].
If this was not true, if the divine Son had not thought the Old Covenant scriptures to be reliable and authoritative, we could only deduce that his numerous references to the Old Testament were then insincere and even deceitfully manipulative, making Jesus out to be quite a deceiver, even a liar; thereby not a perfect teacher, not a perfect savior without sin, and therefore not a redeemer. But we know much better.
About the enemy: It’s not just Jesus quoting scripture in this narrative; the Satan does it as well. And this isn’t the first time either. Think back: We’ve heard the devil quoting scripture before, and in doing so, twisting it to mean something OTHER than what God had intended (Genesis 3:1-7). Back in the Garden of Eden, earlier in Genesis 2, the Father had created the perfect paradise and set only one rule for the first man and woman: “…you must not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die”. When the devil, in the form of a serpent, came to tempt, his approach was crafty as he provoked with his sly twists in order to heighten doubt about what God might have meant in that (presumably, to them, unfair and unreasonable) rule.
“Did God really say you would surely die”? We can almost imagine the private dialog playing out where the skeptic/mocker/tempter played on Adam and Eve’s human emotions. “Maybe the serpent is correct” Adam and Eve might have said privately to one another, “If Father was really a God of love, he wouldn’t hold back from us anything… he’d certainly let us follow ALL our innate desires and allow us to eat of ALL the trees including THAT one”.
Satan used that weak moment to coerce; to lead them in erroneously believing that there was some mistake in their interpretation or understanding of God’s Word to them. And so it went. And so it goes. And so it still goes, even today.
Sometimes just a slight word change or spoken inflection can cast major doubt, and if we don’t know the full context of the redemptive story of God in Jesus or the smaller grammatical-historical contexts (along with etymology) within the texts themselves, we find ourselves adrift on a sea of confusion, doubt, and potential misunderstanding.
2. THE WORD SPOKE OF JESUS. It can be said that Jesus held a “high view” of scripture. To more fully understand this, let’s think back to the narrative in Luke 24 where Jesus walked along the Road to Emmaus. The newly risen (and unrecognized) Christ was walking with two disciples (one named Cleopas1) and in essence gave them a compacted Master’s level “Messianic Survey of the Old Testament” course as he explained how all those scriptures in the Old Testament were about HIM.
The Bible isn’t about “us” (or even about “them”); It’s all about HIM.
Everything in the scriptures is about Jesus. From the Old Covenant ceremonial laws describing priestly duties and innocent sacrificial lambs, from the prophetic foreshadowings of the prophets about the coming Messiah, on to Wisdom literature speaking of the embodiment of wisdom and knowledge. From the Suffering Servant of Isaiah, the Passover lambs of the exile, the manna bread in the desert, the tabernacle, the temple, and all the symbolism and typology we discover in Adam, Noah, Abraham (with Isaac), Moses, Jonah, Boaz, David, Nehemiah, etc, etc, etc. It’s not about us. It’s all about HIM.
To take it a step further, we realize it comes around full circle when we recognize that Jesus spoke the Word that spoke of Jesus. Think about his first recorded homily in the synagogue “Today this scripture IS fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk 4:21) along with the Road to Emmaus narrative (Lk 24) and many more examples.
The apostles recognized this much more clearly afterwards. In fact, the Apostle John launches his entire gospel biography of Jesus by writing first verse first chapter that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. Jesus Christ: The Embodiment of the Word.
Jesus himself not only held a very high view of scripture and frequently spoke and taught it to his hearers (followers and detractors alike), but he himself was and is the very embodiment of the Old and New Testament scriptures himself. We catch a strong glimpse of this concept in this sword fight battle of words out in the desert.
Watch this short YouTube clip for an animated quick summary on this topic. It’s a MUST WATCH 🙂
#Wade
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Other parts in this series:
Previously: Part 1: The Empowerment of Approval (What was the nourishing “food” that Jesus feasted on during his 40 days of fasting, and how does this help us see his relationship, and ours, to the Father?)
Next: Part 3: The Embracing of Calling(There is one thing lacking between all that Jesus had then, and all he would have after the cross, and that makes all the difference; to him and to us!)
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POSTSCRIPT: The reader can clearly see I’ve taken a high view of scripture in this devotional. Two thoughts for later development: (1) I do not subscribe to a literalist hermeneutic, but rather view scripture through the lens of historical-grammatical-cultural context, genre, and big picture Christological typology. (2) If or when “perceived” problems or contradictions arise, I most properly interpret/understand that potentially difficult text by weighing it in light of other more clear relevant texts, that along with the big picture redemptive story of God in Christ. Personally, I find Prof. Darrell Bock’s chapter on “precision” –vs- “accuracy” (for instance, the very words of Jesus –vs- the voice of Jesus)2 to be far more convincing than Prof. Bart Ehrman’s skepticism in this regard. But all that for some other posted musing down the road.
1 Richard Bauckham’s book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (Eerdmans 2006) is a fantastic treatment on eyewitness accounts related to the biblical gospels. He handles the reason why the one Cleopas (out of two) disciples on the Road to Emmaus is named and the other is not, as well as many other important details and examples of eyewitness testimonies.
2Darrell Bock’s Chapter on Precision and Accuracy in Do Historical Matters Matter to Faith?: A Critical Appraisal of Modern and Postmodern Approaches to Scripture (Crossway 2012). A very helpful treatment especially when we are dealing in this series of devotionals on three synoptic narratives that each deviate from the others, but all three written by gospel writers with differing purposes and some more concerned with “words” -vs- “voice” in the texts.
2. Pentecost shows that the message of the Church is to always bring glory to Jesus Christ by effectively communicating the gospel. In Acts 2, the miraculous and cacophonous tongues of fire were not to bring acclamation or glory to those disciples, but rather to work through them to speak of the glorious gospel of Jesus; suffering, crucified, dead, then risen… Our Redeemer. When the disciples received the pentecostal filling, they could not help but speak the truth of the good news of Jesus Christ.
Letting The Text Speak 