Pentecost 2018

 

At the time of Christ it was common for a marriage to commence with a betrothal beginning with an exchange of vows in front of witnesses sealed with a cup of red wine which the groom offers as his very life blood, followed by a period of separation from one to seven years. In the separation period the groom goes to prepare a place for the bride and the bride prepares herself and her wedding garments for the big day when the groom would unexpectedly return with great fanfare expecting her to be ready.

 

Of particular relevance is that the groom gives the bride a bridal gift as he departs for the period of separation. It is a gift of something the bride will adorn herself with to enhance her beauty on her wedding day. The bridal gift was called a matan.

 

The day of Pentecost is also known as the Day of Matan because it is the day Jews celebrated God’s gift to the Israelites. God’s gift was the Torah. For some people the Torah means the Law written on stone tablets. For others it means the teachings later documented in first five books of the Bible. Either way the gift was a verbal and spiritual guide to righteousness and consequent national royalty and priesthood. The gift accompanied the very covenant after which the Old Testament is named. In a sense it was a bridal gift because the Old Testament from the time of the gift onwards treats the Israelites as God’s betrothed.

 

If God was ever to give another matan it would surely be on the Day of Matan. On that day, Pentecost in the year of the crucifixion, the apostles received the gift of the Holy Spirit. It immediately gave them power to speak in foreign languages. It gave them great power of oration and great faith and a sense of the presence of Holy God. Beyond that it anointed them with specific spiritual powers. Those aspects are what witnesses saw and reported but there was something much more important about this particular gift.

 

The Israelites failed the first betrothal, but God did not fail them. He gave them the opportunity to go back and be born again spiritually – to be able to come to the wedding as faithful, innocent, spotlessly righteous brides. That born-again spirit is the ultimate bridal gift. It was made available to both Jews and gentiles. That was the secret of the Torah revealed by the prophets and later by the apostles. The spiritual wedding (we don’t really understand what that means) of the church with the lamb of God is coming up. The bridegroom has been away preparing a place for us. He is coming again unexpectedly with great fanfare to those who are ready, who have adorned themselves with his gift of the Holy Spirit.