Vol.2 Issue 5 May 2015

[Sorry for my tardiness in posting the May and June issues. July's issue should be published on the first Sunday of July as scheduled.]

ON PENECOST

The Festival of Pentecost is one of the earliest festivals noted in church history. Hippolytus, writing around 217 A.D., mentions the festival. In The Lutheran Hymnal it is known as Whitsunday. It is called this because in the medieval ages, in the northern European countries, Pentecost was the preferred festival for baptizing catechumens (meaning those who had finished their period of instruction in the Christian faith). The baptismal candidate wore robes of white. The name Whitsunday thus came to be the name of the day on which the baptismal candidate wore white. 

Throughout history, the festival of Pentecost has captured the imagination of Christians because of the tongues as of fire than fell on the Christians and the tongues which they were given in order to preach the Gospel to all nations gathered in Jerusalem. The tongues as of fire and the manifestation of different languages were secondary miracles compared to the great miracle that day: the outpouring of the Holy Spirit so that many repented of their sins, believed the Gospel, and were baptized in the name of the Triune God.

All this is enough to make the Festival of Pentecost something noteworthy for the Church. But there is more. The feast of Pentecost was originally an Old Testament festival of Israel. Knowing that the New Testament fulfills the Old Testament’s shadows, types, and festivals, we are able to see in Pentecost a rich theology of Christ’s work of redemption on the cross and in the Office of the Holy Ministry throughout all ages.

Pentecost is a Greek word meaning “Fiftieth.” The festival is called Pentecost in the Greek New Testament because the Lord commanded this festival to occur on the fiftieth day after the Passover Sabbath (Leviticus 23.15-16). 

In the Old Testament Pentecost is called the Feast of Weeks because the festival occurs seven weeks after the harvest begins. The Lord says in Deuteronomy 16:9-10, “You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain. Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God.”

The barley harvest began during the week of Passover (usually a day after the Passover Lambs were slain and eaten). On the first day of the barley harvest the first barely sheaf is presented before the Lord at the altar with accompanying sacrifices (Leviticus 23.9-14). Pentecost thus occurred forty-nine days after the presentation of the first sheaf of the harvest and fifty days after the Feast of Unleavened Bread. 

The number of days in between both of these festivals and Pentecost have symbolic significance. When we consider that in Hebrew a week is called a ‘seven’ (because a week has seven days) here we have a “week of weeks” so to speak. There are seven weeks, that is seven sets of seven days. There were forty-nine days from the elevation of the first sheaf with the fiftieth day being Pentecost. Pentecost is not part of the “week of weeks” but it is, in symbolic terms, the eight day. 

Whenever anything happens on the eighth day in the Old Testament, something salvific is happening (that means something that points to Christ). This pattern begins in Genesis 17:12 with the covenant of Circumcision. “He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised.” 

The significance of Pentecost being the “eighth day” of the Feast of Weeks becomes clear when we place the crucifixion of Jesus within Israel’s liturgical calendar. Christ was crucified on the eve of the Passover Sabbath. He rested in the tomb on the next day, the Passover Sabbath (the first day of Passover). He arose Sunday which was the day of the elevation of the first sheaf of the barely harvest. Thus Jesus’ resurrection begins when the barely harvest begins and will culminate with on the Fiftieth day, Pentecost, the harvest celebration

In their writings the Apostles proclaim that Christ is the true Passover Lamb of which all other Passover lambs were but types ( consider John 1:29; 1 Peter 1:19; Revelation 5:6-10; and 1 Corinthians 5:7). Just as the Israelites were to eat the flesh of their Passover Lamb (Exodus 12:8ff), Christians eat of the true flesh of Christ their Passover Lamb every Sunday in the Sacrament of the Altar. In this sense the Lord’s Supper is the new Passover which supersedes the Mosaic Passover (this is also why it is silly, and a little dangerous, for Christians to hold Seder Meals on Maundy Thursday).

So Christ establishes ‘new Passover’ for the Christian to eat and drink. He also, by His resurrection on the day of the elevation of the first sheaf, demonstrates that “Now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” (1 Corinthians 15:20) Christ is the prototype for the New Creation. Just as He is risen from the dead, so all who believe in Him will rise to new life on the last day as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:23 and Jesus Himself says in John 11:25-26. Christ is the first sheaf of the harvest that begins on the day of His resurrection.

That also means the fiftieth day, the Day of Pentecost, was the culmination of His resurrection. On the fiftieth day the Holy Ghost was given to the disciples to preach the Gospel so that the harvest may continue. For generations, Pentecost had been a festival of the wheat harvest. But fifty days after the Resurrection of Jesus, He is celebrating the harvest of the firstfruits of Gospel proclamation, whom Luke counts as about three thousand. (Acts 2:41) The harvest that began with Jesus’ resurrection culminates when the Holy Spirit is given to the Apostles. Just as the Feast of Weeks in the Old Testament is bound up with the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover), so the Christian festival of Pentecost is bound up with Lent and Easter as its culmination.

Jesus is our Passover Lamb, slain to atone for our sins so that the wrath of God passes over all who trust that His death atones for their sins. Jesus is the first sheaf of the harvest from the dead, for He is the firstfruits from the dead. All who believe and are baptized will therefore be resurrected on the Last Day, even as they daily die to sin and are raised to new life by believing the Gospel.

The ancient festival of Pentecost thus encompasses much more than just the idea of the Gospel going out into the world. Pentecost includes the very Gospel that Christ is our Passover Lamb through whom we have the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation, and the first sheaf of the harvest to which we belong. Rejoice in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit! Rejoice that you are part of the Lord’s Harvest by faith in Christ. To that end. Amen.