Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: SPARKLE (08/19/21)
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TITLE: Pentecostal Ecstasy | Previous Challenge Entry
By Robert Rutaagi
08/26/21 -
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“It is finished!’’, Jesus proclaimed from the wooden cross. Jn. 19:30.
Jesus’ death, marked the climax of his persecution. However, that was the whole purpose of the divine incarnation designed to redeem mankind from the power of Satan, sin and death. Jesus’ expeditious burial in a borrowed tomb, at Golgotha, was an anti-climax in Christendom. Surely, He deserved a more dignified burial! The imminent and eminent Sabbath appeared to be more important to the Jewish community than the celebration of the Son of God, perhaps, to avoid thinking about the accomplished feat of getting rid of a ‘’cantankerous political activist, masquerading as prophet’’, and only worrying about the possibility of losing his dead body to fanatical followers who could steal it to deceive the unsuspecting world that their master had resurrected and escaped to wherever he fancied.
While the rest of the Jews were celebrating the Sabbath, Jesus’ Disciples were in a lockdown, skeptically having even forgotten that their master had assured them of his resurrection.
On Sunday morning, Jesus’ tomb was empty! The security guards, like Jesus’ followers, were in shock. Confusion and gloom loomed everywhere.
‘’Didn’t Jesus say, he would resurrect after three days?’’, some Disciples started remembering, their skepticism beginning to get challenged.
‘’Surely, if Jesus had resurrected, he would have visited his parents or summoned us to meet him, resumed teaching , performed bigger new and bigger miracles like earthquakes, resurrections to increase followers to consolidate victory against enemies…’’, Peter and Thomas were, probably, thinking aloud.
Not a single miracle happened. Suddenly, a man, humbler than Moses (Numbers 12:3), appeared, incognito, to various people, in various places: first, to Mary Magdalene then, to Peter, then Clopas and Luke on Emmaus road, to the disciples in a closed room, then to Peter and others who had fished in vain for the whole night.
‘’Hello guys, try your nets on the right’’, a man advised them. When they did, 153 great fish were caught, followed by a sumptuous breakfast and a profound teaching from Jesus - live! What a sparkling moment!
While Jesus’ incarnation, birth and miracles were great and divinely and His persecution and crucifixion were a depressing gloom and doom, RESURRECTION was an ineffable Sparkle!
Even the immediate post-resurrection self-revelations were not reassuring enough to the skeptical Disciples! Neither his face, the 153 fish, nor breakfast were convincing enough.
Then, Jesus entered a locked room and faced his still skeptical Disciples and commanded: ‘’Receive the Holy Spirit!’’. John 20:22. They received.
‘’Thomas, come and touch my hands!’’ Jesus ordered. Thomas obeyed, as the eleven watched.
On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended upon the Disciples. They received the baptism, spoke in diverse tongues and received power which Jesus had promised them. Acts 1:8.
The pentecostal experience revolutionarized the spiritual life of the Disciples. The timid and impulsive Peter, graduated from a serial denier of his master to a fastidious evangelist, bubbling with miracle power, eloquence and anointment that baffled both the Pharisees, leave alone the Sanhedrin and Roman rulers. All his timidity and impulsiveness had evaporated and vanished into nothingness – courtesy of the Holy Spirit. Acts 3:6.
The whole of Jerusalem, exuded new life – all based on the empty tomb at Golgotha and the Roman soldiers’ failure to account for the bribery money they had pocketed to tell lies that the Disciples had stolen the body of Jesus to some unknown place!
With passage of time, fallible word of mouth or written, from generation to generation, about historical narratives such as David and Goliath, Samson and Delilah, the Egyptian plagues, the manna from heaven, water from a stone, dramatic crossing of the Red Sea and River Jordan had all diminished into human sub-consciousness.
But the advent of Jesus was an extraordinary sparkle of new life. Water turned into wine, the blind saw, the cripples ran, demons screamed, the dead rose up but the great champion, Jesus, was betrayed by his own Disciple, Judas, and captured by incorrigible sinners. He was sentenced to death and cruelly crucified between two criminals. He died, was buried but he resurrected and descended into heaven before witnesses.
On the day of Pentecost, all the believers were filled with the Holy Spirit – the sole dispenser of gifts and fruit, the only available resources of their kind in the Universe that give you and me, the only kind of most desirable SPARKLING LIFE - SALVATION. 2 Cor. 12; Gal. 5:22; John 6:63. Acts; 1:8. Jn. 3:3, 16.
Non-fiction/Spiritual
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