(Written to be read on Saturday the 30th May 2020 for Shavu’ot / Pentecost)
Today is a special Sabbath day. Today is the first Saturday after the Jewish custom of “Counting the Omer”: the process of counting up to seven complete weeks every seven days after Passover; it is also the seventh Saturday after the Christian commemoration of Resurrection Sunday. This Sabbath day is special because it is the Saturday that falls in-between the Jewish festival of Shavu’ot and the Christian celebration of Pentecost.
Both of these festivals are celebrations of the fiftieth day after their respective redemption stories of Passover and Resurrection. For Jews, this fiftieth day commemorates God giving the Torah (The Law) to His chosen people through Moses (the Deliverer); for Christians, this fiftieth day commemorates God giving the Holy Spirit (The Love) to His chosen people through Christ (the Messiah).
As such, this particular Saturday can act as a mirror in-between the two faith traditions showing how each faith is reflected in the other; this particular Sabbath can work as a metaphysical mirror to show how each faith holds one half of the whole image. This whole image is God’s gift of the Torah & the Holy Spirit after seven complete weeks. This holy image of two halves is God’s gift of spiritual fruit on the fiftieth day; this dyadic fruit of the fiftieth day is God’s gift of both the Law & the Love.
In the past few months leading from the first days of Lent to Holy Week and the last days of Passover (Pesach), both the Jewish and Christian lections have focused on themes of repentance and redemption.
The first theme consists of two elements: collective penance and personal repentance.
Penance: to be punished, to suffer, to make reparations for sin (i.e. to make amends for wrongdoings, shortcomings and mistakes).
The Passover (Pesach) is a time where Jews reflect on their past collective suffering as slaves of Egypt, arguably as due penance for the sins of their forefathers (viz. Joseph sold into Egyptian slavery by his 12 brothers in Genesis Ch. 37). During this time, Jews are both instructed and inspired through Moses (the Deliverer) to re-enact the festival of their forefathers (viz. the Festival of Matzot): to eat unleavened bread – the bread of affliction – for seven days in order to stay humble as well as mindful of their past sufferings as a people (Exodus Ch. 12 & Deuteronomy Ch.16).
“And this day shall become to you a remembrance […] Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. Indeed on the first day you cause leaven to cease from your houses.”
” … seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, that is, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), that you may remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.”
On the other side, Holy Week is a time where Christians reflect on the personal suffering of Christ (the Messiah) as a self-sacrifice, due penance and intercession for Original Sin passed down by the forefather & foremother of us all (viz. ʾĀḏām & Ḥawwāh; Adam & Eve; Man & Woman). During this time, Christians are similarly instructed and inspired to re-enact the mandate given to their spiritual predecessors by Christ: to stay mindful of Christ’s sacrifice through their eating of unleavened bread and drinking wine (Matthew Ch.26).
” … Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body.'”
Repentance: to admit, to regret, to take responsibility for personal sin (i.e. to own up to wrongdoings, shortcomings and mistakes).
During the time of Lent, Christians draw inspiration for spiritual exercises (viz. daily prayer, meditation and fasting) from Christ’s own temptation in the wilderness (Matthew Ch.4:1-11).
“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil …”
However, this inspiration for modern day Christians is further derived from Jesus Christ’s own inspiration as a Jew to walk where His forefathers walked. This was not simply to re-enact their walk through the wilderness as their own pilgrimage showed exceeding reliance on the comforts of material food (Exodus 16).
” … the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness … ‘Oh, that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full’ …”
Instead, in Christ’s own walk through the wilderness, He sought to rectify His people’s shortcomings by responding to temptation with absolute reliance on God’s spoken word: the spiritual food (Matthew 4:1-11).
“He answered and said ‘It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'”
The second theme consists of both personal and collective redemption.
Redemption: to ransom, to deliver, to liberate from debt, bondage or slavery (i.e. to recover freedom despite our faults).
The Judaic community remember their collective recovery from Egyptian slavery (i.e. the human fault of oppression) with the annual Passover (Pesach) festival. This instruction to remember their redemption is recorded in the book of Exodus (Ch.12).
“… observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt.”
On the other side, the Christian community remember their personal and collective recovery from slavery to Sin (i.e. the human fault of disobedience via wrongdoings, shortcomings and mistakes) throughout Holy Week. An echoed instruction to remember their redemption is recorded in the Gospel of Luke (Ch.22).
“And taking bread, giving thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you, do this in remembrance of Me.”
These first themes of penance / repentance and redemption are paralleled and reflected through both the Judaic Exodus redemption story on one side of the mirror, and the Christian Resurrection redemption story on the other as two images of recovery for one promise of freedom.
If we fast forward to the present time of Shavu’ot and Pentecost, then newer themes begin to come into focus and further highlight how each faith mirrors the other; these newer themes of restoration and renewal show how each can be reflected in each.
Despite their differences, the process of restoration and renewal are what these faiths have in common and are embedded in both Shavu’ot and Pentecost. So, when taken together, the festivals of both faiths aim to celebrate God’s gift of Law and Love, respectively and reciprocally; when taken together, both festivals and their respective faiths see restoration as a return to oneness with God and renewal as re-creation into oneness with God.
Similar in both faith traditions, this return to oneness with God is to bring the people back to their original life’s purpose of fruitfulness, as illustrated in the Edenic image in Genesis (Ch.1) and echoed in John’s Gospel (Ch.15).
“Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; […]”
“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain […]”
Also, this re-creation into oneness with God is to fashion the hearts and minds of the people for new ways of thinking and living, new ways of being in the world, as promised in Ezekiel (Ch.36) and echoed in John (Ch.3).
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you […] I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes […]”
“‘[…] unless one is born again, he cannot see [perceive] the kingdom of God … unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter [live in] the kingdom of God.”
In short, the theme of restoration is a return to God-given purpose and the theme of renewal is God’s gift of rebirth. These themes parallel and reflect through both faith traditions to reveal God’s common aim for His chosen people to both return to, and re-create themselves through, Him.
This parallel and reflection between the Judaic and Christian faiths is further illustrated through the mirrored mediators that both stand between heaven and earth, between God and the people: Moses (the Deliverer) and Christ (the Messiah).
On one side of the mirror, Moses works as the mediator who ascends Mt. Sinai to receive and then descends with the gift that allows the people to witness God’s voice for themselves: the Torah (i.e. the Law of God – Exodus 19-20).
“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.”
On the other side of the mirror, Christ works as mediator between heaven and earth which allows Him to ascend to heaven promising the Helper to come soon after (John Ch.15:26 & Acts Ch.1).
“He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, ‘[…] for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now […] you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
This promised gift of the Helper similarly allows the people to be God’s witnesses and speak with God’s voice: the Holy Spirit (i.e. the Love of God – Acts Ch.2).
“When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, […] Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance […] And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak his own language.”
In essence, both sides of the mirror between Judaism and Christianity show two sides to the same coin, two halves of one whole, each reflected in the other (Matthew 5:17-18)
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets, I did not come to destroy but to fulfill … one jot or tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.”
More fittingly, these two faiths and their respective festivals of Shavu’ot and Pentecost are both times to celebrate two halves of God’s same gift of first-fruits: the Torah & the Holy Spirit. In essence, Shavu’ot and Pentecost are both glimpses of the Judeo-Christian mirror celebrating two segments of God’s one gift of spiritual fruit on the fiftieth day: the Law & the Love.
For Jews, this spiritual fruit is the spoken Law of God witnessed after three days of anticipation (Exodus Ch. 19:11) and, at the same time, it is the Love of God cemented in stone tablets by the seventh to then descend from above by the fiftieth day (Exodus Ch.24); for Christians, this fruit of the spirit is the risen Word of God witnessed after three days of waiting (Matthew Ch.28), ascended to heaven on the fortieth and, in return, sends the Spirit of God to inscribe and chisel this Word into the hearts and minds of His people by the fiftieth day (Acts Ch.2).
When taken together we are able to recognise both Judaism and Christianity are two perspectives of the same spiritual fruit and this self-same fruit is one that signifies God’s gift of restoration and renewal, which allows us to live our lives as originally intended: fruitful and multiplied; fulfilled and maximised. This fruit given on the fiftieth day derives from the same source as the fruit given by God to enjoy on the seventh day. That source being described in the book of Genesis (Ch.2-3) as the Tree of Life.
Bibliography:
The Holy Bible. New King James Version. 1982. Thomas Nelson, Inc.
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