Nougat 20

In some countries, the day after Pentecost is observed as Whit Monday. It is a national day of rest. It is intended to be focused on the gift of God’s Spirit to all. Ironically, the celebration carries the understanding that this is a season of diverse temptations and crises. As we consider Today’s Holy Nougat, I invite us to reflect yet again on the premise of Shavuot, the first fruit offering.

‭John 15:26-27 NIV‬

[26] “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.

[27] And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.

Spiritual First Fruits

Earlier in John 15, Jesus informed His disciples: I am the true vine, you are the branches, My Father is the gardener. While one does not offer branches as sacrifice, we know that fruit is found on branches. In the grape farming world, a good vine will sometimes be transplanted to other spaces from ‘cuttings’. Those are retrieved from branches of the good vine, which grew in the season prior. This is because the matured branch has gleaned the traits of the good vine that makes for a good yield under the right conditions in the new context.

When comforting-preparing the disciples for His pending Death, Resurrection, and Ascension, Jesus reminded the disciples that they were the original branches of the True Vine. They were with Him ‘from the beginning’. So , those gathered and anointed at Pentecost had been connected to the True God vine, the good vine that was about to be transplanted all over the world.

These were the first fruits of the ‘wheat harvest’, God’s new dispensation with humanity. [The ‘barley season’ had been under the first Adam, whose conscious choice to disobey God’s directive led to our sinful nature. The wheat season came by virtue of the Second Adam, whose very life gave us a new nature through the in-dwelling of God’s Spirit. The disciples were connected to the second Adam (see 1 Corinthians 15:45-48 for the distinction been the two Adams.]

I hasten to note that there is a sense in which Jesus became the first fruit of the barley harvest (He is the first fruit of those fallen asleep; see 1 Corinthians 15:20-23).

With the indwelling anointed presence of God’s Spirit, the disciples were that offering up to God from Jesus, and the signal of that new dispensation of the ‘Good News’ ie (the Gospel) for the entire world. We cannot therefore take Pentecost lightly. Whether or not the week of Pentecost is accompanied by the purported sorrows, it should have a limited impact on us spiritually because we know the Spirit of Truth.

Like the transplanted disciples, we are attached to the True Vine. And we are called to ensure that the vine is transported to all four corners of the earth. We can not keep this Gospel to ourselves. Let us send it forth to our ‘… Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the end of the earth’ (see Acts 1:8). For we are witnesses of God’s Spirit, Who keeps us connected to Jesus, the True Vine.

Amen.

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May all we seek be found in Christ