50 Days that changed the world

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The 50 days I'm referring to are the days from the Resurrection til Pentecost.  To fully understand the impact of that period requires a little historical perspective. Historically, the Roman Empire had tolerated and allowed people to practice their own religion (as was the case with Judaism in Christ's day) and only interfered when the leaders of a religion went against Roman occupation or law. One of those exceptions was the "messiahs" who occasionally popped up in what was then occupied Palestine. Invariably these so called messiahs would be claiming that God had sent them to lead a revolution and free His people from Roman rule. That was a NO NO and the Romans had a pretty effectively way of dealing with such movements before they got out of hand. They would crucify the leader (messiah) and usually the followers would disappear from the face of the earth (metaphorically speaking). They went into hiding because their leader had been killed and they now feared the same fate might befall them if they persisted. The Romans believed in nipping things in the bud, so to speak.

It was in this backdrop that along came another messiah. Jesus of Nazareth. He was different in several ways. First, Jesus of Nazareth, since he didn't advocate for overthrow of Roman rule, wasn't even on the radar of the Roman authorities. They probably just saw another Jewish zealot who posed no threat to their authority. It was the Jewish authorities at the temple who were so upset with Christ that they brought Him to the attention of the Romans. We read in the Bible that even then Pilot tried to dissuade them by offering a choice between crucifying Christ or a contemptible criminal, Barabbas who was already convicted and awaiting crucifixion. T at the insistence of the here's a high probability that Pilot thought the choice would be simple and thus he wouldn't have to deal with what he considered to be an internal Jewish church dispute. Well, of course the Jews chose to crucify Christ and free Barabbas. Pilot, we're told relented but even then washed his own hands of the matter as Christ hadn't really broken any Roman law. He hadn't even spoken against the Empire.

So, as with other messiahs in the past, Christ was crucified. And as with other messiahs, after He had been crucified, His followers were nowhere to be seen. They seemed to be in hiding, cowering and wondering if the same fate was awaiting them at any moment. So, what was different this time. What happened was that Christ arose from the grave and HE FOUND THEM.  In Luke we read:

Luke 24:36-43

36 While they were telling these things, He Himself stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be to you.” 37 But they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit. 38 And He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 40 And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. 41 While they still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement, He said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42 They gave Him a piece of a broiled fish; 43 and He took it and ate it before them.

Notice that the first thing it says after Christ appeared and spoke to them, "they were startled and frightened and thought they were seeing a spirit". Now remember, they had just seen Christ crucified. They were already traumatized and like the followers of previous messiahs, found themselves devastated as their leader had been taken from them and now here He was standing before them. I can only imagine what they must have been thinking at that moment, but startled and frightened. He then asked them why they were startled and why they had doubts. I believe that the disciples hadn't really fully comprehended from Christ's teaching that He would be physically killed and then be physically resurrected. So, He showed them His hands and His feet, He was indeed flesh and blood resurrected. The next line tells a big part of the story. They still could not believe it because of their JOY AND AMAZEMENT. In just a few minutes after Christ appeared to them they had gone from "startled and frightened" to joy and amazement. Quite a transformation Christ can make.

The rest of the story is history. Christ continued to appear until His ascension 40 days later. The disciples had a renewed hope and began to rethink the impact of the message that they had been blessed with and began again to spread the Gospel. Then on day 50, God gave the final gift that would turn these frightened disciples into dynamic apostles and give them the courage to spread the word even though they now were in violation of Roman law because they were now preaching that indeed Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and had been resurrected from the grave after being executed by the Empire. To make matters worse they were preaching that Christ (who the Romans knew as the human, Jesus of Nazareth and thought they had eliminated) to be above even the Roman Emperor. Now that was a BIG NO!NO!  The gift that God gave them 10 days after Christ had ascended to Heaven was the Holy Ghost at Pentecost. After that, the Apostles went boldly across the Empire with the full knowledge that they were now more than ever going against the biggest Roman rule (No one person is above the Emperor EVER) and thus all the more likely to face persecution and even crucifixion. Over the period of 50 days, Christ had given them deliverance and God had given them the Holy Ghost to strengthen them, and with that they risked their very lives on a daily basis so that we today might know of the Gospel of Christ.   

[unworthyservant]

Aside from the Bible quotes these are my own words based on much scholarly study and research by others that I have myself have studied over the years. A couple of websites that I find myself returning to for some perspective on Biblical issues are the Biblestudytools site and biblehub.com.  They both have good reference tools and reading material.  I also have and still occasionally refer to an old fashioned printed, red letter, Cambridge Concordance and a Scofield Reference Bible. I have also studied everything I can glean about historical data from the time of Christ til the present day. (And pre-Christian as well, I'm a history buff). There are so many good sites for historical perspectives that I only caution to check several references for verification of ANYTHING! As for the actual words in this post they are my own thoughts on what I've read elsewhere but are not direct quotes from anywhere.