This is a story I made up to give another insight into the events of Pentecost.
The main character is fictional, but the events and places are real. That is to say this is based on a true story.
There was a man named Sabri. He was from Egypt original and spoke Beja. But about 8 years ago he had moved into Jerusalem for business. Very few people spoke Beja there so he had to learn the local language. As I said Sabri had worked in Jerusalem for a little over 8 years now. When He moved there he heard the Jews speaking of their God, and he remembered the stories that his grandparents had told him. Stories of the hugely powerful God of the Jews who was said to live with them. When he arrived in Jerusalem he heard the stories the Jews told of their God and he saw all the words that their God had given them. Sabri thought to himself: which of the gods of Egypt ever did any of these things? Which of the gods in Egypt had given them such good laws and been so involved with the people. Sabri learned to fear and love the God of the Jews. So after just one and a half years of being in Jerusalem he made the commitment and converted to Judaism with all that that entailed.
Every year since then Sabri had looked forward to the pass over the most significant of the holidays. It was a special time of praise. But it was also a great holiday, Jews came from all over the world to Jerusalem and the city came alive with people. There had been a few exciting years when someone claimed to be something great, but all of those had ended in scandal. But this year, this year was the most exciting it had ever been. There was this man who had been growing popular for the last few years. He came to Jerusalem and did miracles. He healed people. Sabri had never seen anything like it. Can you imagine? A blind man seeing? And the way he spoke! To Sabri it seemed that He was very wise. He seemed to know a lot more about God than any of the teachers Sabri had heard in the synagog and this man understood people. The whole of Jerusalem had been astir with the excitement. Could this be the great Messiah that God had promised? Sabri was not sure what to believe, it seemed that the leaders did not really like this man.
Just as on the eve of the passover meal, at the most significant part of the festival, this man Jesus was condemned to death and was crucified. Sabri had been there in the crowd. He had heard how the Roman ruler had tried to set Jesus free, he had seen how the Jews had called for his blood. Sabri himself had been caught up in the excitement. He had shouted “Crucify him, Crucify” It made sense at the time.
They took that Jesus out and crucified him. Everything seemed normal, this happened. People were condemned to death then they were hung up to die. Sabri had though nothing of it but had gone home. He was having tea when the sky went dark. It was quite scary and everyone was growing anxious. Just as he was sitting down to lunch the earthquake struck. The plates flew from the table and the world seemed to be crumbling. Fortunately it was quite brief. Sabri rushed outside to see what was happening. Soon the rumour spread that that Jesus had just died, and when he died the earthquake happened. Sabri was a confused and a little scared. Who was this man?
All that had been a month ago. Everything was settling back down to normal and people were beginning to forget about it. But not quite. There was a rumour going round that some people had seen this Jesus alive. But how could that be? That morning just as Sabri was putting out his wares to sell he heard the strangest thing. He heard someone speaking Beja, his home language. But who would speak that here in Jerusalem? Moreover they were proclaiming the wonders of the Jewish God. All around him people were looking up, he asked someone near him what was happening. They said that they heard someone talking about the wonders of the Jewish God in his home language of Nafusi. Very odd. There was a crowd gathering and Sabri joined in.
This is what he heard: Acts 2:14-24. 32-36.
This made sense to Sabri this Jesus was something special He was the Messiah. Someone else in the crowd asked the same question that was on Sabri’s mind: “What then shall we do?” The man speaking repled: Acts 2:38-39.
I don’t now if someone like Sabri was there, but I do know about Jesus. God had done an amazing thing: God came in the person of Jesus and made an end to death!