The Gospel of the Forty Days: Messianic Expectations       “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” Or as a significant textual source has it: “Is it at this time that You will bring about the restoration, and when will the kingdom of Israel be?” (Ac 1:6.) The Apostles asked this of Jesus at the end of the forty days following His resurrection and just before He ascended into Heaven.       Many misinterpret the question as an expression of the expectation of a political Messiah. It is true that some First Century Jews, notably the Zealots (the Apostle Simeon had been one), were waiting for a political Messiah. But Biblical and extra-biblical Jewish sources indicate this was not at all the general Messianic expectation.       Brant Pitre, PhD, a scholar of the Jewish background to Christianity, reminds us that to understand the humanity of Jesus, His words and actions in historical context, we ne...

The Gospel of the Forty Days: Breaking Bread       We are continuing to see what commands (Ac 1:2) and teachings (Ac 1:3) the resurrected Lord Jesus gave, or might have given, during the forty days between His Resurrection and Ascension – what Jaroslav Pelikan called the “Gospel of the Forty Days.”       St. Luke’s Gospel shows us some of Jesus’ teaching, and a reminder of a command, on that first evening of Jesus’ Resurrection when Jesus joined the two disciples on their way to Emmaus. “Beginning with Moses and all the prophets He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Lk 24:27). The disciples later said their hearts were burning within them as Jesus was speaking (Lk 24:32), but they did not recognize that it was the Lord Jesus until they were at table.  Jesus “took the bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to them” (Lk 24:30). Recall that on the prior Thursday Passover evening, Jesus “took...

The Gospel of the Forty Days: Jesus is LORD!       Elements of Judaism historically, and orthodox Judaism today, believe that God gave both a written Torah and an oral Torah to Moses, His chosen messenger, during the forty days Moses was on Mount Sinai. A First Century Jew reading from the beginning of the book of the Acts of the Apostles that Jesus “had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the Apostles whom He had chosen,” and “during forty days” was “speaking of the Kingdom of God” (Ac 1:2-3), could not help but see parallels to Moses on Mount Sinai: forty days, chosen messenger(s), giving commandment/Torah and teachings/oral Torah. And, of course, there is the parallel of God and Jesus. So now, exactly who is Jesus?       St. Luke tells us in his Gospel that at Jesus’ Ascension into Heaven, all those who were there “worshiped Him” (Lk 24:52). Everyone knows worship is due to God alone (Ex 20:3; Deut 5:7, 6:5). The Shema  – “Hea...