Shavu’ot had come. The women had made festive wreaths and ropes of greenery to decorate the rooms, which they had hung last night. Those farmers who grew wheat and barley anywhere near Yerushalayim would be bringing some of that into the Temple as this was the harvest festival.
She’d risen well before dawn to get a start on the day. After mixing and forming a dozen extra large braided loaves of leavened wheaten bread made from this year’s harvest, honey sweetened loaves rich with both melted butter and sour cream, she’d taken those to the baker’s oven just before dawn. This harvest festival was the only time that dairy products were used in baking breads. While other festivals were times of rich feasting on meat, if one could afford the expense, this celebration was a time of reflecting on this promised land as overflowing with milk and honey. Part of that reflection was having dairy meals.
She was filled with a sense of anticipation as she walked back from the baker’s shortly after dawn. She kept thinking that today was the perfect day for the Holy Spirit to come upon them. Yet, she schooled herself to be patient, to wait, as things would come according to the plan of Our Father, Our King.
All of the Twelve had stayed in that upper room with the women who had followed Yehoshua and some of the relatives. Sooner or later, she would have to return to Natsarat and deal with her property there, as she would never live there again. No, once everything settled, she would live with Yochanan bar Zebedee.
After morning prayers and breakfast, while the men were talking among themselves and the women finishing the clearing away from the meal, there came the sound of a violent windstorm. Miriam saw the fear on many faces.
“This is the Holy Spirit coming,” she told them. “It must be.”
Even as she spoke, bright light, like tongues of fire descended on each of them. This feeling of overwhelming love, peace, and joy was familiar to her. She’d felt it before on the morning her son was conceived.
All around the room, she heard each person in the room begin to speak in a different language. Miriam heard herself speak in a language she did not recognize and yet she understood everything that she and everyone else said. No one seemed to want to stop talking. Each of them said virtually the same thing, telling the story of the great work that Our Father, Our King, had done in the life, death, and resurrection of her son.
Soon, they heard an agitated crowd gathered just outside the house.
The Twelve went out to meet the crowd. Miriam and the women stood there at the door, looking on. There were, judging by dress, men from Parthia, Medes, Elamite, Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Roma, Crete, and Arabia.
A man from the crowd, a man dressed in the manner of an Arab, said, “Aren’t you all Galileans? How then are we hearing, each of us, in our native languages? We have heard you declaring the wonders of God in our own languages!”
Another man, one dressed in the style of an Egyptian, asked, “What does this mean?”
Still another man in the crowd, this one dressed as a Cretean, offered, “They are drunk on new wine.”
Several other men laughed, clearly agreeing with that.
Simon Cephas addressed the crowd, “Men of Yudea, and all who you live in Yerushalayim, let this be known to you and pay attention to my words. These men are not drunk. It is but the third hour of the day.” He went on to quote Yoel, the prophet, reminding them of the prophecy about the Holy Spirit being poured forth and great wonders in the sky, the darkness at noon on the day of Yehoshua’s crucifixion, the blood moon that night. He continued, “Men of Yisra’el, listen to these words: Yehoshua of Natsarat, a man approved by El Ele Yisra’el among you by mighty works, wonders, and signs, that Elohim did through Him among you, you know this. This one, by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of Elohim being given, having taken by lawless hands, having crucified…You did slay Him. Elohim raised Him up, having loosened the bonds of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it.” Then he quoted David twice and argued from the passages that these were prophecies about Yehoshua and that Miriam’s son was the Lord, the Messiah.
The crowd, Miriam could see, was moved to sorrow for their actions. A man from the crowd asked, “What shall we do, brothers?”
Simon told them, “Repent and be baptized in the name of Yehoshua, the Moshiach, for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, for the promise is to you, to your children, and to all those far away, as many as Adonai shall call.”
The conversation between the Twelve and the crowd continued for quite a while, with Peter and the others, telling both prophecy and giving witness to the truth of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Yehoshua.
Eventually, the crowd of men were divided into twelve groups and each group left in the company of one of the Twelve to go visit one of the various mikva’ot near the Temple, in order to be baptized. Miriam estimated that there were about three thousand men who left with the Twelve.
“And what about women?” Mariamne, Magdala, asked. “It would be indecent for the men to baptize women as to go into the water as one does at the mikveh means that one must be stripped. The allegations of immorality, if the Twelve were to see and touch naked women converts, this would seriously impair the mission set before us.”
“I suspect women will be baptizing women, just for those reasons,” Miriam said. “But we’ll need to discuss that with the Twelve when they return to us. We have our instructions to make disciples of all people, that includes the women of the world. Now, we need to go fetch the bread from the bakers and get dinner made. Life, even on extraordinary days like today, requires tending to. Who will walk with me to the baker’s?”