“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

Acts 2:36

The title Lord is divine here; just fifty days before, the same people Peter was now speaking to had seen Jesus crucified, some of whom undoubtedly mocked him or chanted “crucify” that the man they killed was God Himself. The severity of this transgression is not lost on them. The crowd immediately responds, “Brothers what shall we do?”

The baptism Peter prescribes in that moment is nothing less than a partaking in Jesus death, burial and resurrection. It is an end of a life that is hostile to God and one at peace with His Anointed. That baptism means so much to us as modern Christians; how much more poignant would that have been to people who themselves had been there and personally participated in that hostility? If you looked God in the face and told him to die, thinking he was a blasphemer, how much more guilty would you feel learning the truth: that all of history and prophesy culminated in the arrival of this man whom you were complicit in killing.

So now, millennia later, we look back on the scene at Pentecost and learn what it means to be humble and seek forgiveness. Jesus died for you. Will you live for him?

Ethan Kirl