Reading through Acts 2 with a group yesterday, we were given Walter Wink’s challenging question, “Was this a miracle of the tongue or a miracle of the ear?” The answer for most of us was ‘Both’. Communication with people from different cultural contexts requires both capacity to speak and capacity to listen.
So I’m wondering if the Holy Spirit might have been poured out on the followers of Jesus, AND poured out on the crowd as they listened and watched.
I’m even wondering if the mockers were inspired by the Spirit. “These people are drunk – filled with new wine!” In some ways this was true. The euphoria and lack of inhibition that comes with drinking the right amount of alcohol – that was what these disciples were experiencing with an experience of God’s Spirit being poured out over and in and through them.
I wonder if anyone’s painted the Pentecost scene – with the multicultural crowd experiencing the same flames and wind and wonder as the people in the upper room?