Introduction
Amazing things happen in the most ordinary of places. When Jesus sent Peter and John to find a room to prepare the Passover Supper little did they know the amazing things that would happen in that room over the next fifty days!
We complete our sideways glance and quirky look through Scripture (Luke chapters 22-24) from Maundy Thursday to Pentecost Sunday, and focus on that ‘Changing Room’ – where the room in which they lodged really did become a venue where they were changed for the good.
The Apostles have left the building
The room had changed. They waited. And waited. And waited. There was noise in the city outside. It was only nine o clock but already the crowds had taken to the street. A thousand, thousand Pentecost Pilgrims winding their way to the Temple, the stadium of light. Children shouted and ran through the streets with banners and flags. Dogs barked, hooters hooted. It was like match day! ‘I hate Pentecost,’ thought Matthew, as he twitched at the net curtains, peering at the crowds outside. ‘Jerusalem is full of foreigners. You can’t move for them. A hundred different languages. And they've closed off the roads so you can’t get across the city. Shopping's out of the question! And then he returned to the others. Quietly, patiently praying. Waiting for promises. 'At least it’s quiet in here,’ he thought. And then it happened. It was as though the doors of the room had been broken down, as if the passing pilgrims had invaded the house with their colour and noise and foreign ways. As though the room had become a refuge for travellers. A stopping place for all nations, as though the whole world had been sucked in. Peter felt a warmth, a fire. And the breath of God whispering secrets he had never heard before. His heart beat to the rhythm of God. Heaven had opened, proving its power with wind and fire. A torrent. A furnace. A whirlwind, like the one Elijah was caught up in. Peter thought he too would be taken up to heaven. But there were no fiery chariots or horsemen to lead the way! The room had changed. They had changed. Peter pressed the handle of the door and left behind the room in which so much had happened and walked into the street where things were about to begin.
