As a “good” Christian, I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but sometimes the events of the Bible seem like ancient history. Even though the Word is alive and still relevant today, the people and their lifestyles can be hard to relate to. I’ve wondered, why did Jesus come so long ago, to a world so different from mine?
Other times I wonder about God’s plan for all the people who lived and died before Jesus’s death and resurrection. What does their path to salvation look like? Why did Jesus come so late for them?
Boy, God can’t win for losing, eh? Fortunately for all of us, God’s plan and timing was perfect. Jesus came at the time and place to fulfill many prophecies and to walk this earth and complete his ministry and mission as God designed.
But what if instead of 2,000 years ago, he died last Friday? What would his life, ministry, death, and resurrection look like in a contemporary America?
That’s the question that birthed my novel, Fifty Days, which just released on Palm Sunday. I was so curious about the women who went to the tomb that Easter morning. I wanted to identify with them: but their whole world seemed unfamiliar to me. How could I walk in their shoes when I couldn’t envision their sandals?
So, Maggie walked into my life. More precisely, she walked through the pre-dawn streets of Washington DC, driven to get to the morgue to see Jarrett’s body. Except when she got there, he wasn’t there. His body was missing, and unfortunately for Maggie, she was caught on the security video. Thus begins the adventure of Fifty Days.
From Easter to Pentecost (hint, that’s a period of fifty days), we see the followers of Jesus experience a huge change. At first they were grief stricken, certainly, but even after seeing the risen Jesus, I think they must have wondered what on earth was going on. Jesus was alive, but not the same. He came and went: sometimes through locked doors. Life did not go back to the way it had been.
We don’t know much about the weeks that followed, and we never see Mary Magdalene again in scripture, after Easter morning. So that gave me a lot of room to imagine: what would it be like to go from the bewilderment of “what’s Jesus up to now?” and the fear that led to hiding, to the empowerment of Pentecost?
Hebrews 13:8 says Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. So that means whether in a robe, jeans and a tee shirt, or a spacesuit, Jesus and his truth are unfailing, unchanging. But boy, imagining hanging out with his followers at Starbucks made them seem a lot more three-dimensional to me. And to be honest, I find myself a little jealous of Maggie’s relationship with Jarrett—she is completely sold out. Totally confident in his character and power. There is not only love between them, but affection. That makes me look at my relationship with Jesus in a new light.
I also realized on the long journey of completing this novel, that those who got to see Jesus’s miracles in person still had to exercise faith. We know there were those who saw him heal and even raise people from the dead who still didn’t believe. If he lived on Earth today, would we be tempted to cynicism, watching healings on YouTube? What do miracles look like in the age of Photoshop?
If you want to explore these questions with me, check out Fifty Days and connect with me through my social media. There are discussion questions on my website for pondering the themes in the novel in a group. I’d love you to join in, via video chat!
Katie Vorreiter makes her home in the diverse and beautiful San Francisco Bay Area. She works in high tech as a proofreader as well as a freelance fiction copy editor for a small press. While she admits to being a grammarian, she considers herself a fun one.
After studying and later interning in Madrid, Spain, Katie continues to use and improve her Spanish as much possible—especially when a travel opportunity arises. Aside from that, she DIYs at home with her husband in their almost empty nest, travels to Colorado where their two young-adult children study, and snuggles with her pup who promises not to grow up and go away to college.
You can find Katie at katievorreiter.com and sign up for her newsletter for giveaways, sneak peaks, and insider info.