Thursday, October 29 –
As we
near the end of the workweek, we will once again continue our reading in the
Gospel of John. Today’s reading is from
John 7:1 – 39. After you have finished
your reading, please come back.
The Feast of Tabernacles is also called Sukkot and is a festive event in
the Jewish calendar. It’s in the Autumn
of the year, right after the holy day of Sacrifice called Yom Kippur. During this week-long celebration, the Jews
erect temporary shelters made of palm branches and “camp out” to remind
themselves of God’s provision as they wandered in the wilderness for forty
years. It is a joyful event – think
Thanksgiving for us. The prelude to this
chapter is in 7:1 – 13, which I will largely omit re-writing, with exception of
this:
“So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your
disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in
secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to
the world.” For not even his brothers believed in him…But after his
brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in
private. The Jews were looking for him at the feast, and saying, “Where
is he?” (7:3-5, 10-11).
Jesus’
family was not convinced of his claims.
These brothers were obviously younger than Jesus, and had grown up
seeing him as their older brother, but not as the Messiah. At first, Jesus ignores their pleas, telling
them “it’s not my time” (7:6).
Why did he put them off, and then delay?
My brother Ed’s observations are good: “When Jesus responds to his
brothers, he tells them now is not the ‘right time’ going up to Jerusalem, but
then in verse 10 he goes. This feast started on a Sabbath Saturday and ended on
the following Sabbath Saturday. The crowd was big during the first Saturday
then dwindled a bit after this day settling in the countryside around Jerusalem
in their make-shift booths (not everyone did this). Jesus, knowing he was a
controversial figure, purposely avoids this first Sabbath Saturday so as to not
spoil the celebratory part of this feast.
In other words, this first ‘weekend’ was not the right time for him to
go, thus he puts off for a few days the journey to Jerusalem”. [1]
After
they leave, he quietly goes also, entering into Jerusalem alone in order to not
be noticed. It is a few days into the feast.
“About the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and
began teaching. The Jews, therefore, marveled, saying, “How is it that this
man has learning when he has never studied?” So Jesus answered them, “My
teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone’s will is to do
God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am
speaking on my own authority.
(7:14-17). This now begins a long
dialog in which Jesus conveys the truth in a rather straightforward way to
explain his character and his purposes as God’s messenger. He begins with the character of his teaching saying
that he’s not making this up as if he were some wise person. The teaching is what he receives from the
Father, the one who sent him. The
challenge to his listeners is simple – if they want to know God’s will, they
will discover that what Jesus is teaching is consistent with everything God has
revealed before. The problem was that
the Jewish leaders had their minds made up that Jesus was breaking their laws
(e.g., healing on the Sabbath). What
they didn’t stop to realize is whether their rules were consistent with God’s
revelation. He ends the first part of
this teaching in 7:18 – 24, with that rebuke in mind – “If on the Sabbath a
man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you
angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well? Do
not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment” (7:23-24).
Now
the argument shifts from the right use of the Sabbath to Jesus’ own credentials
(7:25 – 31). There was a mixed confusion
about who Jesus was. Some said, “if
the authorities know who he is and he’s here now, why don’t they arrest him?”
(7:26). They saw Jesus as a normal Jew
who they knew and because they knew him, he could not be the Messiah. Others were convinced and saw Jesus as a miraculous
man who just might be the Messiah (7:31).
Jesus does not leave them to think in the middle: “I know him, for I
come from him, and he sent me” (7:29).
Nothing has really changed over two millennials of time. Jesus is for some a nice guy who did nice
things, a good moral example, and teacher.
For those who believe, Jesus is the Son of God, the Savior of the world,
and especially our own soul. At this point, the Pharisees and chief Priests get
involved. They send officers to arrest
Jesus (7:32), while Jesus keeps on teaching. “Jesus then said, “I will be
with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. You
will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come” (7:33-34). They assumed Jesus meant he would leave
Israel and go to Jews in other parts of the Roman empire – the Dispersion.
Now we
come to the main point in John’s narrative about this festival visit. One of the major religious rituals that
happened during the Feast of Tabernacles had to do with the celebration of
remembrance of God providing water for the children of Israel during their
wilderness wanderings. On the last day
of the Feast, the Chief Priest carried water in a container from a source near
the Temple (pool of Siloam?) through the water gate and into the Temple
proper. The worshipers sang from Isaiah
12, “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid;
for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.”
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you
will say in that day: “Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name, make known
his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted” (12:2-4). God had provided them with water in the
wilderness over and over again (see Exodus 17:1-6).
Whether
it was later, in the Temple area, or while the Priest carried the container of
water passed them, John records: “On the last day of the feast, the great
day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and
drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his
heart will flow rivers of living water.’ Now this he said about the
Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit
had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (7:37-39). J
John
is writing this fifty years later, and yet his memory of Jesus’ words is not
diminished. Like the words spoken to the
woman at the well, Jesus is offering something much greater, more permanent
than a yearly religious ritual. Jesus’
life was lived for one purpose – to glorify the Father, demonstrating that
God’s love, mercy, and grace were available for all who would receive him. Later Jesus would give his life as a ransom
for our sins, and in his resurrection and ascension the Spirit would be poured
out upon his people – the church – to those who put their faith in Christ as
Savior and Lord.
Peace
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