After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. 2
Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand. 3 So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. 4
For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” 5
For not even his brothers believed in him. 6 Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. 7
The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.8
You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” 9
After saying this, he remained in Galilee. 10 But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private. 11
The Jews were looking for him at the feast, and saying, “Where is he?” 12
And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, “He is a good man,” others said, “No, he is leading the people astray.” 13
Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him. 14 About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching.
Chapter 7 of John opens after approximately a 6-month break from where we ended chapter 6. The events of the previous chapter took place about the time of the Passover in the spring.
The events of this chapter, centering around the feast of Tabernacles, which is in the fall. The feast of Tabernacles is fascinating and I want to walk you through some of its components that explain what Jesus is doing and saying.
The seventh month in the Jewish calendar was remarkable for the number of ordinances that the Lord had commanded at that time. On the first day of the 7th month, there was
the feast of trumpets, on the 10th day, the Jews would celebrate the Day of Atonement and on the fifteenth day began the feast of Tabernacles, which lasted for a whole week. The Feast of Tabernacles was an occasion of special rejoicing. All of the
people were to live in booths or tabernacles, tents really, made of branches, for seven days. They did this in remembrance of the fact that this is the way they lived when they came out of Egypt making their way to the Promised Land. They were to live like
this, a type of camping for one week and to rejoice before the Lord for all that He had done in bringing them to the land that He had promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It was a feast at which more sacrifices were offered than at any of the other Jewish
feasts. (Numbers 29) It as a feast at which, once every seven years, the law was publicly read to the whole people.
Tabernacles was also a feast at which water was drawn from the pool of Siloam every day and with great reverence and solemnity poured upon the altar in memory of God’s providing water
for them in the desert. When they poured out the water, they would sing the 12th chapter of Isaiah:
*O Lord I praise you
Though you were angry with me
Your anger is turned away and you comfort me.
Behold, God is my salvation,
I will trust and not be afraid;
For Yah, the Lord, is my strength and song;
He also has become my salvation.
Therefore, with joy you will draw water
From the wells of salvation…
Praise the Lord, call upon His name
Declare his deeds among the peoples
Make mention that his name is exalted.
Sing to the Lord,
For he has done excellent things.
This is known in all the earth.
Cry out and shout, O inhabitant of Zion,
For great is the Holy One of Israel in your midst!
Tabernacles was a feast, which followed close on the great Day of Atonement, when the priest would lay his hands on a goat, transferring all the sins of the people on to that scapegoat
and then another priest would march the goat away from the people while they stood watching, until they couldn’t see the goat any longer. Now, what do you think that was picturing? The Lord taking our sins far, far away from us, through the one He provided.
You would stand there and watch your sins, now placed on the substitute, being taken further and further away from you.
Then the High Priest would go into the holy of holies, and only this one time in the year, to carry the people as their representative before God’s face…at Tabernacles all of this was
fresh in the minds of the people. The Jewish historian Josephus calls the feast of tabernacles, ‘the holiest feast of the Jews’. It was a Rabbinical saying, “the man who has not seen these festivities does not know what a Jubilee is.”
It is too easy for us to look at this feast and simply say that the feast was merely a pointing backwards to what God had done for his people in the past…just a looking back. That is
true, but I think we miss seeing the depth of the meaning of all of this and miss seeing what Christ is doing at this feast and why. Jesus uses this feast for a very specific purpose. He points not only to the work of God in the past, but to its fuller
significance, namely to himself, to his kingdom and to the consummation.
I think that a number of old commentators help us greatly when they speak to the three main feasts of the Jews this way: The Passover was the type of Christ crucified: The feast of Pentecost
the picture of Christ sending forth the Holy Spirit. While the third and greatest feast, that of Tabernacles, represents Christ’s coming again to gather His people in one joyous company and celebration of his bringing us home. It is this forward-looking aspect
of the feast that is so important. Tabernacles was the last in the order of the feasts and it formed the completion of the annual routine of the Mosaic ordinances. In a sense it was the consummation, it was that which concluded the feasts. It was kept at the
end of harvest, when the year’s work was done and the fruit was all gathered in. It was an occasion of special rejoicing and festivity, more so than any of the other feasts.
During the wilderness God lived in a tent, the Tabernacle was the place of God’s presence. God lived in a tent because His people lived in tents. That is why John says in chapter one
of his gospel that the Word, who is Jesus, tabernacled among us. He came in the weakness of the flesh because those he loves are in the weakness of the flesh. So, during the feast of Tabernacles the people celebrated all of this by dwelling in booths. It would
be important for the Jews to continue this celebration even once they were in the permanent Promised Land, because the land was not the end either, as Hebrews makes clear.
They were not to become too comfortable with the earthly possession or else they might forget that their earthly home was also temporary…they had a home they were to look forward to and
that they were to live for, and it was to be celebrated, just as we do today. The booths and the feast were to make this point over and over again.
Can you imagine what might happen if God’s people became too comfortable with this world, with the cultures of men…what might happen if they forgot that they were to live for a kingdom
that is eternal, for a life that is in heaven, for a King who is yet unseen? I mean…what would happen if they forget they were not of this world, that they were just passing through, that their allegiance was to another world, another culture…can you imagine
the decay that might set in if they were to just dive into the cultures around them and set their hearts on worldly things instead of setting their hearts upon their true home? Can you imagine what might happen if they forgot all of this? If they looked, acted,
lived no differently than those who didn’t know the Lord? Who are we talking about, ancient Israel or…contemporary Christianity?
The people of Jesus’ day had become worldly. They still did the religious things, they still kept the feast, it was all so much fun, so quaint, still sang the songs, still ate the good
food, you know, kind of like most folks do at Christmas, all the celebrations with very little sense as to the meaning of it all, and worse yet, little concern as to what it was supposed to mean.
To be continued…
Prayer: Father, help me to see Christ in all the sacraments of Your people. I also pray that I would not simply go through the motions of living my faith, hearing Your word, and participating
in the life of the church, but would by faith enter into the reality of intimacy with my Lord and Savior, in Jesus name, Amen.
Hymn: All Creatures of Our God and King
