Life of Christ 99
Yesterday,
at the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus became involved in a give and take
conversation with the crowd around Him at the Temple. Today in the life of
Christ, our story (John 7.37-53) finds Him an unexpected and very public
participant in the great closing ceremonies of this feast.
This
feast was designed to remind Israel of both her past and her future. When Moses
established this feast, in Leviticus 23, he clearly meant it as a memorial of
the time when Israel left Egypt and spent years wandering through the
Wilderness. The accommodations then were tents or temporary structures, and
water for such a large group was very hard to obtain in the Wilderness, and
eventually had to be provided by the Rock which followed them. Thus, dwelling
in temporary booths or tabernacles during the feast brought this to mind, and
using water as a central element of the closing ceremony was very applicable.
By the
same token, the feast was meant to point toward a future time period, yet to
happen, in which Israel would once again be gathered out of Egypt, a figure of
the world, and returned to the Promised Land. (As a dispensational premillennialist,
I believe the events described in this paragraph are still yet to come, and are
part of God's literal promises to Israel that He will fulfill in the end
times.) The prophets Zechariah and Ezekiel both mention that on this great
occasion a river of water would flow out of Jerusalem that would bring life to
the world. This, though an actual river, was also representative of the Holy
Spirit, Who, according to the prophet Joel, would likewise be poured out on the
world at that time. Thus, a gathering of Israel from temporary abodes, and the
usage of water as a central element in the closing ceremony was very
applicable.
'In the
last day, that great day of the feast' (John 7.37) the day opened well before
sunrise. A solemn procession, composed of 446 priests, traveled from the Temple
to the Pool of Siloam. Accompanied by music, the priest who led held an empty
golden pitcher that would be used to carry water from the Pool back to the
Temple. The route along which the priestly procession marched would be lined by
thousands of people holding or waving the kinds of branches that were used to
build the temporary booths which so conspicuously marked this feast. This
procession, traveling through the Water Gate, which was so named for this, was
carefully timed to arrive back at the Temple precisely at sunrise. Previously
in this blog I discussed the sunrise ceremony which took place at the Temple
each day (see Life of Christ 4). When the priest in the pinnacle announced
the sunrise by the blast of his silver trumpet, and the morning sacrifice was
offered, the High Priest would lift the golden pitcher high for all to see, and
slowly pour out the water at the base of the Brazen Altar. Immediately after
this came a series of chants in the call and response style composed of various
psalms.
Edersheim
paints the scene for us:
We can have little
difficulty in determining at what part of the services of "the last, the
Great Day of the Feast," Jesus stood and cried, "If any one thirst,
let him come unto Me and drink!" It must have been with special reference
to the ceremony of the outpouring of the water, which, as we have seen, was
considered the central part of the service. Moreover, all would understand that
His words must refer to the Holy Spirit, since the rite was universally
regarded as symbolical of His outpouring. The forthpouring of the water was
immediately followed by the chanting of the Hallel. But after that there must
have been a short pause to prepare for the festive sacrifices (the Musaph). It was
then, immediately after the people had responded by repeating those lines...and
then silence had fallen upon them - that there rose, so loud as to be heard
throughout the Temple, the Voice of Jesus. He interrupted not the services, for
they had for the moment ceased: He interpreted, and He fulfilled them.
In
essence, then, Jesus, before a hushed crowd of tens of thousands of people,
during a pause in the elaborate Temple service, publicly, forcefully, and
loudly proclaims, 'If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that
believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water' (John 7.37-38). In so doing He pronounces Himself as being
exactly what they need, He proclaims that Israel should believe on Him, and
that if they do they will receive the Holy Spirit (John 7.39). There is no
other clearer, more public claim by Jesus Christ than this one.
The
reaction of the assembled thousands is immediate and varied. Some said He was a
prophet. Some said He was the Messiah. Others vociferously disagreed with these
conclusions because He was from Galilee, and neither prophets nor the Messiah
came from Galilee. In fact, the Messiah came from the seed of David and the
town of Bethlehem (John 7.42).
While
the majority of the crowd suddenly began to argue among themselves the more
zealous among them emotionally and immediately responded with an attempt on His
life. Jesus, of course, slips away in the confusion because this is neither the
time nor the place in which He needed to die.
With
Jesus gone, the Sanhedrin tries to figure out how Temple security could have
let this whole disaster happen. How could they have allowed Jesus to publicly
ruin the closing ceremony of the Feast of Tabernacles? Even worse, how could they
have then allowed Him to get away scot free? Their answer is priceless: 'The
officers answered, Never man spake like this man' (John 7.46).
In the
ensuing palaver amongst the Sanhedrin Nicodemus, a secret believer in Jesus for
years now, since Christ won him to Himself on His first visit to Jerusalem as the Messiah back in John 3, discreetly
tries to stick up for Him. He is shouted down, however, with the same objection
that was raised by so many in the crowd, that of Jesus' Galilean background
(John 7.52). Thus, with such a feeble shield, Israel's religious leadership
sought to turn away all of Jesus' astounding miracles, powerful preaching,
sinless life, and numbers of directly fulfilled prophecies.
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