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Why is the question “Who is Jesus?” the ultimate question?
• Because Jesus is the ultimate person.
Origen, in the third century, told of a village with a huge statue—so immense that no one could see exactly who it was supposed to represent. Finally, someone miniaturized the statue so the people of the village could see the person it honored. Origen said, “That is what God did in His Son.” God is too big for us to comprehend. But when Jesus came to earth, God was, in a sense, miniaturized. John 1:18 says that Jesus “has made [God] known” (revealed him, explained him).
Jesus has made God known because He is God. “In the beginning was the Word [Jesus], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). God became a man, and His name was Jesus.
• Because the answer determines a person’s eternal destiny.
John 7:1-13
THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES
John 7 and 8 take place during the Feast of Tabernacles.
“But when the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near…” (v. 2).
Six months have passed between chapters 7 and 8. We know this because 6:4 says that “the Jewish Passover was near.” (The Feast of Tabernacles occured six months after Passover.) It will be another six months until Jesus is crucified. (The crucifixion took place during the next Passover.)
The Feast of Tabernacles was celebrated from the 15th to the 21st of Tishri. Since Jewish months were lunar (the first day of each coinciding with the new moon), they cannot be exactly correlated with our months. Tishri generally covers part of September and part of October.
It was also called the Feast of Booths, because the people lived in booths during the festival. It was a time to recall God’s provision for His people during the wilderness wanderings.
“Celebrate this as a festival to the LORD for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month. Live in boths for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in booths so your descendents will know that I had the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God” (Leviticus 23:41-43).
The Feast of Tabernacles was one of three pilgrimmage feasts. (The other two were Passover and Pentecost.) The historian Josephus reports that entire Jewish towns went up to Jerusalem for this festival.
In John 7 and 8, Jesus used two traditional symbols from the Feast of Tabernacles, water and light, to help the people understand who He is and what He offers.
LIVING WATER
The seventh day of the festival became knows as “the Great Day.” The Jews developed special observances and traditions to mark this special day in Israel. The most spectacular of these was the water drawing ceremony.
Imagine a whole parade of worshipers and flutists led by the priest to the Pool of Siloam. The priest has two golden pitchers. One is for wine. He fills the other with water from the pool. As the flutes continue to play, a choir chants Psalm 118. The whole procession heads back to the temple through the Water Gate. A trumpet sounds as the priest enters the temple area. He approaches the altar where two silver basins are waiting. He pours wine into one of the basins as a drink offering to the Lord and water from the Pool of Siloam into the other. The whole ceremony was such a joyful occasion that one of the ancient rabbis wrote: “Anyone who has not seen this water ceremony has never seen rejoicing in his life.” The purpose of the ceremony was to thank God for His blessings and to ask Him to provide rain for the crops in the coming year.
The people would have been very aware of their need for water during the Feast of Tabernacles because late autumn was a period of drought in Israel. Cisterns were low. Springs were becoming weak. The hills were barren and parched.
“On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him’” (7:37-38).
THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD
At the end of the first day of the Feast, the temple was gloriously illuminated. Four enormous golden candelabras stood within the temple court. Each of the candelabras is said to have been 50 cubits high. A cubit is somewhere between 18 and 22 inches, so the candelabras would have been about 75 feet tall! Each candelabra had four branches, and at the top of each branch there was a large bowl. Four young men bearing 10 gallon pitchers of oil would climb ladders to fill the four golden bowls on each candelabra. And then the oil in those bowls was ignited.
Picture 16 beautiful blazes leaping toward the sky from these golden lamps. The temple was on a hill above the rest of Jerusalem, so the glorious glow was a sight for the entire city to see. Keep in mind that the Feast of Tabernacles coincided with the autumn equinox, when day and night are equal length and from which point the nights lengthen and the days become shorter. On that night, the darkness was overcome by the brilliance of the light from the candelabras.
The light was to remind the people of how God’s glory had once filled His temple. But in the person of Jesus, God’s glory was once again present in the temple.
“When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life’” (8:12).
[Much of the above information about the Feast of Tabernalces was taken from www.jewsforjesus.org/publications.]
During the Feast of Tabernalces, Jesus declared that He is the giver of living water and the light of the world. He came to earth to satisfy our thirsty souls and show the way to eternal life.
THE ONE WHO UNDERSTANDS
1. Jesus knows what it’s like to be HUMAN.
The fact that Jesus could go to the Feast “in secret” (v. 10) tell us that He looked like an ordinary Jewish man and could easily blend into a crowd. No physical description of Jesus is given in the Gospels. He probably had a light brown complexion, black hair, brown eyes, and a beard (cf. Isaiah 50:6).
Jesus didn’t live a sheltered life.
He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not (Isaiah 53:2-3).
The Hebrew word for “sorrows” is used of both physical and mental pain.
2. Jesus knows what it’s like to be MISUNDERSTOOD.
“Jesus brothers said to him, ‘You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.’ For even his own brothers did not believe in him.” Therefore Jesus told them, ‘The right time for me has not yet come; for you any time is right’” (vv. 3-6).
Jesus’ brothers did not believe in Him until after the resurrection (cf. Acts 1:14; 1 Corinthians 15:7). (The NT books of James and Jude were written by two of His brothers.)
“When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, ‘He is out of his mind’” (Mark 3:21).
Jesus’ brothers misunderstood His mission. They wanted Jesus to go to Jerusalem and regain the disciples He had lost (cf. 6:66). Perhaps they felt that Jesus had dishonored their family.
Their request is reminiscent of Mary’s request in chapter 2: “They have no more wine” (v. 3). The similarities: (1) both requests were met with an initial refusal; (2) the reason for the refusal was the same in both instances: Jesus “time” or hour had not yet come (2:5; 7:6); (3) Jesus ended up doing what was requested, after He had established that He acts for different reasons from those for which the request was originally made.
Many a person faced with cruel opposition in public life has been sustained by the faithfulness of his family. Jesus was denied this comfort.
3. Jesus knows what it’s like to be HATED.
“The world cannot hate you, but it hates me becaue I testify that what it does is evil” (v. 7).
At the end of chapter 8, the people will pick up stones to stone Him (cf. 8:59).
4. Jesus knows what it’s like to be LONELY.
“‘You go to the Feast. I am not yet going up to this Feast, because for me the right time has not yet come.’ Having said this, he stayed in Galilee. However, after his brothers had left for the Feast, he went also, not publicly, but in secret” (vv. 8-10).
People usually traveled to the feasts in large groups. But Jesus traveled alone.
After chapter 6, Jesus becomes more and more isolated from others, until finally even His twelve disciples desert Him when He is arrested.
5. Jesus knows what it’s like to be FALSELY ACCUSED.
“Now at the Feast the Jews were watching for him and asking, ‘Where is that man?’ Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, ‘He is a good man.’ Others replied, ‘No, he deceives the people.’ But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the Jews” (vv. 11-13).
6. Jesus knows what it’s like to SUFFER.
“…because the Jews were waiting to take his life” (v. 1b).
OUR SYMPATHETIC SAVIOR
These are just a few of the hardships Jesus faced in His life.
Are you facing difficulty in your life? Jesus says to you, “I know what you’re going through, and I want to help you.”
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone thorugh the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need (Hebrews 4:14-16).
THE ULTIMATE QUESTION: Who Is Jesus?
Part 1: The One Who Understands
John 7:1-13
THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES
John 7 and 8 take place during the Feast of Tabernacles.
“But when the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles we near…” (v. 2).
In John 7 and 8, Jesus used two traditional symbols from the Feast of Tabernacles, water and light, to help the people understand who He is and what He offers.
• “On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him’” (7:37-38).
• “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life’” (8:12).
Jesus is the giver of living water and the light of the world. He came to earth to satisfy our thirsty souls and show the way to eternal life.
THE ONE WHO UNDERSTANDS
1. Jesus knows what it’s like to be ____________________.
2. Jesus knows what it’s like to be ____________________ (vv. 3-6).
3. Jesus knows what it’s like to be ____________________ (v. 7).
4. Jesus knows what it’s like to be ____________________ (vv. 8-10).
5. Jesus knows what it’s like to be ____________________________ (vv. 11-13).
6. Jesus knows what it’s like to __________________ (v. 1).
OUR SYMPATHETIC SAVIOR
Are you facing difficulty in your life? Jesus says to you, “I know what you’re going through, and I want to help you.”
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone thorugh the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:14-16).
