Jesus continued to travel in Galilee, avoiding Judea because the Jewish leaders sought to kill Him. The Feast of tabernacles or feast of booths was at hand in Judea. It commemorated God’s provision in the wilderness; the people lived in booths for a week; it fell about six months after the Passover.
Jesus’s brothers sarcastically told Him to go to the feast if He wished to be well known and to show His works; His brothers also did not believe in Him. Jesus replied that they can go to the feast, but the specific time for Him is not yet. Later on, He went in a way that would not attract undue attention.
The situation in Jerusalem is tense; the leaders are looking for Him and the crowd is discussing Him. There is rising hostility and opposition to Jesus. Publicly, some see Jesus as a ‘good man’ while others think He is leading the people astray. Jesus appears in the middle of the feast (which lasts eight days) to teach openly in the temple. The teaching leaves the Jewish crowd amazed because Jesus was not formally trained as a man of rabbinic letters. This reaction allows Jesus to affirm once more that His teaching has its roots in the One who sent Him. Anyone who really wants to know whether Jesus speaks from God can determine whether He speaks from HIs own authority or from God directly; Jesus does not seek His own glory but He seeks to glorify God.
Jesus challenges the Jews in two steps. They claim to follow Moses and yet seek to kill Him. With respect to the Jewish practice to Sabbath law, circumcision is allowed on the Sabbath because it is an act of faithful relating to God and transcends any law about Sabbath labour, how can one then complain that a person is restored to well-being on the Sabbath? There is no basis for them to claim that Moses’s law had been violated by Jesus when He healed a man on a Sabbath. Jesus shows that His works are true , as is His message. Real judgement has to do with the source of Jesus’s authority – He exhorts the Jews to judge His actions righteously.
Jesus claims that He has not come of His own accord – He was sent by the Father. They do not know the One who sent Him but Jesus does know Him because He comes from Him. This declaration of unity of mission of the Father and the Son splits the crowd; some believe in Him while others seek to arrest Him but they cannot because His “hour” has not yet come. Jesus tells them that He is with them only for a while longer, and then He goes “to Him who sent me”. They will seek Him and they will not find Him and where He is they cannot come.
Jesus is referring to His resurrection-exaltation and also His roots with the Father. The crowd is stumped and puzzled by what He communicated.
On the last day of the Feast, Jesus presents Himself as the One who permanently satisfies spiritual thirst by providing the gift of the Holy Spirit, a theme the other gospels and Acts also highlights. During the Feast of the Tabernacles, the priest would gather water from the pool of Siloam in a golden flagon and bring it, after a procession, to the temple amid sounds of trumpets and rejoicing. There the water was poured into a bowl besides the altar, where a tube would bring it to the altar’s base. This act thanked God for His provision in the past and expressed hope for His future provision.
The symbolism is appropriate: Jesus is the source of the living water that brings an abundance of refreshment – He gives the Spirit to those who believe in Him, but that will happen only after Jesus is glorified, a reference to His approaching death, which is followed by His exaltation back to the One who sent Him. Thus, Jesus associates God’s provision of the Spirit with His mission. It is to Him one must come for such a drink.
Once again, the crowd is divided in its opinion. The chief priests and Pharisees had sent some temple guards to arrest Jesus but they went back without Him and when they were asked why they did not arrest Him, they replied, “No one ever spoke like this man!” The respect given Jesus unnerves the Pharisees, who ask if the guards now are being led astray. The guards’ wavering is troublesome. They should avoid being like the crowd, who do not know the law and are accursed in their ignorance. Nicodemus, showing some courage in the face of all of this pressure, raises the issue of fairness. Is it right to judge without a hearing and an examination of the evidence? Nicodemus’s suggestion earns a sarcastic remark.
Here is a reminder of how our prejudice and distorted understanding can affect our conclusions of the truth; those who claim ‘knowledge’ are being truly ignorant of the truth and the justice of the Jewish leaders’ response must be questioned. Their minds are already made up – they are no longer open to the reality and the truth – instead they cling stubbornly to what they want to believe and boastfully dismiss others as foolish and ignorant. This is a warning to be teachable and always open to God and His Spirit. We need to be like little children in our attitude towards the almighty and transcendent Lord and God of the universe: we are finite, He is infinite; we are the creatures, He is the creator.