[Life of Christ] [Previous] [Next]
The centrality of the Cross in His life now became clearer. He had made implicit references to it, under the figure of a temple and a serpent; and more explicitly when He promised in His glory after His Resurrection to allow men to live by His Body and Blood.
Here at the most popular feast of the year, the Feast of Tabernacles, two things happened: first, He directed attention to the fullness of the Divine Presence, Truth, and Soul Refreshment dwelling in Himself. There was no moral, no belief, no slaking of thirst, apart from Him. He smashed every illusion of His auditors that He was giving a morality apart from Himself, a doctrine distinct from His Person, or that a higher ethic could be reconciled with a lowered sense of the living God. He let them know that He would not be a pious “extra,” an addendum, or a spiritual luxury to those who would quote His words. Buddha might be left out of Buddhism; but He could no more be left out of what He taught or wrought than a ray of sunshine could exist without the sun. To the vast multitudes present at this eight-day ceremony, He explained the meaning of the ceremony: the tabernacle, the water, the lights. He made each center in His Person, as He affirmed Himself one with God, one with all illumination of mind, and one with all peace of thirsty souls. The identification was complete: there was no God but the God He revealed, no Truth but His Person, no contentment but in Him.
The second effect of His Words was violence, resentment, and a resolve to put Him to death. If He had spoken words, and had not claimed to be the Word; if He had given truths separable from His Person and solace of soul distinct from His Divine Presence, He might have been less propelled to His Cross. Hatred against Him on the part of the temple authorities made them twice try to arrest Him: the first time was at this Feast of Tabernacles; the second was in the Garden of Gethsemane. In neither instance did the police have the power to seize Him; not at this Feast, because Our Lord “arrested” them by His Presence. Not even in the Garden was the power to seize given until after they had been made powerless. At this Feast, as He said, “His Hour was not yet come” in the Garden, He would say: “This is your hour.” Here He said that He was the Light of the World; then He would tell them that it was the “Hour of Darkness.” In both instances, He could not be taken until He voluntarily surrendered; in both instances, the intent of men in the face of Divine Goodness was to crucify, for deeds of darkness cannot stand the light. The second arrest led directly to the Cross, so this first arrest was the rehearsal for it. The Shadow of the Cross was falling everywhere—over the tents, over the fountains, the candelabra, and even over the people at the Feast of Tabernacles.
This greatest of all Feasts was a commemoration of the Flight from Egypt, when God guided the people of Israel through the desert by means of a cloud during the day and a pillar of fire by night. As pilgrims during that forty years of wandering, the Jews lived in tents or booths which could be easily pitched and silently rolled away. In the midst of the tents was the Tabernacle symbolizing the presence of God.
This Feast, mentioned in both Leviticus and Exodus, was celebrated at the time of the ingathering of the harvest. Though there was thanksgiving for the harvest, this Feast looked to the future, and for that reason was sometimes called the “Hour of Outpouring,” symbolic of the Spirit of God which would be poured out on the people.
When this eight-day feast began, Our Lord was in Galilee where He had retired for six months because of the opposition of the temple leaders after the cleansing of the temple and the miracle at Bethsaida. His enemies were
More determined than ever to make away with Him,
That He not only broke the Sabbath,
But spoke of God as His own Father,
Thereby treating Himself as equal to God.
JOHN 5:18
As the time of the Feast drew near, He began to be heckled by His relatives and associates because He was not publicity-minded. Why work miracles in Galilee for its fishing villages and ignorant countryfolk, when the big city, Jerusalem, would give Him so much renown? Furthermore, great crowds would be gathering at the feast, and He could be known by everyone, if He would only do something spectacular. Retirement is compromising.
Nobody is content to act in secret,
If He wishes to make Himself known at large;
If Thou must needs act thus,
Show Thyself before the world.
JOHN 7:4
Our Lord answered them:
My opportunity has not come yet.
Your opportunity is always ready to hand;
The world cannot be expected to hate you,
But it does hate Me,
Because I denounce it for its evil doings.
JOHN 7:5, 6
His time, or His Hour for full revelation, had not yet come. Intensifying the contrast between Himself and the world, He told them with a certain irony that their words, attitudes, and judgments were not sufficiently out of harmony with the world to provoke the world’s hatred. But it was different with Him: His words and His life had already provoked the hatred of the world. If He were to go up to Jerusalem, it would be as the Messias and Son of God, and would therefore provoke enmity; but if they went up as pious pilgrims, it would be only to partake in a national celebration. When Our Lord talked of the world, He meant it as made up of unregenerate men who would not accept His grace. Those brethren of His who would have loved the limelight and the notoriety were part of that un-Crossed world, violating none of the precepts nor its spirit.
He was conscious of His Cross, while they were not conscious of it. Not until there was a command from the Heavenly Father would He go up to the city. Satan before had already offered Him all the kingdoms of the world and He had refused them. Jerusalem would not be enough to tempt Him to display His miracles to those who would not believe in His Person. Those who suggested the glare of popularity could go up and they would find plenty of unbelievers like themselves; they were floating with the stream, like dead logs. Note that Our Blessed Lord did not say that He would not go up to the Feast of the Tabernacles. What He said was that He would not go up at that moment. The worldly-minded therefore left Him for the feast.
He later decided to go up, not as a public Person, but in secret or incognito. How great the contrast between His first visit, when He had appeared suddenly in the temple and cast out the money-changers, and His going up now as an anonymous pilgrim! But everyone was curious about Him. He immediately became the source of division. Those who were attracted kept quiet for fear of the temple authorities, who had already plotted His death.
The Jews were looking for Him at the feast,
And asked, Where can He be?
Among the crowd, there was much whispering about Him
Some said, He is a good man;
No, said others, He leads the multitude astray.
But, for fear of the Jews,
Nobody dared to speak of Him openly.
JOHN 7:11–11
The Feast of Tabernacles, as it was said, commemorated the place where the Divine Presence dwelt among the Jews during their long pilgrimage from Egypt. And now here in the midst of the crowds stood the Divine Presence in Person.
And the Word was made flesh
And came to dwell amongst us.
JOHN 1:14
The Greek word “to dwell” in the Gospel could equally be translated “to be tabernacled” and is thus suggestive of the Tabernacle placed in the center of the tents of the Israelites. Christ was the Tabernacle of God among men.
The Jewish Targums often substituted for the phrase “glory of the Lord,” the word Sheekinah or “dwelling,” thus indicating God’s intimate sojourn with His people. Those at the feast remembered that Our Lord had called Himself the “Temple of God,” and prophesied that it would be destroyed but on the third day would rise again. That they intended to destroy this Temple of the Tabernacled God among them was evident, as some of the people of the city asked:
Is not this The Man they design to put to death?
JOHN 7:26
The procession celebrating the feast started from the temple. When it reached the pool of Siloe, the priest filled his golden pitcher from its waters and returned to the temple, where the water was poured out with a burst of trumpets amidst the “alleluias” of the people. It was so much associated with joy that a common saying declared that “He who has not seen the rejoicing at the pouring of the water from the pool of Siloe has never seen rejoicing in his life.” The ceremony was not only an acknowledgment of the mercy of God in watering their fields, but also a commemoration of the miraculous supply of water in the desert, which came from the rock. At the moment the water was offered by the priest in the temple the words of Isaias were quoted:
So rejoicing, you shall drink deep
From the fountain of deliverance.
ISAIAS 12:3
Our Lord, Who said that He had come not to destroy the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill them, now spoke out to affirm that He was the substance of which these rites were but dim shadows. His voice rang out above the pouring of the waters as He said:
If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me,
And drink; yes if a man believe in Me,
As the Scripture says, Fountains of living water
Shall flow from His bosom.
JOHN 7:37, 38
He was bidding them recall their Scriptures. In Exodus God commanded Moses to smite the rock, promising that out of it water would come from which the people would drink. All through the Old Testament, water was the symbol of spiritual blessing, particularly in Ezechiel, where a mighty fountain is described as flowing from the Tabernacle or temple, healing all nations. The Fountain of Life for thirsty souls, He now declared, is His own Person. He did not say, “Come to waters,” but “Come to Me.” The Talmud asked about this ceremony, “Why is the name of it called the drawing of the water?” Because of the pouring-out of the Holy Spirit, according to what is said, “With joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation.” St. John explained in the same way the words of Our Lord:
He was speaking here of the Spirit,
Which was to be received by those
Who learned to believe in Him;
The Spirit which had not yet been given to men,
Because Jesus had not yet been raised to glory.
JOHN 7:39
The satisfaction of the thirst of the human heart was joined up with the work of the Spirit. Our Lord was looking forward to the production of a blessing conditioned by what had not yet happened, namely, His triumph over death and His Ascension into heaven. This gift of the Spirit would come to men not as a magical outpouring, but as something intrinsic to His Redemptive Act and their faith in Him. The physical presence of Christ on earth in His yet unfulfilled mandate of the Father to be a ransom for sin excluded the realization of His Presence in souls until after His glory and the sending of His Spirit.
Another ritual connected with the Feast of the Tabernacles was in reference to the pillar of fire which had guided the Israelites by night. To celebrate the light which God was to them, two immense candelabra were lighted in the Court of the Women; and according to some Rabbinic testimony, they illumined all Jerusalem. The people had looked forward also to Messianic times when God would kindle for them a great light among the nations. The light also signified the glory of God which was present in the temple.
When Our Blessed Lord was a Babe held by Simeon, the old man had pronounced over Him these words:
This is the Light which shall give revelation
To the Gentiles,
This is the glory of thy people Israel.
LUKE 2:32
Now as a grown man walking in the full glare of these lights, He proclaimed:
I am the Light of the World,
He who follows Me can never walk in darkness;
He will possess the Light which is Life.
JOHN 8:12
Here He made a universal claim such as had been prophesied by Isaias that He would be the Light of all peoples and all nations. Not everyone would follow the Light; some would prefer to walk in darkness and would therefore hate the light. He Who was standing in the temple in which the lights were gradually dimming proclaimed Himself the Light of the World. Previously, He had called Himself the Temple; now He affirmed that He is the Glory and the Light of that Temple. He was declaring Himself more necessary for the life of souls than the light of the sun is for the life of our body. It was not His doctrine, nor His law, nor His commandments, nor His teaching, that constituted this light; it was His Person.
In the midst of Our Lord’s affirmation that He was the Messias, there began some of the judicial and civil measures which were later to culminate in the Crucifixion. The Pharisees sent police officers to arrest Our Lord. Before they arrived, Our Lord made another reference to His death:
For a little while I am still with you,
And then I am to go back to Him Who sent Me.
You will look for Me,
But you will not be able to find Me;
You cannot reach the place where I am.
JOHN 7:33–33
He foresaw all that would happen. Six months remained until the Passover; there was only a little time left before He would fulfill the reason of His coming. They were already planning His death, but their plans would be unsuccessful until He delivered Himself voluntarily into their hands. Then the door would be shut and the time of their visitation would have passed. The separation between them and Him would not be distance but unlikeness in mind and heart, which is the greatest of all distance.
The police who were ordered to arrest Him returned to the chief priests and Pharisees empty-handed. The officials asked them:
“Why have you not brought Him here?”
The of icers answered,
“Nobody has ever spoken as this Man speaks.”
And the Pharisees answered,
“Have you, too, let yourselves be deceived?
Have any of the rulers come to believe in Him yet,
Or of the Pharisees?
As for these common folk who have no knowledge of the law
A curse is on them.”
JOHN 7:46–46
The temple officials had contempt for the people; their assumption was that no vulgar person is pious. The very fact that the policemen had an overwhelming impression made upon them and yielded themselves to His fountains of benediction was an indication of the power He had over men of good will. The vocation of a policeman was sanctified that day when these officers refused to arrest the Savior.
Plutarch, speaking of the extraordinary eloquence of Mark Antony, says that when soldiers were sent to kill the orator, he pleaded for his life with such eloquent language that he disarmed them and melted them to tears. But these officers were vanquished not by the force of arguments from a man pleading for his life, but on hearing one of His ordinary discourses which was not directed to them at all. The police were fully armed; the Preacher had no weapons, and yet they could not arrest Him. Civil authorities do not always employ the most intellectual or spiritual men to carry out such duties, and yet those sent were affected by His eloquence and proved to be the more intelligent. The Pharisees in their anger told the police that the intellectual people did not believe in Him. Since none of the Pharisees believed in Him, nor had been impressed with His message, the police could have had, therefore, no reason for being so affected.
There would be another moment in the Garden of Gethsemane when officers would be so impressed with Our Blessed Lord that they would cast themselves prone on the ground, when He said that He was Jesus of Nazareth. On that night, they would have their way because His Hour had come. But for the present they were powerless.
The story of the Feast of Tabernacles ends with the words, “His Hour has not yet come.” A particular hour existed for everything He had to do; even His birth is described as the “fullness of time.” So His Cross had its appointed hour. Every orb that rolls through the immensity of space is bound to reach a certain point at its own hour. Man’s decrees and proposals often fail, but it is otherwise with the designs of the Almighty. The unity of His life was not in His scattered deeds and parables and utterances, but in Its consummation. Bethlehem was the foundation of Calvary and His glory. The stairs mount upward from the stable, for even then “there was no room” for Him; the “contradiction” prophesied by Simeon was another step; the Feast of the Tabernacles, another. He knew every step of the way, for He was not merely a man doing his best before God, but God doing His best for man, through the Love revealed in the sacrifice of Himself.
[Life of Christ] [Previous] [Next]
No comments:
Post a Comment