Notes for Bible 101 for February 26, 2007—John 7-8:11

Review: In John 6, Jesus fed many thousands of people with a boy’s lunch, and in the discussion that followed, we heard Jesus say “I am the bread of life.” John’s focus on Jesus as the life creator and life giver is once again emphasized in this miracle and its aftermath. Jesus goes even further: not only is he the bread of life, but he will offer his body as a sacrifice for sins: “This bread is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world” (Jn. 6:51). When we, in Holy Eucharist, receive the body and blood of Christ, we are receiving his life. And in John 10, we’ll hear Jesus say “I am come that they may have life, and have it to the full” or as older translations say “have life more abundantly.” Jesus gives us life when we believe that he is our Savior—abundant life in the present, and eternal life in the future. But as we know from reading Matthew, Mark and Luke, not everyone believed what Jesus said about himself, his purpose for coming, or the promise of life he offered. In fact, John 6 ends by saying “From that time, many of his disciples [not the 12] turned back and no longer followed him” (v. 66). Not even his brothers believed.

John 7: In John 2, following the miracle at the wedding in Cana, we’re told that Jesus left Cana to spend time with his mother, brothers and disciples in Capernaum (v. 12). Now in John 7, we read that Jesus’ brothers sarcastically suggest that he should leave Galilee for Judea and the Feast of Tabernacles so that many more will see his miracles. And the Apostle John adds: “For even his own brothers did not believe in him.” Later they will come to believe he is the Messiah and his brother James becomes the leader of the church in Jerusalem, and later writes an epistle with practical guidance for living the Christian life. (Mark 6:3 lists Jesus’ brothers by name: James, Joseph, Judas and Simon, and adds that he also had sisters, though they are unnamed). Jesus told them that the time hadn’t come for him to be revealed publicly as the Messiah. He’d mentioned this “right time” to Mary when she told him about the wine situation at the wedding feast (Jn. 2:4). The “right time” was God’s time; Jesus needed the weeks and months of fellowship with his disciples, of teaching in the Synagogues and to the crowds in various cities, of performing the “signs” as John calls the miracles, each one of these activities adding to his credentials as the Son of God, the Messiah. We know from John 6:15 that the huge crowds, in their enthusiasm following miracles, wanted to “make Jesus king by force,” and Jesus was certainly not ready for that to happen. In fact, it was not the Father’s plan that he should be king in Jerusalem, a military and political leader to overthrow the Romans. Jesus would become a different kind of king—king in the hearts of believers, and at his second coming, a literal king on earth. But at the time John is following him as a disciple, Jesus will not be revealed as the king the people want.

John 7:6: Jesus continues his reply to his brothers: “The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil.” Jesus, the light, shines into hearts and lives, revealing the innermost thoughts and motives. People are uncomfortable with this. The religious leaders certainly find Jesus’ probing and preaching comes too close to their private motives; they like the status quo; Jesus is presenting new “grace and truth” that would mean all their traditions added to the law would be set aside. Nevertheless, Jesus urges his brothers to go to the feast, and later, he goes secretly. John tells us why: “the Jews were watching for him.” Jesus is not ready for the ultimate confrontation, though he willingly asks them questions and answers theirs. But it’s the BIG face-off that ends in Jesus trial and death that must be delayed. Others in Jerusalem say “He is a good man’; others said “he deceives people,” and still others said nothing “for fear of the Jews.” No one then or now is neutral about Jesus.

John 7:14: The Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot), the fall commemoration of Israel’s time living in tents, is a week-long festival. About halfway through, John reports that Jesus went to the Temple courts to teach. “The Jews,” as John refers to the religious establishment (the Pharisees, Sadducees, teachers of the law) ask themselves how Jesus could be such an outstanding teacher? The implication is that “he didn’t get his education from us.” Jesus tells them: “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me.” He implies that their teaching is their own. Instead of sticking to the Torah and the rest of Hebrew scripture, the religious leaders had famously added tradition which they treated as sacred law. In Matthew 24, Jesus condemns the teachers of the law and Pharisees as hypocrites; earlier in Matthew 15, Jesus had been scolded by these leaders for breaking the tradition of the elders about hand washing. Jesus answered them “And why do you break the command of God [to honor father and mother] for the sake of your tradition?” In the rabbinic interpretations and additions to the law, many “laws” were added and enforced; Jesus called these “heavy burdens” in Matt. 24:4. So Jesus, in John 7, at the temple, is clear about the source of his education and message: It is all from God. “”He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?” Jesus knows men and men’s hearts (John 2:25), and reading the hearts of this group, he knows that their questions are smoke screens. What they want is an answer from Jesus that will trap him, discredit him, and make him unpopular with the crowds. Then they can arrest him and kill him.

John 7:20: The religious leaders’ answer is that Jesus is “demon possessed.” In this way, they’re deflecting his criticism of them. He says “you want to kill me.” They scoff at this and say “he’s out of his mind.” Jesus reminds them of the Sabbath laws they’ve accused him of breaking (John 5) when he healed a man. “Can’t you ‘work’ on the Sabbath when it’s the eighth day and the day for circumcising a baby boy,” he asks them. They can’t deny that he’s put them in a catch 22.

John 7:25: Jesus continues to teach, and the crowds who know about the Jews’ opposition to Jesus wonder why they don’t arrest him; he’s openly teaching, why not silence him? These doubters think Jesus is simply the son of Joseph from Nazareth, and not the Messiah. “When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.” What a strange statement! Don’t they know that the Christ comes from God? The prophets all said that the Messiah would be sent by God and anointed to do God’s work of salvation and deliverance. Jesus answers them: “You say you know who I am and where I’m from, but you don’t really know,” adding that if they did, they’d understand that he was sent from God to do God’s work. We have been told in John’s gospel that even John the Baptist, also sent by God to do God’s work, didn’t recognize Jesus until the Spirit pointed him out to him. Jesus, the light of the world, who comes to bring spiritual transformation, a new life, can do so only when the Spirit shows us who he is and we respond from our hearts. Faith is a matter of knowledge, belief and trust. We have faith in those people and systems that we know to be trustworthy. Kids believe and have faith in their parents when their parents keep their word. Jesus’ disciples believed Jesus was the Messiah when they saw the miracles, but their faith grew as they knew more about him, and began to trust him completely. This critical crowd exhibiting unbelief is unable to respond with faith to Jesus. They try to arrest him, John tells us, but “his time had not come,” and Jesus eludes them. “Still, many in the crowd put their faith in him” because they saw his miracles and knew that they were signs of the Messiah’s presence among them.

John 7:32: Now the officials get involved. In the previous passage, we’re told the crowd tries to seize Jesus. But the Pharisees and chief priest, incensed over Jesus’ criticism of them, send the Temple guard to arrest him. Jesus tells them “I am with you for only a short time, and then I go to the one who sent me. You will look for me, but you will not find me and where I am you cannot come.” This must have sounded like a riddle to the Pharisees and the police they sent to arrest him. In any event, they’re unable to put handcuffs on him; it’s not yet Jesus’ time to be in their custody. He still has work to do. And notice, he is in control of the situation; they are not.

John 7:37: On the last day of the feast Jesus announces “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.” Remember his conversation with the woman at the well (John 4)? He’d promised her living water if she believed on him. Now he promises the crowds that those who believed would never thirst again; “streams of living water will flow” from within believers. The Holy Spirit, indwelling the believer, provides this inner source of confidence in God’s word and in Jesus’ salvation. Jesus tells the disciples in John 14 that the Holy Spirit, whom he would send, “will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (v. 24)

A note on the “last greatest day of the feast”: According to www.chabad.org, “Immediately following the seven-day festival of Sukkoth comes the two-day festival of Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah. . . . Shemini Atzeret means "the eighth [day] of retention"; the Chassidic masters explain that the primary purpose of the festival is to retain and "conceive" the spiritual revelations and powers that we are granted during the festivals of the month of Tishrei, so that we could subsequently apply them to our lives throughout the year. . . . The second day of Shemini Atzeret is called Simchat Torah ("Rejoicing of the Torah"). On this day we conclude, and begin anew, the annual Torah reading cycle. The event is marked with great rejoicing, especially during the "hakafot" procession, in which we march, sing and dance with the Torah scrolls around the reading table in the synagogue. "On Simchat Torah," goes the Chassidic saying, "we rejoice in the Torah, and the Torah rejoices in us; the Torah, too, wants to dance, so we become the Torah's dancing feet." Simchat Torah is probably the day on which Jesus made his great declaration that he was the water of life. The Torah was food and drink to the rabbis; Jesus extends this concept to himself, to the Gospel itself.

John 7:39: John tells us that Jesus’ statement that he was the water of life, and that believers would know “streams of living water” flowing within, meant the Spirit would be given believers. John then says “Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.” In Acts 2, at Pentecost, the Spirit was given, and the power to preach, and boldly proclaim Jesus as the Son of God came with the Spirit’s baptism. John the Baptist said “The one who sent me to baptize with water told me ‘the man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit” (John 1:33), and that man was Jesus. He is now saying to the crowds that he is more than the bread of life, more than the light and life; he is the living water of life. Jesus is LIFE.

John 7:40: Once more the crowds speculate about Jesus’ identity, some saying he is The Prophet (Deut. 18:15), others convinced he is the Messiah, and still others, knowing he came from Galilee, were unable to believe that Jesus was the promised one. Because he stirred things up, “some wanted to seize him,” but John assures us “no one laid a hand on him.” It was not yet time. The temple guards the Pharisees had sent (v. 32) returned to those who’d prompted them to arrest Jesus saying “No one ever spoke the way this man does.” Think about it: the religious leaders, whose hearts were hardened against believing in Jesus, sent their police squad to arrest Jesus, and the police, with soft and open hearts, believed what he said. The religious leaders believe Jesus is deceiving them, putting a spell on hearers. To them, Jesus’ message is pure poppycock. They cannot believe him and cannot understand why others can and do believe that Jesus is God’s son. Then Nicodemus spoke up. Also a Pharisee and a member of the inner council, the Sanhedrin, he’d been to see and talk with Jesus privately (John 3). He asked “Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he is doing?” This reasonable request that the teachers of the law obey the law of God is rejected: “No prophet comes from Galilee,” they state emphatically. “It’s not in the scriptures.” Jonah was a prophet from Galilee, and it was certainly within God’s power to raise up a prophet from there or anywhere else he chose. In whom do the Pharisees believe?

John 8: Jesus is still in Jerusalem, teaching in the Temple courts when a crowd of Pharisees and other religious leaders comes in dragging a woman they tell Jesus was caught in the act of adultery. Significantly, the man is not brought with her. Reminding Jesus that the law said such a woman was to be stoned, they ask him “what do you say?” John adds that the question (and the situation) was a trap, a test to see whether Jesus would uphold the law. Jesus says nothing, but bends down and writes on the ground. The accusers’ questions continue to pepper Jesus and he still says nothing. Finally, he speaks: “Let him without sin cast the first stone,” and the crowd melts away leaving Jesus with the woman. He asks her “where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you”?” And she looks around, astounded, and says “No one.” And Jesus, kindness in his eyes and love in his voice says “I do not condemn you either, but go and sin no more.” I believe that his writing in the dirt was also a pointing to the law. Recall that in Numbers 5, the law provided a test for an unfaithful wife. The husband who suspected his wife of sexual infidelity could take her to the Tabernacle and the priest would ask her to hold a jar of bitter water made of dust from the Tabernacle floor and holy water. The woman, under oath, would then hear the law’s curses for such unfaithfulness; she was to say “amen.” Then the priest would write the law and consequences for breaking it on a scroll, wash off the ink into the bitter water, and ask her to drink it. She was thus drinking her words, her oath, that she was faithful to her husband and would accept the consequences should the water prove she was not. Jesus is reminding the Pharisees and teachers of the law of this very ceremony when he writes in the dirt. The woman they’d brought to him was not asked to drink the bitter water or the curses, but she knew instead, she’d been offered forgiveness. Remember in Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well (John 4), he’d told her about the living water, and in ch. 7, he tells the crowds “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.” Isn’t that what he’s offering this woman? Instead of the bitter water of curses, he’s offering her the water of new life. And tradition has it that this may have been Mary Magdalene, though she’s also associated with the forgiven woman in Luke 7, and in Luke 8, she’s listed as one of the woman who supported Jesus’ ministry. In Luke 8:2, she’s identified as “Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out.” It could thus be that Jesus’ first encounter with her is in John 8 (if the woman is Mary Magdalene), then he heals her, and finally, she becomes a disciple whose gratitude is seen in Luke 7. Her name isn’t as important as Jesus’ forgiveness—freely offered to her and to us.

Next week: We’ll finish chapter 8 and move oninto chapter 9.

Homework for those who want to go deeper:

1. Jesus’ teaching and healing always evoked a strong response: some believed and others were skeptical. John says the signs were recorded in his gospel that “you may believe and have life in Jesus’ name.” What was it about the signs that led to belief?

2. What does Jesus mean when he says he is “living water”? What should this mean to us?

3. Jesus is clear about his teaching—it comes from God. Why then do the Pharisees and religious leaders reject it?