Friday, 3/11/16
Two whole chapters in John’s Gospel, Chapters Seven and
Eight, are given over to the weeklong Feast of Tabernacles from September to
October in the last year of the life of Jesus.
Today’s First Reading presents us with the background of
hateful plotting during that Feast of Tabernacles. Jerusalem’s leaders were repeating,
‘Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us.’”
For that one week each year the people of Jerusalem recalled
the forty desert years of their ancestors. They moved out from their houses
entirely, filling the streets and squares with tents. John gives us three memorable stories from that year’s Feast
of Tabernacles.
The first story was that of the woman caught in the adultery
that living in tents could lead to.
The second story came about in the yearly ritual when a
temple priest used a golden vase to draw clear water from a spring on the
temple hill. The people would let out shouts of joy as they watched the priest
spill the water on the alar. As the water splashed onto the altar, Jesus stunned everyone
by calling out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me to drink.” John tells us
Jesus said that in reference to the Spirit he would give us.
The third story had to do with the great ceremonial torch that
represented the flaming cloud that led the people on their night journeys
through the desert. At the end of the week, when the priests were putting out
the flame for another year, Jesus called out, “I am the light of the world,
whoever follows me will not walk in darkness.”
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