The Glory of His Celebration of the Feast of Booths
The Wisdom of Christ · AD 29
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
James 3:17
In mid-October AD 29 Christ went up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Booths, and there He displayed the wisdom of God against the wisdom of this world. In the temple He proclaimed Himself the source of living water and the light of the world, forgave a woman caught in adultery, declared Himself the great I AM, and gave sight to a man born blind. Throughout, heavenly wisdom is shown to be humble and lowly, while the wisdom of the world is prideful and blind.
Read: John 7:1–52; John 8:12–59; John 9:1–41; John 10:1–21
The Wisdom from Above and the Wisdom of the World
Christ is the wisdom of God; by Him all things were created and engineered. Yet it is an act of God's wisdom that the world, through its so-called wisdom, cannot know God. Worldly wisdom is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic, full of jealousy and selfish ambition, while the wisdom from above is humble, pure, and peaceable.
As the Feast of Booths approached, Christ's younger brothers — James, Joses, Judas, and Simon, who still did not believe in Him — urged Him to go up to Jerusalem and display Himself before the world. They reasoned like men of this world, thinking He should flex His power to gain a following.
The Feast of Booths was a fall festival in which Israel dwelt in makeshift shelters for a week to remember how God had sustained their fathers in the wilderness — giving them water from the rock by day and a pillar of fire by night. But Christ knew His hour had not yet come, and He would not seek the world's applause.
My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.
John 7:6–7
Teaching in the Temple — the Living Water
On the fourth day of the feast Christ appeared in the temple and taught with an authority the people could not deny. They marveled: “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” He had never sat under any earthly teacher; His wisdom was from above.
On the last and greatest day of the feast — as the high priest poured out water drawn from the pool of Siloam in memory of God's provision in the desert — Christ stood and cried out for all to hear, offering the living water of His Spirit to everyone who would believe in Him.
A division arose among the people. Some said He was the Prophet, others the Christ, but many stumbled because they knew He was from Nazareth, and they supposed the Messiah must come from Bethlehem, the city of David. When the officers sent to arrest Him returned empty-handed, they could only say, “No one ever spoke like this man.”
My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.
John 7:16
If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’
John 7:37–38
The Light of the World and the Great I AM
The scribes and Pharisees dragged in a woman caught in adultery, hoping to trap Him between the law of Moses and the law of Rome. Christ stooped and wrote on the ground, then said, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” One by one, convicted, they walked away.
In the temple treasury, where great lampstands towered over the court, Christ proclaimed Himself the true pillar of fire to light man's way. The Pharisees objected that He bore witness to Himself, but He answered that the Father bore witness with Him; they knew neither Him nor His Father.
When they boasted that Abraham was their father, Christ told them their true father was the devil, for they sought to kill Him and would not do the works of Abraham. Then He made the greatest claim of all, declaring Himself to have existed before Abraham and to be the source of His own eternal life.
Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.
John 8:11
I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
John 8:12
Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.
John 8:58
The Man Born Blind and the Good Shepherd
As Christ left the temple He saw a man born blind. His disciples asked whose sin had caused it. Christ answered that neither this man nor his parents had sinned to cause his blindness, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. Then He made mud, anointed the man's eyes, and sent him to wash in the pool of Siloam.
The man came back seeing. The Pharisees interrogated him and his parents, refused to believe, and finally cast him out of the synagogue. Jesus sought him out, revealed Himself, and the man believed and worshiped Him. Christ said He had come so that those who do not see may see, and those who claim to see may become blind.
Then Christ proclaimed Himself the Good Shepherd, unlike the false shepherds of Israel who fed only themselves. The Good Shepherd knows His sheep and they know His voice, and He does not flee when the wolf comes but lays down His life for the sheep.
It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.
John 9:3
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
John 10:11
For Reflection
Down, down, down the Lord continued to travel in His ministry. The more He revealed who He was, the more He was hated — rejected by His brothers, scorned by the Jews, and despised by the leaders of Israel. In just a few days at the feast He was nearly arrested four times and nearly stoned. He came as the light of the world, but the world loved darkness rather than light. The wisdom of Christ is the very opposite of the wisdom of this world: not prideful but humble, not self-serving but loving, not impure but holy.