~ Speaking to the Deaf ~
(A 10-part series on John 7:11–John 8:59)
Now at the Feast the Jews were watching for him and asking, “Where is that man?”
Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, “He is a good man.”
Others replied, “No, he deceives the people.” But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the Jews.
Not until halfway through the Feast did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. The Jews were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having studied?”
Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. 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?” (John 7:11-19)
THIS PASSAGE BEGINS John’s lengthy recount of a major turning point in Jesus’ life and ministry. The Feast is meant to be a time of celebration, but Jesus’ presence changes those pleasant expectations radically. Jesus has been on the Pharisees’ wary and skeptical outlook for heretics for quite some time by now. Jesus’ question intentionally escalates the simmering cauldron of conflict to a boiling point. His harsh indictment of the Jewish priests and scribes pours out of him and creates an atmosphere tension-laden with an impending searing encounter that will propel him relentlessly now to the cross. He asks, as an indictment against them, ‘Why are you trying to kill me?’ It has long been coming; there have been a number of taut and progressive encounters in the past, but here at Feast of Tabernacles they publicly spill over past all boundaries for all to see. The man of truth speaks, but cannot be heard, nor understood.
Sukkot, this feast, is timed at the end of the dry cycle. It directly links forward to Pesach, or the Passover Feast, which occurs at the end of the rain season. Sukkot is meant to be celebrated as Yahweh’s provision and protection through the dry cycle, now coming to an end. The Passover celebrates Yahweh’s deliverance of Israel, which symbolically begins with Moses the Deliverer being thrown into the Nile as a baby and ends with the parting of the Red Sea and Moses leading Israel out of slavery and towards freedom, but on a journey through what became the trials of the desert years.
Between these two markers of slavery and freedom is the slaughter of the lamb. John’s symbolism is unmistakable. He laid the groundwork for it all the way back in Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well. In a harsh desert environment, a source of water is literally life-giving. “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14) What Jesus instigates now will drive him to the cross and to glory, and Israel back into a symbolic and waterless desert for two thousand years. Israel will reject the very Messiah they sought.
An outside truth is always difficult for us to hear, as we have already developed our own version of truth. A paradigm-changing truth is a mystery to us unless there is a clarifying revelation—a truth greater than ours that we can begin to comprehend. Few can accept such truth in the moment of revelation, but many will begin to slowly move towards a growing acceptance as the new truth is tested over time and by and through circumstance.
It is the same for us. Jesus says, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” (Rev. 3:20) The incredible unmerited grace of God in Jesus is attested to by the fact that Jesus just keeps on knocking. This is prevenient grace—grace bestowed before it is received. Such is the love that God has for his highest form of creation, those made in his image. (cf. Gen. 1:27)
Who will not only hear, but act upon and receive these words from the man of truth? It is a question each of us is called to answer. The broad road and the wide gate are filled with the bustling activities of the many; the narrow gate and the straight path is walked by those few who are intentional about finding objective truths to live by, and “few there are that find it.” (cf. Matt. 7:13-14) “He who has ears, let him hear.” (Matt. 11:15)
Q. Do I not only hear, but also obey?
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