When Jesus was going around in Galilee, the feast of Tabernacles was near. It is one of the three important Pilgrimage festivals, during which the Jewish people were expected to pilgrimage to the Jerusalem Temple while it existed. The feast of Tabernacles is a week-long festival in autumn, that is celebrated in remembrance of the Israelites journeying in the wilderness for 40 long years. “The Lord said to Moses,”Say to the Israelites: ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the LORD’S festival of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days. The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work. For seven days present offerings to the LORD,…’” (NIV BIBLE- LEVITICUS- 23:33-36). The festival is also known as “Sukkot”, which means ‘booths’ or ‘tents’ in Hebrew. It is called so since the Jewish people make temporary tents during the feast to commemorate the days of the Israelites roaming in the desert when they were finally freed from Egypt by the grace of God. It is a holy feast that upholds the virtues of God of being kind and faithful.
Jesus wanted to avoid going through Judea because He knew that the Jews wanted to kill Him. But His brothers proposed that He must leave Galilee and go through Judea because His disciples must be able to see the miracles that He performed. Also, they told Him that whoever wanted to be a public figure, does not act in private. They said this because they did not believe in Jesus or His power. They wanted Him to present Himself to the world. They thought that Jesus wanted to be a rebel and rise to power. They did not realize His potential or why He had such power. They thought of Him to be an earthly rebel, who was out to gain some disciples and fame. They were not aware of the Lord’s work that was bestowed on Him.
Jesus’ brothers did not believe in Him as the Messiah. They, perhaps, thought Him to be a rebellious individual who was after fame and power and not performing any of God’s greatest works. But, probably, they must have come to believe Him to be the Messiah after His Great Resurrection, when He rose to life from death. On the third day of His death, He was risen from death and there by, fulfilled the prophecy where it was said that God would raise His Son from death on the third day.
By “the world”, Jesus meant the people of the world. The people of the world hates Him because the words that He preached, went against the way they lead their lives. Their lives are full of lies and sins and mistakes. They have gone too far from God to return. All people had become so distant from God that Jesus collectively called them “the world”.
By verse 8, Jesus meant that He would not go to Judea to attend the festival of Tabernacles, for which His brothers insisted Him to. He would not go there at someone’s persistence or to prove some point or perform miracles. But He did go there, in private, to fulfill God’s prophecy. He went there to serve the Lord and not to gain fame or name.
There was a difference of opinion among the people who saw Him at work and people who heard about Him from others. The people who heard about Him with an open heart and accepted Him, considered Him to be good. But the people, who were hard as a stone, to the very core of their being, did not recognize Him as the son of God. For them, His teachings were meaningless and intended to enrage the public. When Jesus’ words struck them as opposed to what they believed in, instead of changing themselves, their thoughts and beliefs, they accused Jesus of leading the people astray.
Jesus hadn’t received any formal education from the priests or the learned men. Yet He spoke with such depth of knowledge and with such authority that not even the learned men could do. People were in awe of his teachings and, therefore, wondered where He could have learned the words of which He had no training. The people failed to realize that He did not speak on His own. He was the son of God, who spoke through the Holy Spirits and the grace of God.
Jesus said that He did not speak on His own but through the grace of God. He said that whoever tried to speak on their own, did so to gain personal glory. But Jesus spoke to praise God. He spoke the truth through which God would be praised by all. And that, there would be nothing false or lie about the person sent by God to speak the truth. Unlike the people who moulded the laws according to their own needs and interests, despite having Moses give them the law to follow, Jesus is talking and doing things according to the truth set by God.
Jesus referred to Moses to point at the hypocrisy that the people were following to incriminate Jesus. Jesus said that Moses had given them the rules and laws to be followed. But instead of that, they were moulding the truth to suit their interests. They were accusing Jesus of lying when in reality, they were the ones who were following and living a life of lies.
The Jews were accusing Jesus of breaking the rule of working on the Sabbath. So, Jesus replied that He had performed one work on the Sabbath and that was to give the ailing man a new life. The people followed Moses’ law of circumcising a boy on the day of Sabbath, as a sign of keeping the covenant between en and God alive. When in fact, the law was not even given by Moses. They were following a rule but when it came to Jesus healing a man, they were unwelcoming of it. The people were reluctant on breaking the law so they would circumcise a boy on Sabbath to keep a dead relation alive. Yet, they were hostile against the one work of miracle that Jesus had performed to save the life of a man.
We know that all that glitters is not gold. Jesus is asking us not to judge anybody/ anything by the way they appear. But we must use our good judgement to differentiate good from evil and shun out evil from our lives. Through this, Jesus is also warning the Jewish leaders to follow and obey the law as they profess to be and treat Jesus according to the law and not in an unconstitutional way as they are going to, giving in to lies and false accusations to punish Him wrongly.
The people had difficulty in believing that Jesus was the Messiah because He came from a place that people knew about. They knew where and how He grew up and therefore, had less respect for Him. Even His brothers did not believe Him as the Messiah and teased Him about going to Judea publicly. Jewish tradition held that the Messiah would appear out of nowhere. But the Old Testament did predict the place where He would come from. so, it was not only the place that brought out the disbelief in them. It was their hardened minds and hearts that were so hardened against the words of Jesus that they did not believe in Him and made the excuse of knowing Him and His place and thereby, berated His authenticity as the Messiah.
Jesus’ signs caused many of the people to believe Him and strengthen their faith in Him. Yet so, many still did not believe Him and conferred and discussed among themselves whether the Messiah would be able to perform more signs than Jesus who was already performing miracles.
Jesus compared the giving of the Holy Spirit to fountains of living water, where people are thirsting for the Holy Spirit to enter them for internal peace and satisfaction. People are moving about with no direction in their life, having an eternal thirst and hunger for the words of God to make a mark inside them. But when they believe and accept the words of Jesus, “rivers of living waters” will open within them, filling them with the Holy Spirit and relieving them of all mental pain and sufferings. Only by glorifying Jesus Christ, they would be able to get the Holy Spirit.
Many Jews rule out Galilee as the home of the Messiah because they argued that it was written in the Scriptures that the Messiah would be a descendant of David’s line and would come from Bethlehem, the town where David lived, “out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel” (NIV BIBLE- MICAH- 5:2). It was, in fact, in Jerusalem that Jesus was born, “Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea” (NIV BIBLE- MATTHEW- 2:1). But He grew up in Nazareth. So, the people, ignorant of the fact that Jesus was actually from Bethlehem, ruled out His Nazarene lineage.
The Sanhedrin sent temple guards to arrest Jesus. But they returned empty-handed because they were not sure if Jesus was guilty or innocent based on account of the audience present there. When the Sanhedrin asked them the reason, they said that they had not heard anyone speak with such grace and authority as did Jesus. So the Sanhedrin asked the guards if they too had been deceived because neither has the Sanhedrin nor has any prophet believed in Him. According to them, the people were foolish and were under a charm that kept them from seeing the truth.
It is supposed that John 7:53-8:11 are a later addition to the Bible and do not belong to the original text.
From the story mentioned in John 7:53-8:11, we learn that we all are inherent sinners from the day Adam and Eve did their first act of disobedience against God. S, when the people brought the adulteress in the temple court to punish her by stoning her to death, Jesus abstained from passing any comment because He knew that everyone present there were sinners in some way. God created us in His image. We are His greatest creations. We have no right or power to judge any such creation of His. If they are at fault, let them repent and ask forgiveness for their sins. But we are no one to judge or punish them for their sins, because we ourselves, too, are born sinners.
Jesus described Himself as the “light of the world” in echo with the concept of being the light through which the life of all mankind was mad. He described Himself to be the light that showed light to the spiritually blind people and lead them back to God.
Even though testifying for oneself held no legal value, Jesus’ testimony regarding Himself held true because He was aware of the place from where He came and who His father was. But since men are not privy to such information because of their blindness, they wouldn’t know for sure where He come from and where He would go after leaving the Earth. Man’s knowledge is limited to earthly information and they would judge by that limited information available to them, unaware of the vastness of God’s glory and greatness. But Jesus would not judge people for this. So, He is assuring the people that since it was legal for the testimony of two people to be held true, He is testifying for Himself as was His Father testifying for Him. So, with the presence of the testimony of two people, His testimony is legal and valid.
Since testifying for Himself was not legal according to their law, Jesus called His own Father, God, who had sent Him to Earth to preach God’s words and suffer for their sins and sacrifice His life for them, to bear witness on His behalf. So, accordingly, it was the testimony of two people, of Jesus and His father, that would legalise His own testimony for Himself.
No men had the ability to touch or seize Jesus with the intent to harm Him since His time of being taken back to heaven had not yet come. He had not yet softened the hearts of the people or prepared them to accept His words. He had not yet totally made His disciples and His ardent followers understand the depth and meaning of His words and actions. He had not yet laid the foundation of the symbolic church that would house and nourish and nurture innocent and souls lost in the wilderness.
Jesus was referring to the sinners who were adamant about not wanting to repent for all the sins that they had committed. So, Jesus said that after His death when He would be taken back to Jesus after the Great Resurrection, the sinners would not be able to go to Heaven because of their hardened hearts that was unwilling to welcome Jesus or His words. On the day of Judgement, they would be punished with eternal damnation and not eternal life.
Jesus had tried to explain to them that He indeed was the Saviour. But they did not believe Him. They were aware of the concept of the Messiah. But for them, the Messiah would lead them to political and military glory and not internal peace and satisfaction. Their understanding of the Messiah was different from that of what Jesus was preaching to them. He was teaching them about peace and tolerance and non-violence, about refraining from sinning and repenting for their sins. So, they could not accept Jesus as the true Messiah even after performing several signs and miracles.
Jesus proclaimed that He had been sent to Earth by the grace of God and everything He does is according to what God wants Him to do. There was nothing He did that was against what God wanted. He spoke those words which had been taught to Him by His Father, God. He does so because God has never left Him alone and so He does whatever pleases God and sings His glory.
The mark of true discipleship was to stick to the words that Jesus preached and not lose faith or hope in them. His words will help them realise understand and differentiate the truth from the lies and that realization will set them free from the bondage and slavery of lies and evil.
No, they were not correct in saying that they had never been slaves to anyone. It is because Jesus said that “everyone who sins is a slave to sin”, which means that they had been under the power of sin. Unless they repent for their sins, they will not be set free from the snares of evil.
Jesus is saying that if they loved God, they would have known that Jesus has been sent from God and thereby, they would accept and love Jesus as well. But the people are not able to understand or hear these words because their hearts have stopped listening to words of reason and logic. All they could hear were words of personal aggrandisement. Words that would teach them love and tolerance and repentance were alien to them. Those words were contrary to what their evil hearts and minds wanted to hear. So, Jesus said that they could not hear His words because they did not want to listen to them.
Jesus accused the people of belonging to the house of evil, who is a liar and a murderer at the same time. He lied to people, bringing about their downfall and murdered the very essence of truth so that people were more easily swayed by the lies concocted by him. The Jewish opponents shared these traits with evil, where they concocted lies to stay famous among their followers and murdered the innocence, sanity and internal peace of men, leading them away from God. While they presented themselves to be close to God, they were actually the farthest removed from God.
By this, Jesus meant that those people who will listen to His words and nurture them in their hearts would never see spiritual death. Their bodies might decay. But their spirits will live on eternally, basking in the grace and glory of God. Jesus knew that most of the people present there, were not interested in the spiritual knowledge that He was preaching. But they were there for the amusement of harassing Jesus. So, Jesus said that those who will reject Him and continue on their journey of evil, are doomed to face eternal damnation.
The Lord promised Abraham that through him, he and his descendants are blessed and through his “seed”, i.e. Jesus Christ, every life on this Earth is blessed. Abraham rejoiced because he looked forward to the day the Savior would be born. He said this to imply that when God will raise the dead from death and give them eternal life, even Abraham would be raised along with Jesus. When Abraham was given this news, he was rejoiced to live in eternity in proximity with God.
By this phrase, Jesus meant to say that Jesus was with God from the very beginning, even before Abraham was born or any other thing made. Jesus is referring to the eternal character that He possessed for wing the Son of God- a part of God Himself. Jesus said the phrase to mean that He is eternal, as is said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was with God.” (NIV BIBLE- JOHN- 1:1).
The Jews were easily enraged when they were called the children of the devil and liars and murderers. Moreover, they were also enraged when Jesus associated Himself with God, calling Himself the Son of God. Whatever Jesus did and said were very much calm and godly. But the way the Jews always reacted against Him, were always violent and ungodly. Despite being hypocrites in real life, they could not bear the thought of being called out as hypocrites publicly. So, they made every attempt to torture and kill Jesus. In this case, they attempted to stone Him, when He escaped them.
When His disciples saw a blind man, they asked Jesus whether his suffering was a result of his own sin or his parents. The idea with which they were accustomed is the idea where God is a punisher. The result of sins is indeed human sufferings in this world. With this notion, they have attached human suffering with personal sins. But Jesus said that his blindness was not the result of anyone’s sins. He was blind for a purpose and that was to show how God worked through people. He had a certain purpose with which the blind man had been sent to Earth. And that was through him, the Lord would be glorified. We must associate ourselves with the idea that whatever happens, happens for a reason and we must wait to see God’s full plan in action, instead of losing our faith or being restless and making rash decisions.
Jesus said that the blind man was not suffering due to anyone’s sins when He was asked whether the man was suffering for his own or his parents’ sins. He was born blind so that God’s great and wonderful works could be shown through Him. The Jews looked down upon the deformed as sinners, without any compassion. They were devoid of any love or respect for them. But through this healing, we see God’s love and mercy for everyone alike. He was blind so that by Jesus’ miracle he may be cured and prove that Jesus was truly the son of God. Since men are born sinners, they are spiritually blind and thus, fallen. Through Jesus, their spiritual blindness can be cured and they may be filled with the Holy Spirit, when they accept Jesus into their hearts and soul.
Literally, it means that while there is still the rays of the sun to support the day’s work, they must do what is necessary to support their lives. But, the lexical meaning of it is that while there is still time left before the end comes and when judgement will be passed on to the undeserving and the worthy as well, they must repent for their sins to obtain salvation and be passed on to a life of eternal peace and satisfaction, rather than being damned. Jesus meant that while the Son of God was still present with them, who is “the light of all mankind” (NIV BIBLE- JOHN 1:4), they must act upon His words and serve the Lord.
According to his neighbours, the blind man used to sit and beg. But others thought that he was a different man who only looked like the beggar. So, the beggar himself said that he was that beggar who used to sit and beg and he was healed by Jesus, who spat on the mud and put that mud on his eyes and asked him to wash it in the Pool of Siloam. After he washed the mud from his eyes, he could see again.
On the Sabbath, a person could not be healed because it would mean working, but the animals could be untied and fed grass, so that they did not have to suffer throughout the day. Jesus also used this concept to heal the blind man. He did not want the blind man to suffer any longer. So to put him at ease from his sufferings, Jesus healed him. So, we can say that even by breaking the rule, Jesus did not exactly break the rule.
When Jesus healed a blind man on Sabbath, the Pharisees were divided on their opinion as to whether Jesus was a sinner or an innocent man. The persons who sided with Him being an innocent man reasoned that if He were a sinner, He would not be able to perform such miracles that would involve the grace of God.
The law of Moses teaches that if anyone performed a miracle and made a prophecy that became true and on its success, asked us to follow and give in to any false god, we must not listen to the words of that prophet. It is because it is a way in which God is testing our resilience to stick to Him and follow His words. Thus, any person who would perform a miracle and try to lead us away from the true God, is not a man of God, but rather an imposter, from whom we must steer clear. It is the evil that is trying to lead us away. So, we must remember the command of the one true God and obey them meticulously.
The parents were reluctant to answer anything boldly about how their son received his eyesight back. It is because they were afraid of being put out of the synagogues, as it was already decided by the Jewish leaders that whoever would side with Jesus or acknowledge Him as the Messiah, would be ostracised from the synagogue.
The blind man got his vision back only by the blessing of God through Jesus Christ. Jesus wanted to open the spiritual eyes of all beholders so that they could see the wonderful glory of God and move away from their life of sin and eternal darkness. The ‘blessing’ as demonstrated by Bruce, explained the blessing of eternal life that all His people would receive through the Holy Spirit when they would culminate the values as preached by Him.
The blind beggar who had been healed proclaimed that God does not listen to the sinners. It is true because the sinners ask things from God for their own selfish reasons. But He listens to the ones who have repented for their sins. In Proverb 28:9, we learn that God does not listen to the prayers of those people, who pay no heed to His will and instructions and go about committing sins as they liked. From Psalm 66:18, we learn that if we have sin embedded in our hearts with no signs of guilt or repentance, God will not hear us. Finally, from Acts 10:31, we learn that God has blessed him because of his service to the poor. So, God listens to sinners who have repented and served the ways of the Lord.
“Son of God” means the human form of Jesus. He was born as a human and had to die to redeem the sins of humans. This death speaks of his bodily death that had to occur because He was born as a man. But “Son of God” refers to His divine origin, where He has been sent to Earth by His Father, God, to suffer or the sins of humankind.
In the passages that lead to the debate whether Jesus was an imposter or really the son of God takes us to Him healing people on the Sabbath and breaking the apparent rule of not working on the Sabbath. But the law of God tells us to help people whenever we can, without expecting anything in return. God created us equal, so that we could live with each other in peace and harmony. But people are busy backstabbing each other. Jesus tried to teach us the path of righteousness and yet we tortured and killed Him. Illumination means bringing something out to the light. In this passage, Jesus not only heals a blind man and returns light to his eyes, but also tries to remove the spiritual blindness from our soul’s eyes, so that we can see the difference between good and evil and act accordingly.
The prophets came to this world bearing the good news of the arrival of the Redeemer who would salvage the entire mankind, by paying through His flesh and blood. Throughout the Bible are strewn various prophecies that speak about His coming and dying for us, but not before setting the cornerstone that would grow up to be a shelter for all lost souls in the world, in search of a shelter and spiritual food and water.
Starting from His birth, till His death and even later, every aspect of His life and ministry had been foretold by God Himself or through different prophets of the period.
Prophecies of His birth- It was not only foretold about His birth but also of His lineage. “When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood…. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever.” (NIV BIBLE- 2 SAMUEL 7:12-13). This prophecy was fulfilled when Matthew discussed the genealogy of Jesus in- “This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of Davvid, the son of Abraham:….” (NIV BIBLE- MATTHEW 1:1). It was also foretold of the way in which Jesus would be born, “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (NIV BIBLE- ISAIAH- 7:14), which became true, when Mary, who was a virgin, gave birth to Jesus. When King Herod of Judea made enquiries into where Jesus was born, the chief priests and teachers of the law replied that He was born “In Bethlehem in Judea,… for this is what the prophet has written: But you, Bethlehem…., for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.” (NIV BIBLE- MATTHEW- 2:5-6).
Prophecies of His death- Similarly, Jesus’ death and resurrection had also been prophesied by prophets like David, Isaiah, etc. In David’s Psalms, he foretold the instances of mockery, treachery and betryal that Jesus would have to go through before He would be crucified. He also prophesied the painful nails being embedded into His palms and feet. The final yearning pain of Jesus to endure the pain that had been inflicted on Him by the people for whom He has to endure such pain have been foretold in “My God, my God, why have you foresaken me?” (NIV BIBLE- PSALM 22:1), which got fulfilled in “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (NIV BIBLE- MATTHEW 27:46). When Jesus breathed His last by crying out “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (NIV BIBLE- LUKE- 23:46), we find the resonance of David’s Psalm, “Into your hands I commit my spirit; deliver me, Lord, my faithful God” (NIV BIBLE- PSALM 31:5). Even His resurrection had been predicted beforehand, in “I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the Lord has done…. but He has not given me over to death.” (NIV BIBLE- PSALM 118:17-18), which got fulfilled when the women, who came to pay their offerings to the tomb of Jesus, found Jesus missing with the stone rolled away from the mouth of the tomb and an angel said to them, “why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen!” (NIV BIBLE- LUKE 24:5-6).
Prophecies of His ministry- About Jesus’ earthly ministry, several prophecies had been made which were fulfilled during the life time of Jesus. When Jesus taught in parables but His followers were either not interested in His teachings or were not able to understand the meaning of His words due to their unwelcoming hearts, He said. “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah; “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving, for this people’s heart has been calloused;….” (NIV BIBLE- MATTHEW 13:13-15). When Jesus went to Nazareth on a Sabbath into the synagogue, the scroll of Isaiah was handed to Him to be read, in which was written, “The spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has annointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the opressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” After reading this, He sat down and said, “today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (NIV BIBLE- LUKE- 4:16-21). It was foretold in Zechariah, that Jesus would be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver as was done by Judas Iscariot, who handed Him over to the soldiers and officials. Each and every aspect of the life and death and of His ministry had been foretold and those were fulfilled when Jesus came and lived amongst us and suffered for our sins, so that we may be redeemed through His sacrifice.
Work Cited:
