[See the first pass at this Biblical text and an explanation of what this is about here.]John 8:31-36
A Few More General Comments
1. Context effects content. That's one principle for interpreting Biblical texts I harp on quite a bit. There's a reason: context really does effect content. To fully appreciate what happens in this weekend's Bible lesson, it helps to know a bit about the context.
Most especially, it helps to know that it takes place during the Festival of the Booths, or Succoth. As explained by EverythingJewish.com:
Historically, Sukkot commemorates the wanderings of the Israelites, which began with the exodus from Egypt (Passover) and continues with the giving of the Torah at Sinai (Shavuot) and ends with the wandering in the desert for the full 40 years as punishment for the sin of the golden calf.2. Jesus went to the Succoth this year by Himself, having sent His disciples (students, followers) onto Jerusalem before Him. He didn't arrive until the fourth day of the festival.
A major agricultural festival, Sukkot is also the third of the shalosh regalim, or three pilgrimage holidays, when it was the custom of Jews everywhere to converge onto Jerusalem every Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot.
Sukkot also marks the end of a long harvest, the time of year when farmers finish their work. Traditionally, this was the time for grapes to be gathered and made into raisins or wine; for olives to be picked and pressed into oil; and fruits to either ripen, or be eaten or stored.
To celebrate their hard work, the farmers and their families would go to the temple in Jerusalem to offer thanks. They built sukkot, or booths, to remember how the children of Israel built booths in the desert. The pilgrims lived in them for seven days while they, and the families they brought to Jerusalem, celebrated.
This is also why Sukkot is known as hag-ha-asif, the festival of ingathering.
3. Immediately on His arrival at the Temple, Jesus engaged in confrontation with those who conspired to kill Him. When the Temple police were sent by the religious authorities to arrest Him, they couldn't do it; they're too mesmerized by the hope and promise that seem to infect His every word.
4. At the beginning of chapter 8, Jesus is teaching in the Temple when a woman just caught in adultery is brought to Him. The crowd is intent on stoning the woman, in conformity with Old Testament law. (I've always been struck by the fact that this mob brought the woman, but let the man go.) Legalistic religion is always rife with self-righteousness, its adherents intent on being God's enforcers, as though God isn't capable of taking care of things Himself. Or, as though the adherents were sinless themselves.
Of course, the mob wants to test Jesus, to see if He really is from God. Whether He passed their test or not or just embarrassed them, I don't suppose we can say. But when Jesus saw the crowd with their stones, ready to kill the adulterous woman, He told them that the ones without sin should throw the first stone. Each one dropped the stones and walked away, leaving the woman unharmed. (I wonder if in some churches Jesus might visit today, Jesus might not have been able to save that woman's life with those words. I'm afraid that some in such a crowd might just fire away, confident of their perfect righteousness.)
The key contextual issue here is that chapter 8 begins with the threat of stoning and it ends with Jesus alluding those threatening to stone Him.
- In the incident with the adulterous woman, He exercises God's prerogative to forgive sins.
- In the last incident of the chapter, He's threatened with death because He explicitly claims to be God.
6. My late professor and mentor, Bruce Schein, paints an intriguing picture of these contexts, reminding us that just before our lesson, Jesus calls Himself "the light of the world." (As always, Schein writes about these past events in the present tense, adding to their accessibility to the modern reader.)
...a crowd has gathered in the Women's Court (also called the Treasury because of the trumpet-shaped collection boxes placed at its entrance) to listen to His inspiring message. There could be no better place for a popular preacher to gather a congregation. In this area all of God's People--male and female, Judean, Samaritan, Galilean, Greek, Nazarene, and even the lepers who came here for certification that they are healed--can hear his message. The Rabbi's words cause those about Him to reconsider the meaning of the wonderful nights they have spent in this court during the past week.7. It's His claim of being the Light of the world, the full meaning of which Jesus will make explicit in John 8:52, where He claims to be the great I AM, God Himself, that scandalizes and angers those of Jesus' fellow Jews who had believed in Him and who He addresses with the words of this weekend's lesson. Soon, they'll pick up rocks and eventually, throngs will cry for His blood. claiming that they have no king but Rome's Caesar. We'd rather have human kings we have the possibility to control, rather than live in the darkness of our own self-righteousness, than worship the one true God of all creation!
Each night of the feast, four gigantic stands are set up in each corner of the Women's Court. On the arms of the stands huge bowls filled with olive oil are placed. Thousands of wicks made from the discarded undergarments of the priests float in the bowls. These are set ablaze as the festival throng gathers each night. They give out so much light that the night of the court seems to turn to day. In fact, the light emanating from Jerusalem is so intense that it can be seen from outlying villages. This is a sign that on the final Succoth, night and darkness will disappear from the world. Only the first created light will remain.
Dancers with torches enter into the bright glow of the gigantic lamps. Accompanied by harp, pipe, trumpet, drum, and cymbal they dance on the steps leading from the Women's Court to the Nicanor Gate, the entrance to the Men's Court and the altar area. On each of the 15 steps they perform a torch dance to one of the Psalms of the Ascents. The polished bronze of the Nicanor Gate provides a flaming background for them as it reflects the torches' flickering light. The revelry continues until just before the sun rises over the Mount of Olives. Then suddenly it is stopped by three blasts of the trumpets. The worshipers make way as the Nicanor Gate is opened and the priests walk through them and proceed to the eastern entrance of the Women's Court, the Beautiful Gate. There they turn their backs on the rising sun, crying out as they face the Sanctuary:
Our fathers when they were in this place turned their backs toward the Temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, and worshiped the sun toward the east; but as for us, our eyes are turned toward the Lord. [Mishnah, Sukkah 5:4]
As the sun's rays stream over the Mount of Olives turning the white facade of the Sanctuary with its gold and silver plates into such a brilliant source of light that they must shield their eyes, they again repeat the refrain: "Our eyes are turned toward the Lord." With that wonderful confessional moment fresh in mind, those gathered about Jesus now hear Him proclaim as He stands between the Temple and the place of the sun's rising:
I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the Light of life. [John 8:12]
This is more than enough for now. I really do hope to get to the verse-by-verse comments tomorrow.
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