Hide and Seek

 

^{John 7:32-39}

^{Hide and Seek}

³² The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things concerning Him, and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take Him. ³³ Then Jesus said ^[f]to them, “I shall be with you a little while longer, and then I go to Him who sent Me. ³⁴ You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come.”

Jesus is attending the weeklong Feast of Tabernacles, a festival that celebrates God’s provision while Israel was in the wilderness. Jesus came up later after His family to celebrate. He knew the leadership there was seeking to kill Him and it was not yet His time.

Jesus had an opportunity to speak in synagogue and took it. We always see Jesus taking the chance to proclaim the gospel where to 1 or to thousands. As they always do, the people responded. The leadership wanted nothing to do with Jesus or the Gospel. They attempted to discredit his qualifications, then they questioned where he was from and to whom He was born. Yet, there were other people there that heard the gospel, responded, and believed! We take comfort in this.

Here people are hearing the Gospel from Jesus Christ! The living embodiment of Truth and they rejected it. We should not feel bad when in our human effort and power people reject us, after all Jesus set the example for us. People also believed though! We have no idea how the gospel will affect people in the long run.

The Pharisees upset by all this send officers to arrest Jesus to no avail! Until the time was right, no one could lay a hand on Jesus. There would come a time when Jesus would say that His hour had come, yet until that hour no one could touch Jesus! I realize this is the nerd in me, but this is how I picture this going down.

The officers go to arrest Jesus and Jesus pulls the original Jedi mind trick! “I shall be with you a little longer” then they go back to the pharisees and repeat “He shall be with us a little longer!” Jesus keeps repeating that it is not His time and soon He will go back to the Father. This concept is rather key to understanding John so file that away for now.  

³⁵ Then the Jews said among themselves, “Where does He intend to go that we shall not find Him? Does He intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? ³⁶ What is this thing that He said, ‘You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come’?”

Where are you going? You cannot hide from the Pharisees in Jerusalem! It is like trying to keep a secret in person county. You know how three people keep a secret in person county? Two of them are dead!

Is Jesus going to go out into the Greek world? Maybe He can go teach the Greeks! This is a major insult. Teaching in a synagogue in Jerusalem was the Ivy League. To go teach Greeks outside of Israel was a considered the equivalent of one of those sketchy community colleges you hear about on the news, like Harfurd or princeington.  I can picture Paul being in this crowd and Jesus laughing on the inside knowing that Paul would one day be the Apostle to the Gentiles.   

³⁷ On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸ He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” ³⁹ But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those ^[g]believing in Him would receive; for the ^[h]Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

The Feast of Tabernacles lasted eight days. All through the first seven days water from the Pool of Siloam was carried in a golden pitcher and poured out at the altar to remind everyone of the water God miraculously provided for a thirsty Israel in the wilderness. It seems that on the eighth day there was no pouring of water – only prayers for water – to remind them that they came into the Promised Land. This was the last feast-time Jesus would spend in Jerusalem before the Passover of His death. This was the last day of the last feast; the last time He would speak to many of them before His crucifixion.

Jesus had something important to say Important because of where He said it (standing in the temple courts, right outside the temple itself). · Important because of when He said it (at the last day of Tabernacles, after water had been poured out on the previous days). · Important because of how He said it (crying out, even shouting – in contrast to the general tone of His ministry, according to Isaiah 42:2: He will not cry out, nor raise His voice, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street).

 If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink: The celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles emphasized how God provided water to Israel in the wilderness on their way to Canaan. Jesus boldly called people to Himself to drink and satisfy their deepest thirst, their spiritual thirst.

 The invitation was broad because it said, if anyone. Intelligence, race, class, nationality, or political party does not limit it. Everyone is equal at the foot of the cross. The invitation was narrow because it said, if anyone thirsts. One must see their need. Thirst is not anything in itself; it is a lack of something. It is an emptiness, a crying need.

 

There is dispute among commentators as to if Jesus said this as water was being poured out, or if He did it on the day when no water was poured out. It is perhaps impossible to be certain, but John’s emphasis on the last day probably indicates that Jesus meant to show a contrast. “There’s no more water at the temple and in the rituals we love. I have the water you’re looking for.”

Jesus then alludes to the giving of the Holy Spirit that we see in Acts at Pentecost. This He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive: This outflowing life and abundance comes in and through the presence of the Spirit in the life of the believer. This speaks of an experience that belongs to those believing in Him. The nature of that experience may differ among believers, but there is some aspect of it that is promised to all who will receive it by faith. We will dive into much greater detail concerning the Holy Spirit when we get to John 15 & 16.