In our last study, we looked at Jesus’ understanding of time, specifically around appointed ‘kairos’ time and chronological ‘chronos’ time.

The preceding festivals

Well, his ‘kairos’ time had come, and Jesus followed his brothers in travelling up to Jerusalem to the great feast of Succoth, or Tabernacles as many of us will know it. This feast is the third of the great pilgrim feasts and comes at the end of a hectic period. Six months previously on Nisan 15, the great festival of redemption ‘Pesach’ (Passover) commemorates God’s redemption of his people from Egypt.

This, of course, is the time of our own redemption fulfilled in the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. Fifty days later we come to the Feast of Shavuot (Pentecost) where God revealed his will and word to the children of Israel at Mount Sinai, and which we celebrate for the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the disciples of Jesus when they were all together just eight days after his ascension into Heaven.

Incidentally if you subscribe to the Iyyar 28, 6BC, date of birth for Jesus, as given by Clement of Alexandra, then Jesus’ ascension occurred on his 35th birthday, which feels pretty special to me. It also means that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples on the 35th anniversary of Jesus’ circumcision, which would have been on Sivan 6, or the day of Shavuot.

Then at the beginning of the month of Elul, the fifth month counting from Nisan, when Passover occurs , people began preparing for the coming feasts. (Interestingly, Elul is an acronym from the Song of Songs ‘Ani, l’dodi, v’dodi li’ – I am my beloved’s, and he is mine.) On Tishrei 1 it is Rosh HaShannah, the New Year and the Feast of Trumpets.

Again, as an aside, when Paul speaks of the ‘last trumpet’ in 1 Corinthians 15, he is very likely referring to the final sounding of the shofar on Tishrei 1 which is called the ‘last trump’. Tishrei 1 is the beginning of the ‘Yamim Nora’im’ (Days of Wonder), where Jewish people prepare for Yom Kippur on Tishrei 10. The Books of Life and Death are open, and people have an opportunity to put right quarrels, disputes or arguments they have with their fellow Jews. Then on Tishrei 10 it is the solemn and awesome day of Yom Kippor. A day of fasting and abstinence; a day of mourning sins. A day of God’s redemption.

Succoth and the water-drawing

Then just five days later, we come to the Feast of Succoth, a time of celebration, and of living in the succah, a small temporary hut with holes cut into the roof through which you can look at God’s glory. A time for coming out of your man-made constructions and celebrating God’s provision. And celebrate they do. In fact, it is such a great feast that seven days cannot contain it. There has to be an eighth day, Shemini Atzeret, the rejoicing in Torah. It is on this eighth day that an ancient and established ceremony took place.Reenactment of the Succoth water drawing ceremony, taken from Breaking Israel News, Adam Propp

Called the ‘Ceremony of the Water Drawing’, it involved a party of priests descending the 15 Nicanor steps, drawing a golden pitcher full of water from the Pool of Siloam and going back up the steps to the Temple. On each step, one of the 15 Psalms of Ascent (Psalms 120- 34) were recited.

Then, once back at the Temple, a priest would pour out the water from the golden pitcher over the altar. It was the culmination of a ceremony beseeching God to send the early and late rains which were key to a good harvest, but it was generally seen as a prayer for God’s spirit to be present in the nation and its people. It was at this very moment that we read in John 7:37 Jesus’ proclamation:

“On the last and greatest day of the feast Jesus stood up to say in a loud voice ‘if anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink.’”

The Bible is full of little moments of historic veracity, little insights that just demonstrate the truth of the Bible. Here is one of them: people sat in the Temple courtyard during this ceremony, so in standing up Jesus got up from where he was sitting to make this epic pronouncement. He would have had to stand up in order to be heard when making this great declaration.

Effectively, Jesus is declaring that he is the source of God’s Holy Spirit, God’s presence in the nation and in the world.

It would have been sudden, it would have been shocking, but it was also stunning.