The Feast of Tabernacles 

This was a feast of thanksgiving for the annual harvest and remembrance of forty years wandering in the desert and living in sukkot, in tabernacles or leafy booths. And any sacrifice not made at the other festivals could be made at this time. It was also an occasion for the reception of temple offerings. This was a time of Hebrew rejoicing, mingled with sacrifices, Levitical chants, and the solemn blasts of the silvery trumpets of the priests. At this seven-day feast, the people camped outdoors in their leaf-covered booths.

On the last day of the feast of 29 CE, almost four hundred and fifty priests with a corresponding number of Levites officiated. At daybreak, the pilgrims assembled at the temple, each carrying in the right hand a bundle of myrtle, willow, and palm branches, while in the left hand, each one carried a branch of the paradise apple tree, the citron, or the “forbidden fruit.” They all marched to the pool of Siloam to fetch water and bring it back to the temple. The priests then poured this sanctified water and wine into pitchers on the altar as the people sang Psalms 113-118. At this feast, seventy young bulls were sacrificed, after which the people repeatedly sang the 82nd Psalm, verses 5-8. For the Jewish people, this was the feast of feasts.

During the seven days of the feast, Jesus and his apostles were lodged outside the city. But Jesus fearlessly entered the Jerusalem temple three times even as the threat of arrest and death hung over him. The apostles watched and worried as they beheld their Master making bold announcements about his mission on earth and denouncing his enemies before this vast Jewish congregation that had journeyed there from all parts of the Roman world. Jesus had traveled the region for over three years, teaching and working miracles, but not in Jerusalem.

There was great curiosity about Jesus, and now came the time for him to declare his true identity and spiritual mission here in the capital city of the Jewish world. This particular Feast of Tabernacles at Jerusalem, with visitors from Spain to India in attendance, provided the ideal setting for the Master to publicly proclaim the full gospel. Even before the feast, his enemies very much wanted to arrest him, but they feared starting riots if they attempted to arrest such a popular person. He was well known and loved by many, not only in Jerusalem but up and down Palestine. And now, almost everyone desired to hear what he had to say.

On the evening of the next to the last day of the feast, when the scene was brilliantly illuminated by the lights of the candelabras and the torches, Jesus stood up in the midst of the assembled throng and said:

“I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life. Presuming to place me on trial and assuming to sit as my judges, you declare that, if I bear witness of myself, my witness cannot be true. But never can the creature sit in judgment on the Creator. Even if I do bear witness about myself, my witness is everlastingly true, for I know whence I came, who I am, and whither I go. You who would kill the Son of Man know not whence I came, who I am, or whither I go. You only judge by the appearances of the flesh; you do not perceive the realities of the spirit. I judge no man, not even my archenemy. But if I should choose to judge, my judgment would be true and righteous, for I would judge not alone but in association with my Father, who sent me into the world, and who is the source of all true judgment. You even allow that the witness of two reliable persons may be accepted—well, then, I bear witness of these truths; so also does my Father in heaven. And when I told you this yesterday, in your darkness you asked me, ‘Where is your Father?’ Truly, you know neither me nor my Father, for if you had known me, you would also have known the Father.

“I have already told you that I am going away, and that you will seek me and not find me, for where I am going you cannot come. You who would reject this light are from beneath; I am from above. You who prefer to sit in darkness are of this world; I am not of this world, and I live in the eternal light of the Father of lights. You all have had abundant opportunity to learn who I am, but you shall have still other evidence confirming the identity of the Son of Man. I am the light of life, and everyone who deliberately and with understanding rejects this saving light shall die in his sins. Much I have to tell you, but you are unable to receive my words. However, he who sent me is true and faithful; my Father loves even his erring children. And all that my Father has spoken I also proclaim to the world.

“When the Son of Man is lifted up, then shall you all know that I am he, and that I have done nothing of myself but only as the Father has taught me. I speak these words to you and to your children. And he who sent me is even now with me; he has not left me alone, for I do always that which is pleasing in his sight.”

As Jesus taught these pilgrims in the temple courts, many believed. And no one dared to lay hands upon him.

On the last day, the great day of the feast, just after the priests had poured the water and the wine into pitchers on the altar, Jesus, standing among the pilgrims, said: “If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. From the Father above I bring to this world the water of life. He who believes me shall be filled with the spirit which this water represents, for even the Scriptures have said, ‘Out of him shall flow rivers of living waters.’ When the Son of Man has finished his work on earth, there shall be poured out upon all flesh the living Spirit of Truth. Those who receive this spirit shall never know spiritual thirst.”

Jesus did not interrupt the service when he said these words. There was a pause while the sacrifices were being prepared, and it was at this time that the pilgrims heard the fascinating voice of the Master declare that he was the giver of living water to every spirit-thirsting soul.

After the early morning service, Jesus addressed the multitude, emphasizing the contrast between spiritual nourishment and traditional ceremonies. He questioned why people would continue to thirst for spiritual fulfillment through outdated traditions when they could be refreshed by the spirit of holiness, likening it to water spreading over dry soil. He acknowledged the value of their ancestral ceremonies as symbols of divine spirit bestowal but declared that with the arrival of God's Son, a new era had commenced. Jesus proclaimed that this revelation would be succeeded by the outpouring of both the Father and the Son's spirit upon all believers, guiding them to eternal life and offering true spiritual enlightenment here on earth and in the heavenly Paradise.

Jesus then answered questions of both the multitude and the Pharisees. Some thought he was a prophet; some believed he was the Messiah; others said he could not be the Christ, seeing that he came from Galilee and that the Messiah must restore David’s throne. Still, the agents of the Sanhedrin did not dare to arrest him.

On the afternoon of the last day of the feast and after the apostles had failed to persuade Jesus to flee from Jerusalem, he again went into the temple to teach. Finding a large company of believers assembled around Solomon’s Porch, he spoke to them, saying:

“If my words abide in you and you are minded to do the will of my Father, then are you truly my disciples. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. I know how you will answer me: We are the children of Abraham, and we are in bondage to none; how then shall we be made free? Even so, I do not speak of outward subjection to another’s rule; I refer to the liberties of the soul. Verily, verily, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the bond servant of sin. And you know that the bond servant is not likely to abide forever in the master’s house. You also know that the son does remain in his father’s house. If, therefore, the Son shall make you free, shall make you sons, you shall be free indeed.

“I know that you are Abraham’s seed, yet your leaders seek to kill me because my word has not been allowed to have its transforming influence in their hearts. Their souls are sealed by prejudice and blinded by the pride of revenge. I declare to you the truth which the eternal Father shows me, while these deluded teachers seek to do the things which they have learned only from their temporal fathers. And when you reply that Abraham is your father, then do I tell you that, if you were the children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham. Some of you believe my teaching, but others seek to destroy me because I have told you the truth which I received from God. But Abraham did not so treat the truth of God. I perceive that some among you are determined to do the works of the evil one. If God were your Father, you would know me and love the truth which I reveal. Will you not see that I come forth from the Father, that I am sent by God, that I am not doing this work of myself? Why do you not understand my words? Is it because you have chosen to become the children of evil? If you are the children of darkness, you will hardly walk in the light of the truth which I reveal. The children of evil follow only in the ways of their father, who was a deceiver and stood not for the truth because there came to be no truth in him. But now comes the Son of Man speaking and living the truth, and many of you refuse to believe.

“Which of you convicts me of sin? If I, then, proclaim and live the truth shown me by the Father, why do you not believe? He who is of God hears gladly the words of God; for this cause many of you hear not my words, because you are not of God. Your teachers have even presumed to say that I do my works by the power of the prince of devils. One near by has just said that I have a devil, that I am a child of the devil. But all of you who deal honestly with your own souls know full well that I am not a devil. You know that I honor the Father even while you would dishonor me. I seek not my own glory, only the glory of my Paradise Father. And I do not judge you, for there is one who judges for me.

“Verily, verily, I say to you who believe the gospel that, if a man will keep this word of truth alive in his heart, he shall never taste death. And now just at my side a scribe says this statement proves that I have a devil, seeing that Abraham is dead, also the prophets. And he asks: ‘Are you so much greater than Abraham and the prophets that you dare to stand here and say that whoso keeps your word shall not taste death? Who do you claim to be that you dare to utter such blasphemies?’ And I say to all such that, if I glorify myself, my glory is as nothing. But it is the Father who shall glorify me, even the same Father whom you call God. But you have failed to know this is your God and my Father, and I have come to bring you together; to show you how to become truly the sons of God. Though you know not the Father, I truly know him. Even Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and by faith he saw it and was glad.”

When the unbelieving Jews and the agents of the Sanhedrin who had gathered around him heard these words, they raised a commotion, shouting: “You are not fifty years of age, and yet you talk about seeing Abraham; you are a child of the devil!” Jesus was unable to continue the discourse. He only said as he departed, “Verily, verily, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” Many of the unbelievers gathered stones to throw at him, and the agents of the Sanhedrin were ordered to arrest him, but the Master quickly made his way through the temple corridors and escaped to a secret meeting place near Bethany where Martha, Mary, and Lazarus awaited him.

Thus ended Jesus’ final appearance at the Feast of Tabernacles. He would not live another year; just seven months later, he would be arrested, tried, and found guilty at this same place during Passover.