The context for this miracle was the Feast of Tabernacles in which there were two main ceremonies, 'the pouring out of the waters' and 'the kindling of the lamps'.
The Ceremony of the Pouring Out of the Waters
The Jewish nation considered that God had placed high honour upon the water of the fountain of Siloam, and in consequence, on the pools of Bethesda and Siloam, which were fed from that fountain. They applied the words of the prophet to the waters, “Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation … for great is the Holy One of Israel in your midst” (Isa. 12:3,6). Furthermore, they asserted, “From thence they drew the Holy Ghost” (Succah, Palestinian Talmud). This, of course, is a reference to the ceremony of the pouring out of the waters at the feast of Tabernacles. On the feast days, a priest carrying a golden pitcher would collect 6 or 7 pints of water from the pool of Siloam and lead a procession back to the Temple. On the way, they would sing the Psalms of Ascent arriving at the court of priests at the close of the morning service. A threefold blast on the trumpets would welcome the bearer of the golden pitcher as he entered through the water gate, where another priest bearing a pitcher of wine for the drink offering joined him. The two priests ascended the rise of the altar one going left and the other right, to pour out the libations, through funnels, to the foot of the altar. Immediately after, they sang the great ‘Hallel’ with responses from the people. They ended by singing:
“Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will go through them, and I will praise the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD, through which the righteous shall enter. I will praise You, for You have answered me, And have become my salvation. The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD’s doing; It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Save now, I pray, O LORD; O LORD, I pray, send now prosperity. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We have blessed you from the house of the LORD. God is the LORD, And He has given us light; Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will praise You; You are my God, I will exalt You. Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.” (Ps. 118:20-29)
Jesus, attending the ceremony at the festival, would have been intensely aware of the significance of these verses. After the ceremony of the pouring out of those waters, He proclaimed in a loud clear voice, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water”. John added the explanation, “This He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:37-39) Here Jesus claimed to be the promised ‘Nabhi’, the prophet, the ‘weller-forth’, the expected One. Those that exercised faith in Him would be like the pool of Siloam, reservoirs of living water out of which are drawn water libations for YHWH. God would quench their thirst and make them a blessing to others. The apostles were the best illustration of the fulfilment of this promise, since their post-Pentecost ministry was attended by conversions and miracles.
This then, is the context of the action of the Messiah in the healing of the man with congenital blindness. The stigma that had been heaped upon the man by the Pharisaic system, (where sin is marked, identified and catalogued), was washed away by the Spirit of God. Jesus drew a straight line from the symbolism of the ceremony of the pouring out of the waters to the healing of the man and His office as Messiah.
The Ceremony of the Kindling of the Lamps
Furthermore, He used the other ceremony of the feast, the lighting of the menorahs, to illustrate again His office and ministry. There were four menorahs, one in each corner of the court of prayer. They were 86 foot high, and youths of priestly descent would climb ladders to fill each of them with oil (more than 30 gallons each). Worn out garments of the priests had been reformed to make the wicks. At night, the menorahs were lit and the court of prayer was illuminated so brightly that its light was seen throughout Jerusalem.
This light symbolised the Shekinah that once filled the Temple, and was a major motif of the festival because:
(i) the descent of the Shekinah at the dedication of the Solomon’s Temple took place at this feast, (1 Kings 8:2 ff; 2 Chron.7).
(ii) the burning lamps represented the Shekinah that was seen as a pillar of fire on their wilderness journey. The wilderness journey when the Shekinah guided them from Egypt to Canaan, was the principal motif of the Festival. According to Jewish tradition, the pillar first appeared to lead Israel from Egypt to Canaan on the 15th Tishri, which was the first day of the feast of Tabernacles.
So when Jesus stood in the shadow of a menorah and proclaimed, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life”, (John 8:12; cf 3:19; 9:5; 12:46). He not only affirmed He was the Messiah, but also the Shekinah of God now returned to Israel.
The Shekinah that dwelt in the Tabernacle when it pitched.
The Shekinah that led them and protected them when they journeyed.
The Shekinah that fed them with bread from heaven.
The Shekinah that gave them living water to drink.
The Shekinah that healed all their diseases.
The Shekinah that dispelled the darkness, and guided them to the promised land.
The Shekinah that resided over the mercy seat in the Temple.
The truth that Jesus was the Shekinah, the visible representation of God, was re-enforced by another of His declarations at that time: “Before Abraham was I am”. At this statement, “they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple” (John 8:59). John is repeating and reinforcing the truth, “… the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). John restated in different ways at different points in his gospel, God walked on earth in the person of Jesus.
The brilliant light from the court of women was also intended to represent Messiah, for Isaiah had prophesied of the Coming One: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined” (Isa.9:2). As Simeon said when Joseph and Mary brought the Messiah to the Temple for the first time, He was to be “a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of … Israel” (Luke 2:32).
The law required the light of the Sanctuary to be always lit, not that God required light but that it was prophetic of the time when God would kindle for them ‘the Great Light’. The Rabbis would speak of the light with which God wrapped Himself as with a garment, which was reserved under the throne of God for the Messiah, in whose days it would shine forth once more. In a Midrash on Lamentations 1.16, the Messiah is designated as the ‘Enlightener’, the words of Daniel 2.22 “and light dwells with Him” being applied to Him.
Jesus made a point of finding the newly sighted man later, so that He could give him even more light, that is spiritual sight. When Jesus met him again, He asked: “Do you believe in the Son of God?” (John 9:35 ff) This outcast of Jewish society who was unfamiliar with the Messianic ministry of Jesus responded: “Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on Him?” When Jesus replied, “You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you,” he reacted: “Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Him”. This momentous miracle not only supported His Messianic credentials, and illuminated His latest self-revelatory ‘I AM’ statement, that is: “I AM the light of the world” (John 9:5), but also demonstrated the truth of His claim to be the Son of God (John 9:1). It was a work of God on several levels (John 9:3).
The timing of the miracle is significant. It took place after the Sanhedrin had declared that they had rejected the Messianic claim of Jesus. So He did not offer it as an attesting sign, nor could the Sanhedrists accept it as such. Nevertheless, Jesus, by performing this and other similar miracles was establishing His claim more and more, compelling His opponents to respond. In the time period between the two encounters with the Messiah, the beggar was interviewed by the Pharisees. They consistently sought to undermine the value of any Messianic miracle and the reputation of the One who performed it. They said, “we know that this man is a sinner” (John9:24), now placing on the Messiah the same stigma that had been placed on the blind beggar; a stigma that had been removed by the miraculous intervention of Jesus. The beggar, newly sighted, could see the inconsistency in their argument. “Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God, He could do nothing” (John 9:32,33). The Pharisees countered by re-stigmatizing the healed man, “You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?” (John 9:34)
These events finished with a summary by Jesus, “For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind” (John 9:39). He again branded the Pharisees as “blind leaders of the blind”.
Next time: The Seventh Significant Miracle in John – Raising a Dead Man
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