READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Ezekiel 36:23-28
Isaiah 1:16-19
St. John 9:1-38
Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son, in truth and love. (2 Jn. 1)
Who speaks to us today, saying,
“It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
I apologize. I did not bring any green beer for you, but we won’t be talking about St. Patrick anyways. Not that he’s not important. He is. And so we will be talking about what he would have talked about, Jesus. Jesus, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Pool of Siloam, as St. John 9 mentions this evening.
The Pool of Siloam has been regarded as sacred by a variety of faiths since ancient times, but chiefly for the Christian faith. For, the faithful in the Old Testament used water from the pool for purification rituals in the Temple during the Feast of Tabernacles. First built in 2 Kings 20:20, a tunnel was dug to bring spring water into the city of Jerusalem as a guard against invaders or sieges.
The city did not have water on its insides. It needed water from outside itself in order to live and function, which is a perfect, divine picture of true salvation needing to come from the outside, God, to us, who have no merit or worthiness of our own.
In any case, it is important because during John chapter 9, the Feast of Tabernacles was happening, as John 7:2-3 stated, and Jesus was saying things like “I am the Light of the world” (8:12), in the midst of this festival of lights, and “unless you believe I AM, you will die in your sins” (8:24), claiming to be God, and “before Abraham was, I AM” (8:58), and that He is the Giver of “living water” (7:37-38).
For there were 3 main rituals that accompanied the Feast of Tabernacles.
First, the “Rejoicing at the Place of Water-Drawing”, as Isaiah 12:3 says, “With joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation.” Water was drawn from the Pool of Siloam every day of the Feast with great ceremony, then brought to the Temple. Here the priests made libation of the water AND WINE for purification. This is why Jesus points to Himself, instead of the Pool, as the One Who gives living water.
Second, the Illumination. Great pillars, like candelabra, were erected and illumined in the Court of Women. Levite youths poured oil into the basins for the different branches of the candelabra, and worn-out priestly undergarments made of linen acted as wicks. Because the Temple stood atop a hill, the blazing candles illuminated the city below, so that the denizens of Israel could see from afar. This glorious blaze of fire recalled the pillar of fire by day and smoke by night that wandered in the wilderness with the Israelites. The Temple illumination that accompanied the water-drawing ceremony, brought great joy to all who saw it, so say eyewitnesses.
3) And finally, the building of the tabernacles themselves. Whole volumes have been written elucidating the niceties of their construction. The tabernacles were not very good shelter for good reason. They reminded the faithful of their own frail frames and our utter dependency upon the Lord. The Israelites made booths when they were wandering in the wilderness and by God’s grace survived.
Of course, the real tabernacles are our bodies, but overall I hope you heard your own beloved Divine Service being described in what I was saying about the Feast; about water and wine and lights. I hope you heard and believed that what was going on in the Temple continued in the Church, even to this day for you.
At Jesus’s time, the Temple had lost it’s flair. No miracles were happening or being performed by those in charge. No glory cloud was descending from heaven for Service. All of the pomp and circumstance appeared droll and man-made. Sin causes that.
So when Jesus heals the blind man, during the feast, at the pool, in front of these sin-bored people, the calm waters of apathy are disturbed. This is not just becasue the Kingdom of God has come among these people in Jesus. It is also because these accusations against the former blind man are made against God and God is watching and listening in His own Body.
In verse 22, they have already made up their minds to excommunicate anyone confessing the Christ, so there is no point in the rest of the interrogation of the blind man, but still…
In verse 16, they believe Jesus is not God, because He does not keep the Sabbath and God has not spoken to Him as He did to Moses, in verse 29.
Though they admit that they can’t prove that point, they believe their argument of “you disagree with me so you’re wrong” to be valid and simply declare the formerly blind man to be a sinner and excommunicate him. And as we see over and over, doing the devil’s work always works out in God’s favor. For his “excommunication” leads directly to Jesus, in verse 35.
Thus, those who see are blind, says 9:39, and they retain their sin (v.41). The condemned sinners cast out the righteous man, have Him scourged, and crucify Him outside of the synagogue. They can’t even bring themselves to do God’s great work of casting out sinners in the city or the synagogue or even the Temple, which is where it should be done.
So Jesus leaves the Temple completely, tearing the curtain in two as He goes. He baptizes all with living water, drawn from the well of salvation, His own side, and from the same place offers the wine of His own Blood for forgiveness.
This Water and Word causes the scales to fall from our sin-blind eyes, that we behold the Light of the World in His Temple, that is His Body, given for you upon the cross and in His Supper. And though we are housed in frail and failing tabernacles at the moment, the Lord will return and frail will become immortal and failing will become incorruptible.
The blind must be made to see the crucifixion. The deaf must be made to hear the Gospel. And they must be excommunicated from the church of satan into the true Church of the Body and Blood. The sinner must be remade into the Image of God, in Christ, in order that true worship be found on earth, in Word and Sacrament.
Today, the Feast of Tabernacles lives on. Not in Jewish circles, where it is incomplete, but in Churches where its perfection is offered by God Himself. For the church is washed in the Living Water that flows from Jesus, She is illumined by the Light of the World in His Gospel, and She is housed in His true Body and true Blood for the forgiveness of sins. The true Feast is the Divine Service.
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