Topic Video: How Does Jesus Fulfill the Jewish Feasts?

God established feasts to give Israel regular ways to enjoy the blessings of his presence, and the gospel of John made clear how Jesus fulfilled the significance of these feasts.

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Much of John’s gospel can be outlined around several feasts that Jesus attended. God established these feasts to identify Israel as a royal priesthood, and to give them regular ways to enjoy the blessings of his special presence in the tabernacle and temple. And in his gospel, John made it clear that Jesus fulfilled the significance of these feasts.

The Passover feast was one of Israel’s three main annual feasts. It celebrated Israel’s exodus from Egypt. In brief, Jesus fulfilled this feast because he was like the Passover lamb, which was slain and eaten on Passover, and whose blood was symbolic of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. All four gospel writers identified Jesus as the true Passover Lamb. But only John highlighted this fact by reporting the words of John the Baptist, who said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” in John 1:29.

In John 19:33, John also reported that when Jesus died, the soldiers “did not break his legs,” fulfilling the requirement in Exodus 12:46 that the bones of lambs chosen for the Passover feast shouldn’t be broken. In these and many other ways, John showed that Jesus fulfilled the symbolism and meaning of Passover.

In John 7:2, 37, John also reported Jesus’ celebration of another of Israel’s three annual feasts: the Feast of Tabernacles. One of the most important rituals of this feast involved pouring water in recollection of the way God provided water for Israel in the wilderness, and the way God provided rain for Israel’s crops year after year, and in anticipation of the way God would pour out streams of blessings on his people in the last days. And John drew a strong connection between this ceremony and Jesus by pointing out that Jesus is the conduit of all the blessings God will pour out at the climax of history. Specifically, John reported that on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus announced his power to dispense God’s blessings.

Listen to what Jesus told the crowds in John 7:37:

If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

John reported that the streams of living water of God’s blessing flow from Jesus. Past blessing, present blessing, and future blessing all come through him. In this way, Jesus is the fulfillment of all the hopes for God’s blessings that were pictured in the Feast of Tabernacles.

Finally, in John 10:22-39, Jesus celebrated the Feast of Dedication or Hanukkah. The Feast of Dedication wasn’t one of Israel’s major feasts established in the Old Testament. But it was significant to Israel’s life in the first century because it celebrated Israel’s victory over its Greek oppressors in 165 B.C., as well as the rededication of the altar and the temple that took place after this victory.

In John 10:30, while Jesus was celebrating the Feast of Dedication, he made the startling claim:

I and the Father are one.

The Jews understood that he was claiming to be God and responded by trying to stone him. Then Jesus defended himself in John 10:36 by referring to himself as:

the one whom the Father set apart

When Jesus said that he was “set apart,” he used the common Greek term hagiazō (ἁγιάζω), which the Scriptures use many times to refer to dedication and consecration in the ceremonies of the temple. In this context, hagiazō is nearly synonymous with the Greek term egkainia (ἐγκαίνια) — the word translated “dedication” in the expression “Feast of Dedication.”

In these ways, John closely associated Jesus with the celebration of the dedication or consecration of the temple. The feast celebrated the temple being set apart for the presence of God. And in a similar way, Jesus was set apart as the fulfillment of God’s special presence on the earth.

#BibleCurriculum #reformedtheology

[sksteigerwald]

I like all your material and thank you very much for it. However, it is difficult for me to hear with the background music being as loud as it is because I am hard of hearing.

[armmkm]

I liked this video. My only comment is that the eight (8) Feasts of Leviticus 23 are God’s Feasts (Moedim) are stipulated in Lev. 23:2.
Further, there are two (2) post-exilic holidays; Purim and Chanukah.
Jesus observed Chanukah or Dedication as evidenced in John 10:23