4th week in Lent, Friday – 01stApril 2022 — Gospel: Jn 7,1-2.10.25-30
Jesus’ transcends the expectations
The feast of Booths comes at the end of the agricultural year and at the end of the pilgrimage festivals. This feast anticipates the en1)d times and the coming of the messiah. As Israel’s prophets proclaimed, in those days all the people of the world will go up to Jerusalem to worship God on the feast of Booths (Zech 14,16). It is at this time of fulfillment that the people of Jerusalem, who were in expectation of the Messiah, speculate about Jesus’ identity based on his origin. Their confusion expresses the fact that the Jewish people had variety of messianic expectations. Jesus’ words and actions in the temple will transcend and transform the Jewish expectations of the Messiah expressed during this feast. Although the people believed that Messiah’s origin is hidden or unknown; yet, Jesus’ true origin is God himself, not of geographical place. In referring to God as “the one who sent me”, Jesus not only fulfilled their various expectations, but perfects the hopes of Israel in his own unique way.
