Last week was the “feast of succoth,” otherwise known as the feast of tabernacles. And, of course, “tabernacle” means “tent.” So this feast brings to mind the time Israel wandered in the wilderness. The theme of this feast is the transitory nature of existence, the idea that we are pilgrims in this world (see Hebrews 11:9). This made me think of a connection with Luke 9.
In Luke 9:57-62, Jesus says,
As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”
And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.”
Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
The first exchange shows how a follower of Jesus leaves his place. The second shows that he leaves his people, and the third, his past.
If we look at the three main Jewish feasts, we see that they each correspond to one of these exchanges. These feasts are, first, the feast of tabernacles; second, the Passover, and third, the Day of Atonement.
Obviously the feast of tabernacles corresponds to a loss of place. Just as Abraham wandered in the promised land “living in tents”, and just as Israel wandered in the wilderness, not reaching the promised land, we live as sojourners in this world, not having a true place. Many of our struggles come as we seek a place to identify with, somewhere that gives us an identity, because that’s what a place does. It gives us “roots.” But what if we are uprooted?
Hebrews 11:10 goes on to tell us that Abraham “… was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God..” Hebrews 13:14 goes on to say, “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.”
The second festival corresponds to leaving our people behind. Exodus 11:6-7, speaking of the Passover, tells us that “There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again. But not a dog shall growl against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.”
So Israel is separated out from the Egyptians. God makes a distinction between his people and those from whom he separates them. So in one sense they are cast out — and they leave the Egyptians to bury their dead. But in another sense they are free to follow God with no loyalty for the world they have left behind.
The third festival is the day of Atonement. At this festival, the past is left behind. It is atoned for and so no longer definitive in our lives. Atonement for Christians is summed up in the cross: “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14). The cross puts the past decisively behind us.
All of these leavings — place, people and past — may seem like deprivations. But each of the things left is a dead end. This world is “no lasting city.” Those we leave are dead in sin — if only they would follow us to seek life. And we hear God’s forgetting our past as good news: “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more” (Hebrews 10:17).
So we see that this “stern teaching” of Jesus is good news, and this good news has been implicit in God’s plan for his people from the first.