Part V; The Feast of Tabernacles

Part V
THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES

IN THE fall of the year 29, Jesus closed His Galilean ministry and went down to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles, a commemoration of the Israelites' wanderings in the desert. He took the route through Samaria, traveling slowly with a large band of His followers, and in the course of the journey He sent out seventy-two of them on a brief missionary tour. In one of the villages along the road, He related the Parable of the Good Samaritan, showing an example of true Christian love and neighborliness; and at Bethany He paused at the home of Lazarus.
When He reached Jerusalem He began teaching in the temple. The Pharisees sent attendants to seize Him, and, when they were thwarted in this, they sought to embarrass Him with a legal case, inviting Him to apply His doctrine of mercy to the judgment of an adulteress; but their cunning quailed before His wisdom. Even more typical of the malice of the Pharisees was their reaction to Christ's cure of a man who had been born blind. They brutally interrogated both the man and his parents, in the hope of making them deny the miracle; then they drove the uncooperative witness from their community.
From the Feast of Tabernacles (October) to the Feast of the Dedication (December) Jesus traveled about Judea, preaching and healing. He still makes use of parables (the Rich Man and His Soul; the Watchful Servants; the Barren Fig Tree; the Narrow Gate); but He speaks openly, too, assuring of His providence and the power of prayer and warning against hypocrisy and avarice. He is especially scathing in His denunciations of the Pharisees.