This week's class was taught by Jim Shuman (who is John Erickson's brother-in-law [for those of you reading this who don't know who John is, he is the directer here at MWSB] as well as Randy Shuman's, a Venture this year, uncle). Very interesting class.
Some of the things in the class that really interested me were all the connections between some of what Jesus said and the particular feast going on at the time He said it. For example: When Jesus said "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink . . ." that was during the Feast of Booths (aka Feast of Tabernacles--see John 7). Part of the celebrations included pouring water and wine over the altar as a symbol of the Messiah. (I am going to be a bit honest, I don't quite remember what the symbolism actually was, but it was somehow connected with the Messiah) It was very cool seeing the connection. So when Jesus said that He was the living water, the Jews knew exactly what He meant! Same with in chapter 8 when Jesus says He is the light of the world. Another part of the celebrations was the lighting of a couple of huge (like, 75 feet tall huge) candelabras. These represented how the Messiah would be a light in the world. Once again, the Jews knew exactly what Jesus meant by "the light of the world." Very interesting.
As part of the class, we watched a couple of music videos (one of them was Kutless "Sea of Faces") and, to get a better idea of what Jesus was going through in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night He was betrayed, we also watched that scene from "Passion." Powerful stuff! And very interesting to see how history and cultural traditions tie in with the Bible.
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