John 8:1 Commentary and Bible Study

It is the Feast of tabernacles, the October before the April when Christ went voluntarily to Calvary’s cross. The composure and the calm of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is astonishing, because in chapter 7 we read that there had been four attempts to take his life in a single week. In chapter 7:11 you find – ‘Then the Jews sought him at the feast, and said, Where is he?’ The Jewish leaders were seeking him even as people made their way to the feast, before it was properly started, in order to secure his arrest and secret him away. And then in verse 30 – ‘Then they sought to take him: but no man laid hands on him’, because of his power and his divine intervention. It was not yet time. There were another six months for him to walk on earth before they would be permitted to take him. Again in verse 32 we are told – ‘The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning him; and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him’ – a whole band of temple police had been sent. And then in verse 44, ‘And some of them would have taken him; but no man laid hands on him.’And after four attempts in that week, he withdraws overnight, he goes to the mount of Olives. Some people think he went as far as Bethany to stay with Lazarus and his sisters, Martha and Mary, but that is only speculation. Why did he go? Well, the natural answer is, to avoid further trouble and arrest and violence. But the most likely answer is he withdrew because, while the disciples who were with him would sleep, he would be in prayer, in communion with the Father.This next event is going to be a demonstration of Christ’s mercy and his grace; His readiness to forgive, all by way of preparation for his great statement, the second of the great ‘I am’ sayings, in verse 12, ‘I am the light of the world’.