The Controversy: Can This Be the Christ? (25-36) 

Jesus' bold teaching in the Temple, combined with the Jewish leaders' inaction toward their expressed intent to execute Jesus, was leaving the people surprised. 

Jesus was speaking openly, yet no one retaliated, so some wondered if this was the same Jesus the leaders were contemplating killing (25-26).

The people began to consider Jesus’ hometown—to them, He was just a common man from the north. They further figured that when the Messiah did show up, His origins would be far more mysterious (27).

Jesus responded to their foolish assumptions. He had been performing not just signs but miraculous signs, which could not be created apart from God. They knew Jesus physically, and they knew His pedigree, but they refused to discern that He could not be here on His own, doing and saying what He was saying, apart from God. He had been sent, and He knew who had sent Him because He knew where He originally came from. Jesus gave an icy admonition that God had personally sent Him to them, and they were rejecting Him (28-29).

Then another miracle occurred. They sought to arrest Jesus as He was making all these God-claims. He was in plain sight, an arm’s length away, but somehow they could not lay their hands on Him. They reached out for Him, but their hands could not touch Him. Jesus was going to be irrefutably revealed on the cross, at the Resurrection—that was His hour (30).

Many in the crowd began to give their tentative allegiance to Jesus, allowing His miracles to sink in as proof that God sent Him (31).

The Pharisees, realizing that if people turned to Jesus, their traditions would be abandoned and their power lost, summoned and sent guards to arrest Jesus (32).

Jesus squared off with the Pharisees and guards assembled to make the arrest. He told them that He had come, as promised, to Israel and Jerusalem to save them from impending destruction. He was actually wanting to save them from the Roman holocaust about to be unleashed on them, but He was not saving them as they had imagined, with armies and weapons. 

He would be with them just a bit longer, offering them Yahweh's salvation, but then He would return to the One who had sent Him. They would continue their search for the Messiah but would never find Him, for the Messiah had already come to them in the Person of Jesus, and they had rejected Him. Having rejected Him, they also would not be able to go where He was going (33-34).

The Jewish leaders were mystified by His statement. They were confused about where He was planning on going. Some imagined He was going to seek flight from Palestine to save His life. No matter where He went, Jesus couldn't escape. Jews were everywhere in the world. They could not contemplate a place Jesus could go where Jews could not find Him. They even wondered if Jesus might be alluding to going to the Greeks and being buried so deep within their philosophical culture that they would never find Him, due to their traditions forbidding them to go to the Greeks (35-36).

Jesus Promises Water (37-39)

On the last day of the festival of the Feast of Booths, Jesus, in contrast to the rabbis who taught while seated, stood up and shouted to the crowds. 

It is important to capture a bit of the feast's tradition here. The short version is that a golden vessel was filled with water from the Spring of Gihon and carried by the High Priest to the Temple court. This was done every day of the feast; on the seventh day, Jesus was standing, watching the ritual of the transporting of the golden water vessel. As a long procession entered the court, three joyous blasts from a trumpet sounded. The choirs began singing Psalms 113 to 118, and the people watching were giving thanks. It all took place during the morning sacrifice, and the wine of the morning sacrifice would be poured out with the water the High Priest was carrying. The water signified God's provision of water from the rock in the desert, as well as the water of the Messianic Kingdom, which would pour out over the entire earth when the Messiah arrived. 

Right at the end of this ceremony, when the priests were pouring the water, Jesus broke in and began to shout, in a sense, “Over here, over here! I am the reality of what that prophetic act is pointing to.” Jesus then drew from Isaiah 55:1 and called for the thirsty to come to Him (37). Jesus next drew from Zechariah 14:8 and declared that any who put their believing allegiance in Him could come and drink. Then, Jesus unloaded the great promise: those who drank from Him would become a source of living water (38). They would drink and become a drink.

John then inserted his commentary to the story so those reading would not be confused. Jesus’ giving “living water” was symbolic of Jesus’ giving the Holy Spirit, who had not been poured out yet and would not be poured out until the day of Pentecost. Those who received the Holy Spirit would be givers of the Holy Spirit (39).

Jesus stood there on the last day of the Feast, the last pouring of water, and shouted, “I am the One you are waiting for. I am the Giver of the ultimate water to make you the givers of the ultimate water.”  

Confusion Among the Crowd (40-49) 

Some in the crowd who heard Jesus assumed He was a prophet and was being prophetic; others proclaimed Him to be the Messiah; others claimed His Galilean pedigree was a disqualifier (40-41).

Those schooled in prophecy began to draw from 2 Samuel 7:16 and Isaiah 11:1, announcing the Messiah was to be born of the royal line of David and was to be born in David's city of Bethlehem (42). The crowd did not research the plain facts because Jesus was from David's lineage and was born in Bethlehem. The crowd was divided on who He was—some wanted to arrest Him, but no one could reach his hand out and grab the One in arm’s reach. The Temple Guards sent to arrest Jesus could not put their hands on Him, even after He had interrupted a sacred moment during their most prized feast. The guards were captured by His words and spirit. They knew, deep-down, that this was an innocent and true man (43-44).

When questioned for not arresting Him, the guards responded that they had never heard or seen anyone like Jesus (45-46). They were promptly accused of being led astray by Him. Then, the Pharisees asked the guards if any of their rulers had also been taken in by Jesus' words (47-48). It is unclear whether they expected an answer or were asking rhetorically to prove to the guards that they had allowed their ignorance of the law to deceive them, along with the foolish crowd (49). 

Nicodemus Speaks Up (50-53)

Nicodemus had seen and heard enough. We do not know if Jesus had persuaded him in their secret meeting, but we may surmise Nicodemus knew that what the guards had felt was exactly what he had felt in Jesus' presence. He then asked the Sanhedrin if what they were doing was legal. Could they convict a man of a crime before hearing from the One they were accusing? (50-51)

The Sanhedrin immediately turned on Nicodemus, mocking him as having inferior Galilean blood. They then ridiculed his lack of Scripture-knowledge and told him no “prophet” ever came out of Galilee. The Sanhedrin had lost a bit of their Bible-bearing, for certainly, as Elijah and Elisha both hailed from the north. Their rage and ambition blinded their reason (52).

The sting of Nicodemus' question concerning what was legal broke up the meeting and they all went home. Jesus was not arrested; His time had not yet come (53).