John 7:53–8:2: From the Feast, to the Mount of Olives, and The Temple

If we look at the last verse of chapter 7, which has rightly been included in the narrative of chapter 8 for us, then we read that ‘each went to his own house’. The pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles is now over, and so most people return to their own homes.

‘But Jesus,’ we read in verse 1 of chapter 8, ‘went to the Mount of Olives.’

The Mount of Olives, as we know from the rest of Scripture, as well as the Gospels themselves, is a very important place when it comes not only to the ministry of the Lord Jesus, but specifically to the last days and the new creation, which we have just had reference to in the previous chapter.

You remember that the Feast of Booths is a new-creation feast, and we have the great prophecy of Zechariah about the Lord standing on the Mount of Olives at the end of all things.

So, it is significant that the Lord Jesus goes to the Mount of Olives after this feast. It seems to be a place that he returns to whenever the end of all things—which includes the cross, the resurrection, and the ascension—is on his mind.

And so, it is significant that he goes there. The Lord Jesus goes to the Mount of Olives because he always has his glory and his eventual second coming in mind, as well as all that leads up to that.

The other significant symbol linked to the Lord Jesus and the Mount of Olives has to do with the one who the Bible often links with oil… the Holy Spirit. What came after the ascension was Pentecost. The Lord Jesus surely had this future outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all nations which—according to Peter in Acts 2—also signals the last days, in mind too.

But then we read in verse 2 that, ‘early in the morning, he came again to the temple’.

So, the Lord Jesus has not left Jerusalem. We read at the end of verse 2 that all the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them.

Jesus feels that there is more to do. There is more teaching that needs to be done in Jerusalem. His disciples perhaps assumed that he was going to go home as well, but he did not. He had teaching to do.