Jesus goes to Jerusalem for the Festival of Booths (see John 7) … Sukkot ceremonies recall the willow ceremony in the Temple in Jerusalem … a willow tree at Ye Olde Swan Inn in Woughton on the Green (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
This week began with the Fourth Sunday in Lent (Lent IV) and Mothering Sunday (15 March 2026). The calendar of the Church of England in
Common Worship today remembers
Saint Cuthbert (640-687), Bishop of Lindisfarne and Missionary.
Before today begins, though, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, reading today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
Shaking a lulav and an etrog at Sukkot … a figure in a shop window in the Ghetto in Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
John 7: 1-2, 10, 25-30 (NRSVA):
1 After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He did not wish to go about in Judea because the Jews were looking for an opportunity to kill him. 2 Now the Jewish festival of Booths was near.
10 But after his brothers had gone to the festival, then he also went, not publicly but as it were in secret.
25 Now some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, ‘Is not this the man whom they are trying to kill? 26 And here he is, speaking openly, but they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Messiah? 27 Yet we know where this man is from; but when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.’ 28 Then Jesus cried out as he was teaching in the temple, ‘You know me, and you know where I am from. I have not come on my own. But the one who sent me is true, and you do not know him. 29 I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.’ 30 Then they tried to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him, because his hour had not yet come.
‘Just as the etrog has a both a beautiful taste as well as a beautiful fragrance, so there are (those) who are learned and who do good deeds …’ (Midrash Vayikra Rabbah 30:12) … lemons on a tree in Cordoba (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Reflections:
It is just over a week until the beginning of Holy Week, when we remember the events leading to the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. The Gospel readings now begin to have a more ominous tone, and in the Gospel at the Eucharist today (John 7: 1-2, 10, 25-30), we move from the readings in John 5 during this week to John 7, skipping John 6 and the passage on the Bread of Life, which we read next month (John 6: 35-40, 22 April 2026).
In today’s reading, we hear how Jesus’ enemies want to arrest him and to kill him. He has been confining his activities to Galilee, and does not want to go to Judea and the vicinity of Jerusalem because there are people there who want to kill him. He does not expose himself unnecessarily to danger. He knows the time is coming when the final conflict will be inevitable, but that time is not yet.
It is the time of the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths, and his family are urging Jesus to go up to Jerusalem for the feast and show himself to the world. He tells them the time is not ripe for him to do this, but later on, after his family have left for the city, he goes privately, unknown to others.
While Jesus is in Jerusalem, he goes to the Temple area and begins to teach openly, to the amazement of those who hear him. For, in the past they have asked: ‘How does this man have such learning, when he has never been taught?’ (see John 5:15).
Sukkot, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles, is a seven-day autumn holiday that falls sometime around September-October. This year, Sukkot is six months away: it begins at sundown on Friday 25 September and continues until Friday 2 October.
Sukkot commemorates the time the people lived in temporary shelters, booths or tabernacles, during their journey through the desert after fleeing slavery in Egypt. It is one of the three central pilgrimage festivals in Judaism, along with Passover and Shavuot. It is traditional in Jewish families and homes to mark this festival by building a
sukkah or a temporary hut to stay over in during the holiday.
The customs include buying a lulav and etrog and shaking them daily throughout the festival: the lulav is a palm branch joined with myrtle and willow branches; an etrog is a citron fruit, usually a lemon.
A
sukkah is a temporary dwelling in which farmers once lived during the harvest. Today, it is also a reminder of the type of the fragile dwellings in which the people lived during their 40 years wandering through the wilderness after fleeing slavery in Egypt.
Throughout the holiday, meals are eaten inside the
sukkah and some people even sleep there as well. On each day of the holiday, it is traditional to perform a waving ceremony with the ‘Four Species’ or specified plants: citrus trees, palm trees, thick or leafy trees and willows.
On each day of the festival, worshippers walk around the synagogue carrying the ‘Four Species’ while reciting special prayers known as
Hoshanot. This ceremony recalls the willow ceremony in the Temple in Jerusalem, when willow branches were piled beside the altar with worshippers parading around the altar reciting prayers.
Sukkot is a joyous and upbeat celebration, and is celebrated today with its own customs and practices.
Another custom is to recite the
ushpizin prayer to invite one of seven ‘exalted guests’ into the
sukkah. These
ushpizin or guests represent the seven shepherds of Israel: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron and David. According to tradition, each night a different guest enters the
sukkah followed by the other six. Each of the
ushpizin has a unique lesson that teaches the parallels of the spiritual focus of the day on which they visit.
Some streams of Judaism today also recognise a set of seven female shepherds of Israel, known as
ushpizot or
ushpizata. At times, they are listed as the seven women prophets: Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Hulda and Esther. Other lists name seven matriarchs: Ruth, Sarah, Rebecca, Miriam, Deborah, Tamar and Rachel.
Saint John’s Gospel is known for the seven ‘I AM’ sayings, the seven ‘Signs’, the seven ‘Claims’ and the seven ‘witnesses’. It would be interesting to explore wonder whether the Festival of Sukkot in this chapter also offers a link to the seven
ushpizin or even
ushpizata.
But this morning, as a I think of Jesus celebrating Sukkot in his own way in Jerusalem, I think of all those people who are forced into exile in the world today, living in temporary accommodation, not knowing where they going to sleep over the next seven days or when their exile is going to end in safety, in a new home.
And as I reflect on how the authorities tried to arrest Jesus that week, yet no one laid hands on him because his hour had not yet come, I think of the many exiles and refugees who are arrested and deported, without ever being given a proper hearing, without their personal dignity being respected, and facing death once again wherever they deported to, or living in dread of the next time racist and far-right protesters turn up outside their temporary accommodation.
A glimpse inside a 19th century painted sukkah or booth in the Jewish Museum of Art and History (mahJ) in Paris, used for the festival of Sukkot (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Prayers (Friday 20 March 2026):
The theme this week (15-21 March 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Lament and Hope’ (pp 38-39). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update by Kennedy Jones, Church Engagement and Fundraising Officer, USPG.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 20 March 2026) invites us to pray:
We pray for churches and faith communities striving to be anti-racist. Grant them wisdom, persistence, and grace as they seek to challenge prejudice and build inclusive communities.
The Collect:
Almighty God,
who called your servant Cuthbert from following the flock
to follow your Son and to be a shepherd of your people:
in your mercy, grant that we, following his example,
may bring those who are lost home to your fold;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post Communion Prayer:
Holy Father,
who gathered us here around the table of your Son
to share this meal with the whole household of God:
in that new world where you reveal
the fullness of your peace,
gather people of every race and language
to share with Cuthbert and all your saints
in the eternal banquet of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflections
Continued Tomorrow
Lemons in a restaurant in York (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Scripture quotations are from the
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
http://nrsvbibles.org
