Conclusion to this story series ...
The Temple guards returned empty-handed, their eyes glazed, their expressions vacant.
And jaws fell to the floor.
"Why didn't you bring him in?"
"No one ever spoke the way this man does," the guards answered.
"You mean he has deceived you also?" they quipped back. "Has any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law — there is a curse on them."
See ... the gauntlet had been thrown. In that one moment when the Golden Pitcher made its appearance and its contents were poured over the altar ... in that one moment when Jesus chose to shout His declaration that He was the eternal God who could offer "living water," the stage had been set for a war that is being waged even now, and up to the end of time.
We all know the end of the story. We know that the Pharisees continued to harangue Him, set up traps for Him, and eventually, they managed to see Him crucified. And The Golden Pitcher is central to this drama.
Why?
Well, YOU are the Golden Pitcher.
Like the Pitcher, when you welcomed Him into your life, you experienced the abundance of the relationship with Him -- the same thing He proclaimed in that Temple all of those years ago. At the moment of your belief, the Spirit entered you and dwelled IN you -- like the water that fills the Pitcher and overflows it.
The story of the Golden Pitcher is a story of empowerment, too. When He permeats all aspects of your life, when He fills you with His living water, He EMPOWERS you! He desires to be your overflow, to be the blessing in your life!
With that empowerment, you become like Him. You proclaim to the world, just as He did loudly in that Temple in the moment of silence, that He is the living water, that He has the power to fill other precious Golden Pitchers now sitting on shelves. They, too, can overflow with Him.
Yet you must be ready. You have to understand that when Jesus courageously took that step during the Great Feast, it also sealed His fate. Those of us who love Him must be willing to endure what He did -- ridicule, anger, hatred, persecution, maybe even death.
But we are Golden Pitchers. We are treasures, used by Him, filled by Him, loved by Him. When we yield to Him, we will overflow with Him.
Do you need to yield?
Are you willing to be His vessel?
Are you willing to be The Golden Pitcher?
This series on "The Golden Pitcher" has shown, once again, all the research which you detail as the story unfolds. You add enough to have a full-blown 5 part series of accounts that get to the meaning of what would seem to the casual reader as just a mere mention in the Word. As you weave the story so skillfully, you teach and exhort and inform and remind the reader of all the great truths that just wait for discovery from deep within the Word of God. Great!
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