Reflection on John 7

 

Jesus' great miracle of feeding the crowd of more than five thousand people and His teaching on the Bread of Life happened around Passover. "After this, Jesus went around in Galilee, purposely staying away from Judea because the Jews there were waiting to take his life." About six months passed. It was time for the Feast of Tabernacles which was the most popular festival of the year and one of the three festivals Mosaic Law required Jewish men to attend.

 

Jesus' brothers prepared to travel to Jerusalem and presumed their older brother Jesus would go with them. But Jesus told His brothers to go on their own to the festival. His brothers asked, "You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world." His brothers didn't understand why Jesus "went around in Galilee" to heal the sick and provide for the needy. The powerless and poor ones had nothing to offer to Jesus. The best those poor and needy could do were to follow Him and beg for more. Very likely, Jesus didn't gain any profit, didn't bring income home from the miraculous service He offered. Jesus’ brothers questioned why He did not use this opportunity to show His power to His disciples and "to the world",  to stun bigger crowds, to overwhelm religious and Roman authority, to give people whatever they want , to gain influence, and to gain worldly power. Maybe the brothers secretly hoped that their older brother would make a name of Himself to honor their family. 

 

John said, "Even his own brothers did not believe in Him." If the brothers believed in His divine nature, they would not give Him worldly advice to "become a public figure". Jesus was not seeking to be a popular public figure. He is God, the Almighty. Perhaps the very fact that Jesus had grown up so close to His brothers, in their dad's carpenter shop, made hard for them to truly see His divine origin. It is still hard for people to see the Son of God in a humbly carpenter's son.

 

God has a perfect plan for which there is a perfect timetable. The Son of God follows exactly His Father's plan and timetable. Jesus told His brothers, "The right time for me has not yet come; for you any time is right." Jesus has the whole world's interest in His heart. He does the right thing at the best time. His brothers had their own interest in their hearts. They would pursue self-interest at any time, like everyone else. For unbelievers, time is always right to fulfill their worldly agenda. Jesus explained to His brothers, "The world cannot hate you" since "You go to the Feast" to have good time, "but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil". Jesus would expose the world's evil and the world would never like that. Whose agenda occupies our hearts is reflected by our action? It is possible to have a very busy life of constant activities but with little true and lasting fruitfulness. It is also worth to try to move in harmony with God's perfect plan and timetable because this is God's desire for all Jesus' followers. And the Holy Spirit within us constantly moves us to live our day, hour by hour, according to His schedule. Like Jesus said, "I am not yet going up to this Feast, because for me the right time has not yet come." Jesus didn't yield to the pressure of family and time. He yielded to His Father. He didn't mean that He wouldn't go. When "the right time" came, "he went also, not publicly, but in secret." His wise timing and the way He went, guided by His Father, prevented premature attempt to arrest Him by Jewish leaders, also gave Him the best chance to teach people.

 

Before Jesus came, the city of Jerusalem was already full of tension because "the Jews were watching for him and asking, 'Where is that man?'" It seemed the religious leaders couldn't wait for Jesus to show up among the pilgrims and caught Him as early as possible. They didn't want Him to be surrounded by big crowds. At the same time, "Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him." The ordinary pilgrims argued about Him. But they whispered their arguments for fear of the leaders. Do we sometimes talk about Jesus in small voice for fear of other people? We do. Opinions about Jesus always varied. Some said, "He is a good man." Others disagreed, "No, he deceives people." Do we see this same division today? The believers are often labeled by many unbelievers as unintelligent, poorly educated, or being brain watched.

 

"Not until halfway through the Feast did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach." As the crowds quietly listening Jesus' teaching, they expected the leaders to come to arrest Him at any moment. But the leaders didn't because they "were amazed and asked, 'How did this man get such learning without having studied?'" They could not help but marvel at His skillful use of the Scripture and His great insight. Although the Jews were astonished at His brilliance, they didn't ask Jesus, "Where did you get it?" They passed their doubts among themselves. Jesus heard their doubts and responded, "My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me." Jesus was neither "school-taught", nor "self-taught". His teaching is authoritative because it comes from God. His spiritual wisdom on the human level came entirely from His constant communion with His Father. Jesus said, "If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own." Jesus traced all doubts concerning His divine identity and authority to unwillingness to do God's will. God's will for people is "to believe in the one he has sent". However, when we honestly submit our will to believe God's words, we come to understand faith in Jesus as the Son of God is grounded upon reasonable and reliable proof. Jesus gave us some  hints, "He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him." Jesus' teaching and deeds always honored and glorified His Father. He never sought selfish glory. The person who seeks personal gain has to deceive others in order to get it. It is obvious and common sense.

 

Since the Jews were angry with Him even to the degree "trying to kill" Him "for healing the whole man on the Sabbath", Jesus used this miracle as an example to show the crowds His authority in His faithfulness to the Law. He argued that He didn't break the Law, as the leaders accused Him of breaking the Sabbath. He healed a man on Sabbath to give the glory to God. He argued if a Jewish boy could be circumcised on the Sabbath to represent purification and wholeness among God's people, how much more should He heal a whole man on Sabbath to enable the person to live a full life among God's people. Jesus instructed the people, "Stop judging by mere appearance, and make a right judgment. "Judge according to the true will of God, not the mere letter of the Mosaic Law.

 

While Jesus was teaching the crowd, He asked, "Why are you trying to kill me?" The crowd shouted, "You are demon-possessed, who want to kill you?" We don't know how many people were aware the leader's plots to kill Him. But we do know that when Jesus was arrested later, the majority agreed to send Him on the cross. As Jesus continued His argument for quite a while, the people were amazed by His boldly teaching and the fact no religious leaders trying to stop Him or arrest Him. They asked each other, "Isn't this man they are trying to kill? Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Christ? But we know where this man is from; when the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from." The time for Jesus to be arrested had not come yet according God's schedule. So Jesus was safe to teach publicly. The Scripture does mention "suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple." But the Scripture never said that Messiah would come to God's people as a total stranger, that people would know nothing about His background. On the contrary, Scripture foretold so much about the coming of Messiah. Jesus' life fulfilled all the prophecies. These confused people truly knew little about the Scripture, maybe even worse, they twisted the Scripture.

 

Then Jesus cried out, "Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, but I know him because I am from him and he sent me." bJesus challenged the people to investigate His origin by examining the Scripture and His own life. He pointed out the religious leaders "do not know" God. Jesus contrasted the leaders' ignorance of God with His own unique relationship with God. This infuriated them. They needed to decide for themselves how they would take Jesus' words. They either took this claim as egotistical blasphemy or as exact truth. It is impossible to be indifferent. The Jewish leaders and probably many in the crowd "tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come. Still many in the crowd put their faith in him." The believers were not bold. They were still afraid of the leaders. So they whispered, "When the Christ comes, will he do more miraculous signs than this man?" The whispering of the people made the Pharisees indignant. "Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him." 

 

It might take a couple of minutes for the guards to appear in front of Jesus. When they were right in front of Him, they found that Jesus looked at their eyes without any fear of being arrested, and talked towards them, "I am with you for only a short time, and then I go to the one who sent me. You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come." The guards were shocked. They were caught by His words and could not move their feet to lay a hand on Him. Jesus was talking His approaching death, resurrection and return to heaven. He warned everyone the time was coming soon when He would no longer be available to them and by themselves they could never come where He would go. Jesus' words serves as the same warning today and says urgently to us now is the day of salvation. Those who reject Jesus can never hope to be with Him in heaven. No one can find his or her way to heaven by self-seeking. Please believe in Jesus because He promised His believers, "I will come back and take you to be with me."  He means to be with Him in heaven.

 

The Jews discussed among themselves, "What did he mean?" They wondered if He planned to emigrate to other country, to "live among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks". They didn't know it was heaven that Jesus mentioned. Their lack of understanding showed their lacking of living spiritual life. They needed the gift from above to have the living spiritual life. And Jesus was about to offer the gift, the Spirit to them. Did they have the desire to accept it?

 

Jesus stood and said in a load voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." "By this he meant the Spirit", His Holy Spirit. Jesus' words compared the Israelites' thirst in the desert to the thirst of one's spirit, the thirst of meaningless struggle to find meaning of one's existence. To those who are aware of their spiritual thirst, Jesus gives Himself, later in the form of the Holy Spirit,  as "steams of living water" which "will flow from within" them to renew and sustain their living spirit. This gracious offer demands people's response.

 

On hearing Jesus' words on the last and greatest day of the Feast, many drank in His words and received His promise by faith. Some of them said, "Surely this man is the Prophet." Some of them agreed, "He is the Christ." Still others questioned, "How can the Messiah come from Galilee?" They should keep asking and they would find that Jesus actually was born in Bethlehem as a descendant of King David. Almost everyone who comes to believe in Jesus has some questions. This is alright. Just make sure to seek the answers from the right book and from the right person. The book is the Bible. The person is the Holy Spirit. God will eventually provide the explanations in His time.

 

"Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and Pharisees" empty-handed, because none of them wanted to lay a hand on Jesus. The religious leaders asked in shock, "Why didn't you bring him in?" All the guards declared, "No one ever spoke the way this man does?"  The guards  were the ones who listened to the religious leaders talked about Scripture quite often. When they heard Jesus' teaching, they immediately noticed the huge difference. They told the religious leaders their lacking of true knowledge of Scripture. They leaders were angry because the truth offended them so badly. They retorted, "You mean he has deceived you also? Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him?" They arrogantly condemned the guards as being "deceived" and the common people who believed in Jesus as "this mob". They though their leadership circle which only had trained and well-educate people had no believers. To their surprise, there was one. "Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of them" had seen the truth in Jesus' words. He stood up, raised his voice on Jesus' behalf. He asked, "Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he is doing?" He was brave enough to act as the defense lawyer for Jesus. The other rulers were so furious they ignored his legal point and embarrassed him, "Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee." They were wrong. Prophet Isaiah said, "in the future he will honor Galilee,..." Why did they ignore this message? 

 

The eternal destiny of everyone who ever heard the gospel depends on acceptance or rejection of Jesus as the Lord and the Savior. The gospel brings people, whose nations are enemies, together as brothers and sisters. The gospel also divides people, who may belong to the same family, into enemies. The reality of who Jesus is divides people in the world today and will continue to do so until the final Judgment day.