Or, When Missing the Point Isn't Enough
Scripture: John 7:1-13
Date: July 29, 2012
Speaker: Sean Higgins
Unbelieving hearts cannot leave well enough alone. Unbelieving hearts may begin with shoulder shrugs, but often ends with murdering hands. Unbelieving hearts may express themselves differently, take on different forms, but they will not stay put.
Unbelieving is not an empty hole. Lack of believing isn’t a passive void. Unbelieving is driven no less than believing, but by different energy and in a different direction, by lust for indulgence, reputation, approval, and power. Unbelieving eventually breaks out just as the surface tension can’t hold itself forever.
The unbelieving in John’s Gospel gets more intense as the chapter numbers get higher. As if the irritation and offensiveness hasn’t already been enough, the opposition will continue to rise until it lifts Jesus up on the cross.
Verses 1 and 2 of chapter 7 set the context for this next stage of resistance to Jesus.
After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand. (John 7:1-2, ESV)
After this isn’t an “immediately” after this, as other clues in the context will confirm; it was about six months after the two-day seminar in chapter 6. Chapter 6 took place near the Passover Feast (John 6:4), a springtime feast connected with God’s deliverance from Egypt and His provision of manna for Israel. Jesus fed the 5,000 men and offered them living bread. By the end of that story, even many of His disciples walked away.
Since then Jesus had been traveling in Galilee and John explains the reason: He would not go about in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him . Last time He was in Judea, specifically Jerusalem, He healed a paralyzed man on the Sabbath and when questioned, answered that it was okay for Him to do it because He was God (John 5:18). The religi-olice wanted Him dead ever since, a year long seething by this point.
According to John, the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand . This was the third and final national annual conference. It took place in September or October, followed shortly after the Day of Atonement, and lasted eight days. It was unnamed in chapter 5 (verse 1), but named here because Jesus ties His teaching to the imagery and themes of the feast. The Feast of Booths, or Feast of Tabernacles involved temporary tents in the yard, or on top of your roof, for a week in remembrance of Israel’s wandering in the wilderness (Leviticus 23:33-36, 39-43).
You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.” (Leviticus 23:42–43, ESV)
The Jewish historian Josephus wrote that the Feast of Booths was the people’s favorite. After all, who doesn’t like camping in makeshift tents of branches and leaves (at least until it rains)? It’s popularity meant that there would be a lot of men headed toward the capital city for the celebration.
In this opening section of chapter 7 there are two circles of unbelieving, first from Jesus’ family and second from the Jewish feasters.
With all the people ascending to Jerusalem, it seemed to be a great time for Jesus to make a name for Himself, at least from the perspective of people who didn’t believe in Him, like His own family.
So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” For not even his brothers believed in him. (John 7:3-5, ESV)
His brothers refers to His younger half-brothers, sons of Mary and of Joseph. They are named in Mark 6:3 (James, Joses, Jude [Judas], and Simon). When I said last week that being close to Jesus is not the same as believing in Him, these brothers were even closer than those disciples; they grew up with Jesus camping in the same tent.
The brothers haven’t been identified as such thus far in John, so we don’t know what all they’ve seen Jesus do or what all they’ve heard Jesus say. It was enough to offer their advice to big brother, apparently with a bit of mocking.
They counseled Him, Leave here (this backwoods country) and go to Judea (the big city center of action) that your disciples may see the works you are doing . Even though it had been six months or so since the feeding of the 5,000 (and the walking on the water), the brothers demonstrate the first faulty demand of unbelief: just do “one more” sign. That’s all it will take, just one more. Of course, that’s the opposite of what’s happened in John so far. Many beheld Jesus who did not believe. Lots of so-called disciples already saw His works and they still walked away. Unbelief demands more evidence .
The brothers explain their reasoning in verse 4 and add another demand of unbelief: For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world . They’re challenging Him, suggesting that He’s wasting His time out here. In the first place, Jesus hadn’t been working in secret . He hadn’t been hiding Himself, He had been traveling about Galilee. He just hadn’t been making a big deal according to their, unbelieving standard.
Unbelief demands widespread approval, a big show. The brothers are baiting Jesus on to their idea of a stage.
It’s funny, no, that they couldn’t keep themselves from telling Jesus how to do it. They couldn’t keep their unbelief to themselves. They were probably tired of hearing about Jesus and hearing from Jesus Himself. They may have envied His attention or at least been selfishly interested in what they could get out of His ascendency. The crowd wanted to make Him king for Peter’s sake (John 6:15).
The unbelieving always have good ideas on how the believing could market better. It’s similar to a blind man being unable to contain his opinion on the carpet color, when no one asked him to begin with. But their approach is flawed at the heart.
Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” After saying this, he remained in Galilee. (John 7:5–9, ESV)
Obviously John draws attention to “time,” mentioned twice in verse 5 and once again in verse 8. There’s no doubt that Jesus looked to His heavenly Father for timing, not His earthly family. Jesus said a similar thing to His mother in chapter two (John 2:4). But while the timing is part of the consideration, Jesus is working on a different plane. He is explaining not simply the divine appointment, but the divine approach.
Why did Jesus tell His brothers, your time is always here ? It isn’t that their calendar was open, it was because their reasoning was worldly and, as such, it was always applicable for the world. Unbelieving can’t seen past its nose. More than that, unbelieving doesn’t want to.
The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil . The world could hate the brothers, but they had no reason to. Now we get to a two-handed rub the wrong way.
Mass market appeal is a misnomer. For Jesus to show Himself to the world will not fix anything, it will make it worse. They have a built-in resistance; the world already hates Him.
The reason that the world hates Him is because He can’t keep His light under a bushel and that makes the darkness uncomfortable. Here is another (implicit) demand of unbelief: do not expose me. Leave me alone with my indulgences. Don’t challenge me. Give me my personal privacy.
For Jesus to go up to the feast now, the way His brothers wanted, would result in anger toward Him, not adoration of Him, in killing Him, not kinging Him, because of who Jesus is.
So He said, You go up to the feast. I am not going up to the feast for my time has not fully come . He would go, just not with their approach. For a while He remained in Galilee .
There are a few ways to hate the point.
But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private. (John 7:10, ESV)
He went up in exactly the opposite way from how His brothers recommended. The timing was connected to the approach, the plan, not just the date. People heard about it anyway.
The Jews were looking for him at the feast, and saying, “Where is he?” And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, “He is a good man,” others said, “No, he is leading the people astray.” Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him. (John 7:11–13, ESV)
The Jews must mean the Jewish authorities, not just the Jewish nationals. First, not everyone was looking for Him. Second, the people were talking about Him but doing it on the down low for fear of the Jews . But they were Jews. It doesn’t appear that they were schizophrenic.
Verse 11 begins with a “therefore” (in Greek though not in the ESV, “So” NASB). The authorities were keeping tabs on Jesus’ movements but among the crowd and without tracking His cell phone, they couldn’t find His exact location. They didn’t want to invite Him for tea.
The rest of the people were talking about Him. Jesus was the undercurrent conversation of the whole feast even without going up publicly. They was much muttering , again from γογγυσμός. I thought about titling the message, “Let’s Get Ready to Grumble!” Two sides represented:
They only had their own categories to fit Jesus into. Unfortunately for them, Jesus didn’t fit inside their observation boxes.
Those who said “He is a good man” said something true, but they may have been in greater danger, further away from reality. At least the others who argued that he is leading the people astray , which was false, understood that Jesus was going somewhere that demanded their response. Jesus was leading people in a way, it was either the right way or the wrong way.
How could the “good man” side explain that Jesus called men to eat His flesh and drink His blood? That’s not “good” teaching, it’s blasphemy and idolatry if not lunacy. Or, He could be deceiving, which can’t be good. As C.S. Lewis famously summarized, Jesus is either a liar, a lunatic, or Lord. No one gave the third option. But saying that He was “good” without believing Him is inconsistent. Here is another demand of unbelief: the right to define terms.
All of the muttering was kept quiet for fear of the Jews . The Jewish authorities rightly feared Jesus, so they made people fear them who talked about Jesus. Jesus was a threat to everything they held dear: legalism, self-glory, and most of all, control. They couldn’t have Jesus getting into all their stuff. This is also the last demand of unbelief: social respectability.
Unbelieving responds to Jesus with a variety of faces:
Unbelieving demands:
What is keeping you from believing in Jesus?