John Chapter 7
In this chapter, we read about the views of different groups of people about who Jesus is. And they were all wrong!
Brothers of Jesus
First, we had the brothers of Jesus.
3 His brothers therefore said to Him, “Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that You are doing. 4 For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.”
~ John 7:3-4 ~
It may be due to different reasons why the brother said that to Jesus. Perhaps they were goading Him on to “show off” Himself in Jerusalem. Or they could be giving Him what they believed was good advice that if He wants to be the Messiah, He has to prove Himself before the religious authorities in the main city.
Whatever it was, John 7:5 says “For not even His brothers were believing in Him.”
Family can be difficult at times. Even though the brothers are in close contact with Jesus and grew up with Him – yet they did not believe in Him.
This causes us to think that even though we grow up in a Christian family and go to church every week and have gone through RE and listened to many sermons – but we may still not really know Jesus and believe in Him.
Think about this.
Jewish Leaders
Whenever we read of “the Jews” in this chapter, they should be referring to the Jewish leaders.
The strange thing about them is that they sought Jesus. Not to learn and believe in Him but so that they could kill Him!
Why?
Because Jesus did not fit their idea of the Messiah that is to come.
Because Jesus did not play by their ‘rules’ and challenged how they did things (think back to the temple becoming a market place, the healing on the Sabbath etc).
Because Jesus showed them that the way they taught the people by using their authority and power was in direct contrast of how Jesus taught with authority that came from heaven.
So instead of seeing the miracles Jesus did and listening carefully to the teachings of Jesus, their pride and emotions did not allow them to act rationally. Jesus was a threat to how they usually lived their lives. And they could not see that they were fighting against God and not a mere man.
The Multitude
Now the multitude was split into two camps.
And there was much complaining among the people concerning Him. Some said, “He is good”; others said, “No, on the contrary, He deceives the people.” 13 However, no one spoke openly of Him for fear of the Jews.
~ John 7:12-13 ~
Some said, “He is good”. Others said, “He deceives the people”
Both claims have some problems. For those who said “He is good”, they viewed Jesus as just a good man and not God who came in the flesh. For those who said “He deceives the people”, they were holding on to their traditional beliefs and that Jesus was just there to deceive men away from the faith of the fathers.
Why do you think that for all these Jewish people who have had the Scriptures for years, and were taught in the synagogues, and have faithfully kept the feasts – they have also seen and heard of the teachings and miracles of Jesus – and yet did not believe?
So What Did I Learn?
Jesus in His ministry had to face all this lack of understanding of who He is and what He wants to do. It can be a very lonely and tiring process. His brothers questioned Him, the religious leaders wanted Him killed and the people who He was reaching out to did not really understand Him.
And sometimes when we are in the midst of our service, it feels the same.
But when we are in this situation, I would like to remember this verse:
8 He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him.
~ John 7:8 ~
When all was against Jesus, He continued to do the right thing.
He did not just give up! Take revenge! Or get angry!
Instead, He did not seek His own glory but the glory of the One who sent Him.
As long as He did that, He knows He is doing the right thing (true) and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
May we take heart from this and also stand strong in the One who sent us.
Jesus has been there before and has left us an example to follow.