When my wife and I moved to the congregation where we would do our pre-ministry training, we were introduced to the congregation in one of those “Everyone meet the new pastor” events. You know the ones where everyone stands around awkwardly, and tries their best, but because forced socialisation is always awkward, it was awkward… Anyway, we did the meet and greet and started serving in the congregation and all went well, or so we thought. Toward the end of our time there we attended a party with various members of the congregation, and one of the older ladies pulled my wife aside and told her something to the effect of, “You know I used to think you were stuck up. But now I see you are actually quite nice”. She had mistaken shyness for aloofness and many of us make similar mistakes. We can size someone up quickly and find out later that our first impressions were in fact way off.
Now imaging how it would have been growing up with Jesus as your brother. Your impression of who he is would be off too. And that is exactly what we see in our passage today. So let’s have a look.
Scripture: John 7:1-24 (ESV)
“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. 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. 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. But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private. 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.
About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?”
So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?”
The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”
What is striking about this passage is that it comes right after Simon Peter’s great confession that he and the other disciples have come to believe in Jesus. He says “You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”. Now remember that we are still in the “Book of Signs”, the first part of the book of John that is designed to convince people that Jesus is the Messiah. It is designed so that people would see Jesus’ miracles and come to believe in him. Peter has just made the declaration that he and the other disciples had seen the signs and they had come to believe in Jesus. But now we see that even though others had seen similar signs, not even Jesus’ own brothers believed in him that way.
They still thought of Jesus as the weird older brother, and they sort of tease him the way siblings do. In effect they tell him that “If you’re doing all these miracles, go and do them in public – that will get you a much bigger following”. It was the time of the Feast of Booths and they thought this would be a great time for Jesus to announce himself to the world.
But Jesus’ kept his eyes on his mission. His time had not yet come and so he would not needlessly perform signs so that others may believe. John shows us in this passage that the miracles Jesus had done so far had not convinced everyone. Some thought he was a good man, some thought he was a deceiver. Everyone seems to have had an opinion, but people don’t see the real Jesus.
So instead of doing another sign, Jesus reveals himself in a different way. He sneaks into the festival and begins teaching at the synagogue. The crowds are amazed because he didn’t have any formal training. How could Jesus teach with such wisdom? Jesus challenges them directly, he tells them to “Stop judging by appearance, but instead to judge correctly”. In other words, see the proof not only of Jesus’ miracles, but also of his Godly wisdom, recognise who he truly is, believe in him and submit to his lordship.
But of course that doesn’t happen. And the reason it doesn’t happen is the same reason we today still don’t submit ourselves to Jesus. We may have a very skewed view of who Jesus is. If we are honest we prefer a version of Jesus that doesn’t really challenge us to change. We like the Jesus who says “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God”. We are less comfortable with Jesus who makes a whip and chases people out of the temple. We like the Jesus who forgives our sins, but we are less comfortable with the Jesus who then tells us to go and sin no more.
But this passage calls us to look at Jesus as he is, not just the Jesus we have become familiar with.
If we “judge with the right judgement” we will begin to see Jesus as he really is: the son of God who came to save us.
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, please continue to draw us into a deeper and truer knowledge of you. Help us to see you more and more as you really are, not just as the religious figure we have become comfortable with. Challenge us we pray. Amen.
Spiritual Challenge:
Today, think about one aspect of who Jesus is that you have always found tricky to grapple with. Go and re-read that passage of scripture and then ask the Holy Spirit to reshape your vision of Jesus accordingly.