Jesus and his Brothers

Who is Jesus? part 74 – John 7:1-11

If you say that you are mine
I’ll be here till the end of time
So you got to let me know
Should I stay, or should I go?
(Written by Mick Jones and Joe Strummer)

The Clash’s lyric is lightheartedly showing the sort of dilemma Jesus faced when his siblings asked him if he was going to the festival. After all it was the festival of Booths or Tabernacles, so it should be fun.

A: 7 After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. ² Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand. 

B: ³ So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. ⁴ For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” ⁵ For not even his brothers believed in him. 

C: ⁶ Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. 

X: ⁷ The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. 

C’: ⁸ You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” ⁹ After saying this, he remained in Galilee.

B’: ¹⁰ But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private.

A’: ¹¹ The Jews were looking for him at the feast, and saying, “Where is he?”

John 7:1-11 ESV UK

I have made a few alterations to the layout of this passage. The words are still the same as the English Standard Version Anglicised, which is this passage is the same as the ESV. I have put in bold a series of words that repeat in reverse order, a chiasmus. Chiasmus, meaning crossing over, is a form used in nearly all Psalms and often in the New Testament. It is a repetition of similar ideas in the reverse sequence. Where there is a central section it is often the main theme.

Mostly I use this structure to help me find the main points. as a starting point. In this passage, however, I feel that the structure is so important to the meaning that I’m following it rigidly. That’s my autistic mind for you, I love patterns and structure.

There are four main points. People who write sermons may think that’s too many. Starting from the centre and working out:

X. The world hates Jesus because he shows up its evil

Living a good life shows up the failures in others. Jesus is not condemning people, It’s not his way to stand up like some street preachers shouting to the people about their sins. He said in the last chapter that he does not turn away people that come to him, which was followed by many of his disciples turning away from him. But in his life, the good works he did and the conversations that came out of those good works, Jesus spoke about the priorities of his loving Father. Jesus came because of God’s love for the world.

C. Jesus is working to a time table

Jesus is working to a time table. He has said this before, when his mother told him of the wine shortage at the Cana wedding, in chapter 2, There he also said his time had not come.

What do you make of Jesus saying he’s not going to this feast, then sneaking on down and going to the feast anyway? No, he is talking about THIS feast, the feast of Booths. This feast comes four days after the feasts of Tumpets/Atonement (Yom Teruah/Yom Kipur) which were on consecutive days.The new testament in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 and 1 Corinthians 15:52 link the blowing of the trumpet to Jesus’ return, the time is not yet. But Jesus has something to do, but it isn’t at the feast of Booths, nor is it at the feast of Hanukkah, as we will see in chapter 10. Jesus’ timetable has the next Passover in mind.

B. The temptation to do something big.

“Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing.” say Jesus’ brothers and sisters (The word translated brothers can also mean brothers and sisters). This is not the first time Jesus has been tempted. In chapter 6 it was the people who he had fed, 5,000 of them with a child’s packed lunch. First they wanted to make Jesus king, then later wanted Jesus to repeat the miracle of providing free food.

I use the word tempted very deliberately. Jesus was tempted after the feeding of the 5,000 to do another miracle, produce bread.Now he is being tempted by his siblings to do something showy. Now compare this to a passage from Matthew:

³ And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” ⁴ But he answered, “It is written,

“‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
    but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

⁵ Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple ⁶ and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,

“‘He will command his angels concerning you’,

and

“‘On their hands they will bear you up,
    lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

⁷ Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Matthew 4:1-7

The temptations by the people in John chapter 6 and by Jesus’ siblings here have a remarkable similarity to the devil’s temptations in Matthew chapter 4. Is it any wonder that Jesus says that the world’s works are evil? Yet despite the warnings there are Christians who think that high profile events are the way to go, that the world needs to see big miracles. Let this passage be a warning.

A. The Jews were seeking Jesus

Why shouldn’t people seek Jesus? It is a good thing, and be assured that if you are seeking God you can come to Jesus, he will not reject you. There are Jews seeking Jesus in this passage. Is that a good thing? Nope. It all depends on what they are seeking. The Jews, or rather Judeans as opposed to Galilleans like Jesus and the twelve, these Judeans, were the ones who wished to kill Jesus were not representative of people from Judea, they, like the Galileans in Chapter 6 had a mixed reaction to Jesus. NT Wright says it’s the Judean authorities that John was talking about. I’d agree with that.

I’ll finish on a spoiler. The reason the Judeans are mad with Jesus is because the last time Jesus was in Jerusalem he entered the area of a pool at Bethesda, used as a Pagan shrine, and healed a disabled man on a Sabbath. That was in Chapter 5, but it has consequences later in this chapter.

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