Attending the Feast
TRANSLATION
(1) After this Jesus went about Galilee. He would not return to Judea, because the Jewish leaders there were seeking for a way to kill him. (2) Now the Feast of Tabernacles was approaching. (3) So his brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea so that your disciples may see the works you are doing, (4) for no one works in secret if he wants to be known openly. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world,” (5) for not even his brothers believed in him. (6) Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. (7) The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. (8) You go on up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast because my time has not yet fully come.” (9) After he said this to them, he remained in Galilee.
(10) After his brothers had left for the feast, he also went up, not publicly but in private. (11) The Jewish leaders were looking for him at the feast and asking, “Where is he?” (12) And there was a lot of whispering among the crowd about him. Some said, “He is a good man.” Others said, “No, he is deceiving the people.” (13) Yet no one spoke openly about him for fear of the Jewish leaders.
OBSERVATIONS
Public fascination with Jesus and his controversial ministry was mounting, especially when devout Jews gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate their major festivals. This segment is filled with repetitions that help us determine its message. Both “Galilee” (vss. 1 & 9) and “Judea” (vss. 1 & 3) are found twice. By its six-fold repetition, the key verb was clearly “to go” in its various forms (vss. 1, 3, 8, & 10). Other repeated words included “feast” five times (in vss. 2, 8, 10, & 11), “brothers” three times (vss. 3, 5, & 11), “works” three times (vss. 3, 4, & 7), and “Jewish leaders” (vss. 11 & 13). The phrase, “my time has not yet (fully) come” is found twice (vss. 6 & 8) along with “your time” (vs. 6).
OUTLINE
I. Jesus resisted his brothers’ urging to go up to Jerusalem to reveal himself to the nation. (1-9)
II. Jesus then went up to the feast quietly where many were anticipating his arrival. (10-13)
IDEA STATEMENT
Throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus sought to follow his Father’s direction and timing as opposed to human advice.
APPLICATION
What motivated Jesus’ brothers to urge him to go up with them to the Feast in Jerusalem? Were they mocking him by pressing him to take his ministry from rural Galilee in the north into the nation’s capital, especially during the time of the feast when the city would be crowded with worshipers? Certainly, they were expressing their doubts regarding his messianic claim to be the “bread of life” sent by God to give life to those who believed in him. If so, they were likely challenging him to prove himself before the leaders of the nation just as Satan had previously tempted him (Lk. 4:9-13). While his brothers would eventually become his devoted followers, they had not yet become convinced of his messianic identity. After his family had left for Jerusalem, he also made his way to worship at the feast but quietly rather than with a public display of his claims. What would happen there would eventually lead to his death.