At the Feast
TRANSLATION
(14) About halfway through the feast, Jesus went into the temple courts and began to teach. (15) The Jews there were amazed asking, “How did this man acquire such learning when he has never been trained?” (16) Jesus answered them “My teaching is not my own but comes from the one who sent me. (17) If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will know if my teaching is from God or if I am speaking on my own authority. (18) The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. (19) Did not Moses give you the Law? Yet none of you keeps the Law. Why are you seeking to kill me?”
(20) The crowd answered, “You are demon-possessed! Who is seeking to kill you?” (21) Jesus responded, “I did one miracle, and you are amazed because of this. (22) Because Moses gave you circumcision (actually, it was not from Moses but from the patriarchs), you will go ahead and circumcise a boy on the Sabbath. (23) If a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me because I healed a man’s whole body on the Sabbath? (24) Do not judge by outward appearances, but judge with righteous judgment.”
(25) Some of those in Jerusalem said, “Isn’t this the one whom they are seeking to kill? (26) And here he is speaking openly, and they say nothing to him. Can it be that the rulers really know that he is the Messiah? (27) But we know where this man is from. When the Messiah comes, no one will know where he comes from.” (28) So Jesus proclaimed as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I am from. I have not come on my own authority, but the one who sent me is true, and him you do not know. (29) I know him because I came from him, and he sent me.” (30) Therefore, they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. (31) Many of the people believed in him, saying, “When the Messiah appears, will he perform more signs than this man has done?”
OBSERVATIONS
The way John formatted this segment helps the reader grasp the kinds of controversies that swirled around Jesus at this point in his ministry. We should probe the meanings of several repeated words. “Teaching/taught” occurred four times (vss. 14, 16, 17, & 28) along with the synonyms, “speaking/speaks” (vss. 17, 18, & 26) and “proclaimed” (vs. 28). “Will” was used twice in the same verse (vs. 17) while “authority/authorities” is found three times (vss. 17, 18, & 26). “Glory” also appeared twice in one verse (vs. 18) while “Law” is found three times (vss. 19 & 23) along with “Sabbath” three times (vss. 22 & 23). “Kill” occurred three times (vss. 19, 20, & 25), and “judge/judgment” is also found three times in the same verse (vs. 24). In the second paragraph repetitions included “Christ” (vss. 26 & 27), “know” (four times in vss. 28 & 29), and “sent” (vss. 28 & 29). These repetitions emphasized first what Jesus had come to Jerusalem to do, that is, to proclaim his having come as God’s Messiah and then how the religious leaders in Jerusalem were responding by seeking to silence and destroy him.
OUTLINE
I. Jesus defended his divine authority while the religious authorities were seeking to kill him. (14-24)
II. Jesus declared that he had been sent by God as the promised Messiah. (25-31)
IDEA STATEMENT
Jesus’ claim to having been sent by God to proclaim God’s truth has always produced a wide range of responses from full acceptance to complete rejection.
APPLICATION
Albert B. Simpson, the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, authored a hymn that asks, “What will you do with Jesus?” The next line of the chorus provides an insightful answer, “Neutral you cannot be.” What to do with Jesus was the issue that everyone was talking about in Jerusalem when he finally showed up for the feast. Some questioned his credentials. Others speculated that he was demonically inspired. Still others wondered what the authorities thought about his claims. As always there were those who were convinced that he truly was the God-sent Savior of the world.
It is much the same in our present day. We live in an era of moral relativism and religious pluralism. Those who claim that Jesus is far more than a religious guru or a Jewish prophet are considered by the majority to be hopelessly misguided and even dangerous. Those who are convinced that he is the Messiah, the Savior of the world as he claimed, have the responsibility to make him known despite the negative responses of those around us. As in Jesus’ day, many will express doubt or reject him completely. However, there will always be some who, by the grace of God, confess him to be God’s only begotten Son.