And after these things Jesus walked in Galilee, for he would not walk in Judaea, because the Jews sought to kill him.
Chapter 7 opens with the Son of God under a standing threat of murder. That threat shapes His movements. He stays in Galilee and keeps away from Judea, the region around Jerusalem. Two questions follow. Why did the centre of Israel's religion become the one place He avoided? And what kept Him out?
In John's Gospel the phrase "the Jews" is narrower than it sounds. A Bible dictionary explains who is meant:
In the New Testament the name occurs most often in the Gospel of John. There it means those of Jerusalem and Judea, as distinct from "the people," who may have been Galileans or visitors from a distance. John speaks of "the Jews," "the Jews' passover," and so on, as though he were not a Jew himself. They had rejected the Lord, and in spirit John was separate from them.
The plot went beyond the leaders. One writer shows how far it had spread, and what it had already cost the Lord:
The Lord Jesus is shown to us here walking no longer in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill Him. It is not only that the leaders were jealous of Him. Now the people are as well — at least the people in Judea proper, for they are clearly meant. Their hatred was complete: they only lacked opportunity. They would be satisfied with nothing less than putting out this light of God as far as they could. […] Step by step the Lord had been driven away from the place of honour, of ancient tradition, of everything that boasted itself in religion.
The threat did not start here. It goes back to an earlier healing, at the pool of Bethesda. That healing "called forth the envious malice of the Lord's enemies" (J. N. Darby).
Keeping out of danger could look like self-protection. One writer points instead to the Father's will and the Father's timing:
This was certainly not fear, but sober, lowly wisdom that sought only the will of the Father. He would not needlessly stir up the hostility of the Jews. He had told the disciples the same thing: if they were persecuted in one city, they should flee to another. But He would be in Jerusalem at the proper time to offer Himself as a sacrifice, as God had ordained. Meanwhile He would avoid whatever would hinder the prospering of the ministry of the word of God.
Being shut out of Judea did not stop His work. It moved it. Galilee was the despised place, and that is where He walked:
So we see the Lord in the despised place — the True Light . He is not in the city of solemn feasts, where darkness reigned all the more because it was the last place anyone suspected it. In Galilee He walks about on His errand of love. He does not wait for souls to seek Him; He seeks them, that believing they might have life in Him.
Another writer draws the practical line from it: "If you really want Christ, you will have to go where He is to be found. And where is that? In Galilee, then despised by Israel, and the symbol now of our outside place as followers of Christ" (W. T. P. Wolston).
The plot to kill Him ran alongside the keeping of a feast. One writer puts the two side by side:
You may have noticed something in the opening chapters of John's Gospel. The inspired writer always calls the feasts feasts of the Jews. Not only that: we find the Lord Jesus taking the place of one feast after another, and offering Himself as an object for the heart. […] A terrible contradiction! A deadly delusion! Seeking to murder the Son of God, and yet keeping the feast of tabernacles! Such is religious man without God.
The change of title is itself the verdict. In Leviticus these are called the feasts of the Lord; here they belong only to the men keeping them. As one writer puts it, "the outward form was there, but the Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, had been rejected, and what joy could God have in empty forms?" (G. C. Willis).
- Rejected — the plot in Judea was not limited to the rulers. The people had joined it, and only lacked their chance.
- Withdrawn — He kept away not from fear but from obedience. He would not die a day before the Father's appointed time.
- Relocated — shut out of the religious centre, the Light kept seeking souls in Galilee, the despised province.
- Exposed — plotting to kill the Son of God while keeping the feast of tabernacles is religion without God. John marks it by calling the feasts theirs, not the Lord's.
- Followed — if the religious centre no longer holds Christ, those who want Him must go outside, to where He is.
Now the tabernacles, the feast of the Jews, was near.
Jesus was staying in Galilee because the Jewish leaders wanted to kill Him, and John dates what follows by the Feast of Booths, also called the Feast of Tabernacles. The way John names this feast, and Jesus' refusal to go up to it openly, shape everything the chapter says next.
John's wording is deliberate. Leviticus calls these gatherings the Lord's. John calls them the Jews'.
Notice that in John's Gospel the feasts are always called "the feasts of the Jews" (John 2:13; John 6:4; John 7:2; John 11:55). Leviticus 23 calls them "the feasts of Jehovah." This change in wording means something. They had become mere forms. They were no longer times when loyal hearts came up to the place God had chosen, moved by a sense of His goodness. That had faded completely, and the feasts had sunk into nothing more than rituals. There was no longer anything in them for God.
The same men who wanted Him dead were keeping the feast. He answered by setting the feasts aside and offering Himself instead.
We find the Lord Jesus setting aside one of these feasts after another and offering Himself as an object for the heart... What a terrible contradiction! What a deadly delusion! Seeking to murder the Son of God, and yet keeping the feast of tabernacles! Such is religious man without God.
The week in tents looked back to the wilderness and forward to a settled land. Its place in the calendar, after the harvest, matters too.
The Feast of Tabernacles was the last feast in the Jewish year. For seven days the children of Israel were to live in tents. This reminded them that they had once been pilgrims in a wilderness. It also bore witness that the promises were fulfilled, and that the nation now lived in peace and safety in the land (Leviticus 23:33-43). Israel kept the feast after the harvest and the grape harvest, and Scripture uses both as figures of judgment (Revelation 14:14-20). So Israel and the nations must pass through judgment before the earthly blessing this feast pictures can come.
Two of Israel's great feasts have already met their fulfilment. This one has not, and that explains why Jesus held back from it.
The Passover had its fulfilment at the cross, and Pentecost at the coming down of the Holy Spirit. The feast of tabernacles, so far, has had no fulfilment... So this picture will be fulfilled when God has carried out judgment, and Israel, restored to their land, holds all their promised blessing. Then Jesus will show Himself to the world. But at the time we are speaking of, His hour had not yet come.
His brothers saw the crowded festival as His chance. What they asked, and why He said no, both turn on timing.
His brothers said, "Show yourself to the world." But He could not do so, because His time had not come. He could go up to the Passover, for He was Himself the Passover... The Feast of Tabernacles is still to be fulfilled. But Christ says, if you believe, you will get your time of glory before that Feast of Tabernacles comes.
Jesus does not fill the empty festival. He gives something else in its place, on the extra day after the seven.
In chapter 7 comes the feast of tabernacles, and the Spirit instead of it... He gives the gift of the Holy Spirit in place of showing Christ to the world. That is the great truth in this chapter... Only this feast had an eighth day. He went up to it quietly, and on that last day, the eighth day, He "stood up and cried out, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.'"
That invitation exposes what the celebration was covering.
It should have been a feast of true spiritual joy, but it had turned into a religious show. On the surface everything went as planned, but fellowship with God and with the One He had sent was missing. On the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles — the "great" day — Jesus stood up and said something in a loud voice that must have greatly displeased the leading Jews. He spoke of thirst! This was the truth: behind the religious front there was no real satisfaction, only "thirst."
- Name. A feast of the Lord had become a feast of the Jews. The ritual went on while the men keeping it wanted the One it honoured dead.
- Meaning. Seven days in booths recalled the wilderness and pictured the nation settled at last in the land. Israel kept the feast after the harvest.
- Timing. The cross fulfilled Passover. The coming of the Spirit fulfilled Pentecost. Tabernacles still waits, because the blessing it pictures comes only after judgment.
- Refusal. That day had not come, so Jesus would not use the festival crowd as a stage to show Himself to the world.
- Substitute. In place of that display He gives the Spirit. He calls the thirsty to Himself on the eighth day, and believers get their glory before the feast comes true.
His brethren therefore said to him, Remove hence and go into Judaea, that thy disciples also may see thy works which thou doest;
Jesus is in Galilee. He stays away from Judea because people there want to kill Him. At that moment His own family tells Him to go back and put His works on public display. Two questions follow: who were these brothers, and what was driving their advice?
Were these really His brothers? One writer answers from a psalm.
Formal religion has claimed that Mary had no other children than the Lord Himself. So it assumes that these were nephews or nieces. But Psalm 69:8 settles the matter: "I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother's sons." Mary had at least seven children after the Lord was born, for "all" His sisters implies at least three.
Others explain them as Joseph's children by an earlier marriage. One writer answers that directly.
His brothers were sons of Mary, born after His own birth. They were sons of Mary and of Joseph. Some would like to make them sons of an earlier marriage of Joseph. We do not know anything of an earlier marriage, and neither do they. We do know that Scripture is quite plain.
They urge Him toward the one place He is avoiding.
Does not that look very heartless? There was no heart and no faith. "Go and show yourself," they say to Him, "you are doing miracles here in secret." Yet the Lord Himself would not walk there, because they sought to kill Him.
Their request named His disciples. Their reasoning left out God.
So His brothers thought, because they wished it for themselves. They spoke instead of His disciples, and of their need to see His works — and to see them in Judea. They had no thought of God. They had not the faintest idea that in the obscurity of Galilee Jesus was glorifying the Father… They reasoned from self, not from God, and that made them all the more wrong, because it concerned the Lord. They sought present glory, and thought every wise man must seek it. Had they never heard the One who taught even His disciples to give, pray and fast in secret to their Father, who will reward them?
Under all their reasoning lay something simpler.
His natural brothers argue like this. If a man has extraordinary powers, it is entirely right to use them to gain a place in the world — for his own advantage and for the good of others. Behind their natural reasoning there was the unbelief of the heart. They did not believe in Him.
Jerusalem filled with people at the feast of Tabernacles. His refusal turned on timing.
His brothers propose that He take advantage of such a moment, when "all the world," as we say, was at Jerusalem. They wanted Him to make Himself important — to become, as people say, "a man of the world." "If you do these things," they say, "show yourself to the world." He refused. His time had not yet come to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. When His day comes, He will have His kingdom in the world and be great to the ends of the earth. But for now He was on His way to the altar, not to the throne.
He refused the advice once. The same instinct still works on His followers.
We are still in the time of Christ's rejection. So we have to be on our guard, in case we use our natural abilities or spiritual gifts to exalt ourselves before men or in the religious world… If the time has not come for Christ to take part in this world's public affairs, we may be sure it is no time for His disciples to do so. If we have the sense of the Lord's approval, we shall not seek or desire the approval of the world — religious, social or political.
Their unbelief was not the end of the story.
God allowed His own brothers to remain unbelieving the whole time He was doing His mighty works. But there was another work, the greatest of all, and God made that work irresistible. Not the works of His life, but the work of His death and resurrection. These brothers had stubbornly held out against Him. His work of sin-bearing brought them to believe in Him.
- Family — The speakers are His own household. Writers read Psalm 69:8 as showing they were Mary's own later children.
- Flesh — Their advice sounds practical. But it reasons from self, not from God, and points Him to the place where men waited to kill Him.
- Fame — "Show yourself to the world" is the world's own logic: gifts exist to build a public name, and they wanted a share of it.
- Feast — He would not take the stage at the feast. He was on His way to the altar, not yet to the throne.
- Faith — His miracles never won them over. His death and resurrection did.
for no one does anything in secret and himself seeks to be [known] in public. If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world
Jesus' own brothers push Him to leave quiet Galilee and take His miracles to the capital, where crowds can see them. It sounds like loyal advice, but the next verse says these men did not believe in Him — so why did He refuse?
Their argument rests on a rule of ordinary life: nobody hides his work if he wants recognition. Applied to Christ, that rule exposes the men who used it rather than the One they advised.
They gave themselves away — their ignorance of God, their lack of self-judgment, their blindness not only to their own ruin, but to the world... They reasoned from self, not from God, and so were all the more hopelessly wrong about the Lord. The advice was exactly what they would have done. They sought present glory, and thought every wise man must seek it. Had they never heard the One who taught His own disciples to give, pray and fast in secret, before a Father who rewards them?
What they were really proposing had a name.
What a thought! an attempt to lead the Lord Jesus to make Himself, as we say, "a man of the world!"... They understood His power, but not His principles. Like men in general, they link power or talent with serving one's own interests in the world.
John adds the reason plainly: His own family did not believe in Him. That unbelief was not random, and it did not last.
It is instructive to see how God allowed the unbelief of the family of our Lord Jesus. His own brothers did not believe in Him all the time He was doing His mighty works. But there was another work, the greatest of all, and God made that work irresistible. It was not the works of His life, but His death and resurrection. These brothers had held out so stubbornly against Him, yet His work of sin bearing brought them to believe in Him. There was a reason for their unbelief. There are always moral causes... Sometimes it is the fleshly mind, sometimes the worldly mind, sometimes both.
The feast happening then was Tabernacles. Unlike Israel's other feasts, it still waits to be fulfilled, and that explains His answer.
We have the Passover, and the Passover fulfilled: "Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us." Pentecost was fulfilled too — the Holy Spirit came down. But when you come to the feast of tabernacles, where do you find it fulfilled? It is not fulfilled, and is still to come. That is the real meaning of John 7... He said, "My time is not yet come." For the present, He puts the presence of the Holy Spirit in place of showing Himself to the world.
A full public display of Christ is coming. That it has not come yet is not delay but kindness.
They wanted Him to give a display of Himself equal to His claims. This was not the time for that. He will show Himself one day; "every eye will see him," and He will display His glory, to the terror of the ungodly. But He is not showing Himself now to the world; and this, to a world lying in wickedness, is mercy — real patience.
Seeing Him then would have been fatal for the world.
Apart from His death and resurrection, this could only mean judgment for all. Their guilty condition left all men open to that judgment, and nothing could have been saved out of it.
Their advice raised the real question about power: who is it for?
Such purity of motive is beyond the grasp of fallen man. The natural thought is to use power, whatever form it takes, to glorify self. This was the thought of His brothers, His natural family, when they said, "Show Yourself to the world." In effect they were saying, "Use your power to glorify yourself"... He alone uses power for the glory of God and the blessing of man.
Christians still say the same thing today.
And still there are many true Christians who, in various ways, say to the Lord, "Show Yourself to the world." They do not know the calling of the church, or the character of the day we live in. Such would gladly make Christ a leader of charitable works, and the centre of great movements for the improvement of the world. They seek to bring Christ back to the world. They do not see that the Spirit of God has come to lead believers out of the world to Christ in heaven.
- Cause — The advice grew out of unbelief. Men who reasoned from self assumed Christ must want present glory, as they did.
- Refusal — He would not make Himself "a man of the world." He alone used power for God's glory and man's blessing.
- Timing — Passover and Pentecost have been fulfilled; Tabernacles has not. His public display waits, and He gives the Holy Spirit in the meantime.
- Mercy — Every eye will see Him one day. That the world does not see Him yet is patience, since an early display would have meant judgment for all.
- Echo — The same voice speaks today. It wants Christ back in the world, while the Spirit of God leads believers out of the world to Him.
for neither did his brethren believe on him.
Jesus' brothers had just urged Him to display His powers in the capital city. John's one-line comment on them raises a hard question: how could the people who lived closest to Him fail to see who He was?
Commentators are direct about who these brothers were:
James was not a "disciple". He was one of the Lord's brothers, and he did not believe the whole time the Lord was living on earth: "not even His brothers believed in Him" (John 7:5). These brothers were sons of Mary, born after His own birth. Of course we can understand that some have been anxious to make out that they were sons of Joseph and not of Mary. But they were sons of Mary and of Joseph.
One writer reads the wording closely. John does not say that every one of them was an unbeliever:
John notes the unbelief of some (7:5). We say "some" because he does not state that all of them were unbelievers about the Lord. Now, was John mistaken in his judgment about them? The Lord's own words to His brothers confirm what John wrote: "The world cannot hate you." They had not taken their stand with Christ.
Their advice sounds practical. One writer sees the motive underneath it:
As verse 5 tells us, His own brothers in the flesh did not believe in Him. Even so, they would have been very glad to rise in the world through their connection with Him, since He could do such mighty works. Sadly, people would use Christ's name to gain worldly popularity if they could be sure of it. Such is the heart of man.
Another writer explains why such advice came to them so easily:
They did not yet believe in Him. They did not understand His ways, or why He kept clear of showy publicity. They wished Him to display His powers in the capital city in a way that would capture the world for Himself. The Lord refused their advice. The world could not hate them, because they were not yet separated from it in any way.
Years of daily contact produced no faith. One writer traces the failure to what human nature cannot do:
The brothers of the Lord did not believe in Him (7:5). They had seen Him from the early days of His life on earth. Yet they did not see His glory, and they did not believe in Him... Their spiritual condition was bad. So the Lord became flesh to reveal God, so that man might see God. By nature man was not fit to understand that he was not fit to see God in His glory. And to see God, he must first receive a new, divine nature. He has to receive eternal life.
The natural conclusion most of us would draw turns out to be wrong:
Naturally, we might think it must have been a great advantage to be connected with the Lord by the ties of nature. Sadly, this passage shows that His own family were as unbelieving as others. If they were unbelieving, we know it was not from any cause in Him.
This estrangement was written long before it happened:
For His sake He had borne reproach; the shame of persecution had covered His face (v. 7). He had become a stranger to His own brothers according to the flesh, an alien to His mother's sons (v. 8). John 7:3-5 records the slighting words of unbelief that His brothers spoke to Him; for they did not believe in Him until after He had been sacrificed on Calvary.
And God had a purpose in letting it stand on record, one that answers any suspicion that the claims of Jesus were a family arrangement:
God allowed His own brothers not to believe in Him the whole time He was doing His mighty works. But there was another work, the greatest of all, and God made that work irresistible. It was not the work of His life, but the work of His death and resurrection. These brothers had stood out so stubbornly against Him, yet His work of sin bearing brought them to believe in Him.
Unbelief carried a real loss. The care of Mary passed to John, not to her other sons:
How much stronger is the spiritual relationship than the natural! John took her after this to his own home. Her other sons had deprived themselves of such a privilege through unbelief. Yet after His resurrection His brothers were found in the upper room with the disciples.
One writer names the moment that changed them:
There can be no question that the James mentioned, distinct from the apostles, in 1 Cor. 15:7, to whom the risen Christ appeared, is the brother of the Lord. He saw the Lord risen from the dead. The Lord had appeared to him. That became the great turning point in his life, and he and his brothers believed.
- Nearness. They were sons of Mary and Joseph — the closest human tie to Jesus, and it saved no one.
- Blindness. Seeing Him every day produced no faith. Faith needs a new nature and eternal life, not nearness.
- Worldliness. Their advice showed where they belonged. The world could not hate them, because they were not separated from it.
- Cost. Unbelief lost them the honour of caring for their mother. That place went to John instead.
- Turning. What His miracles never did, His death and resurrection did. The risen Christ appeared, and those same brothers joined the disciples.
Jesus therefore says to them, My time is not yet come, but your time is always ready.
Jesus' brothers wanted Him to leave Galilee, go up to the feast in Jerusalem, and show Himself to the world. They did not believe in Him. His reply sets His own timing against theirs.
One writer sets this reply beside similar words the Lord spoke elsewhere in His life.
The Lord uses a similar expression elsewhere. It implies how perfectly His life was ordered from above, and that it was in no sense the outcome of unforeseen circumstances. When the brothers of the Lord urged Him to go up to Jerusalem at the feast of tabernacles, He answered, "My time is not yet come… I am not going up to this feast, because my time is not yet fulfilled." … To everything, therefore, in the life of the incarnate Son there was an appointed time. He, as the obedient Man, knew this. It showed the perfection of His service for God, not only to know it for the joy of His own heart, but also to declare it in public.
His brothers wanted the display now. He knew what had to come first.
Jesus stays in perfect dependence (to speak only of that). His movements were always in obedience. In everything it was a question to Him of the Father. His single eye saw that His time to show Himself to the world was, and could be, not yet. He had hinted at His death even before His Galilean ministry began, and John 6 opens it out even more strongly. Death came first, before He would be shown to the world. That display will happen in its due time. But here, as always, the order is the sufferings that belong to Christ, and the glories after them. First He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
The feast itself explains the delay. One writer reads the feast of tabernacles as a picture still waiting to be fulfilled.
In John 7 His brothers after the flesh were still sunk in unbelief. They wanted Him to show Himself to the world, if He did these great things. But the time for this was not yet come. At the fulfilment of the picture given by the feast of tabernacles He will do so. The passover had its fulfilment at the cross, pentecost at the coming of the Holy Spirit. The feast of tabernacles, so far, has had no fulfilment. It was kept after the harvest and the grape gathering, and Israel gladly remembered, in the land, their journey before they entered the rest God had given them in Canaan… At that time Jesus will show Himself to the world. But at the time we are speaking of, His hour was not yet come.
The second half of the verse is as pointed as the first. Older translations read it "your time is always ready," where the ESV has "your time is always here." One phrase shows grace; the other exposes the human heart.
The Lord states the solemn truth, that their time is always ready. They were of the world; they spoke of the world, and the world heard them. But His time was not yet come. Think for a moment who it was that spoke these words. It was One who had made the whole scene. He was the rightful Heir of all the promises, entitled to take everything, to enter on everything, to enjoy everything. What infinite grace there is in language like this, "My time is not yet come"! And at the same time, what condemnation of the sinner in "your time is always ready"! What a sentence of death on all man's thoughts! Man's time is the present — and is therefore always ready. This is his one thought; for he loves to make much of himself.
Writers differ on what "my time" points to. One reads it as His death, and turns the verse on the reader.
That is a very solemn word for the unsaved man. "Your time is always ready." Unconverted one, today is your time. Nothing can be more touching than our Lord's word about Himself here — "My time is not yet come." He was referring to His death. For them it is different: it is the world's time now, the world's day, man's day.
One writer turns the verse into a cure for our own impatience.
Man's time is always ready, as our Lord has told us. He is an impatient creature, and a hope deferred makes his heart sick. Only faith can lift him above his natural restlessness. If we had more confidence in the wisdom and love of God we would be far more restful.
- Timing: His "time" was appointed. Nothing in His life came from chance or from pressure by others.
- Order: Suffering first, glory after. No advice could move Him to switch the two.
- Feast: The feast of tabernacles still has no fulfilment. He will show Himself to the world when that picture comes true.
- Contrast: "Always ready" exposes man's haste. "Not yet," from the world's rightful Heir, is pure grace.
- Response: Today is man's day. Trust in God's wisdom turns our restlessness into rest.
The world cannot hate you, but me it hates, because I bear witness concerning it that its works are evil.
Jesus' brothers did not believe in Him, and they urged Him to go to the feast and show Himself off. His reply separates them from Himself by one test: the world hates only one of the two, and His testimony is why.
He says this to His own family, and one writer feels how solemn that is.
The Lord's words to His brothers confirm what John says: "The world cannot hate you." They had not thrown in their lot with Christ. The world hated Christ because He testified that its works were evil. What a description of the world! And what a solemn statement about His brothers from the lips of the Saviour of the world!
The reason the world had no quarrel with them was not that they were harmless. It was that they were its own.
"Your time is always here." If you are not saved, today is your time. The present day is the world's time... It is the world's time now, the world's day, man's day. "Your time is always here. The world cannot hate you." The world loves its own. You are part and parcel of it. It does not hate you. You are an essential part of it, and perhaps you are necessary to its progress.
Hatred needs a cause, and the Lord names it. One writer finds the same pattern in Joseph, who served his brothers and was hated for it.
Why was Joseph hated by his brothers? Was he not among them as one who served? True, but they were evil. So however welcome his service might be, his presence exposed their evil and called out their hatred. For the same reason, and far more deeply, the world hated Christ. He could say, "It hates Me because I testify about it that its works are evil."
This verdict on the world's works came from grace itself, and grace did not soften it.
Christ had come to cast fire on the earth. God's holiness was to be shown, and its effects were already appearing: the fire was being kindled among men. He showed that holiness in grace, but grace did not change this, for grace in no way means tolerance of sin. Sadly, men could hardly bear to have their sin exposed. "The world hates Me," said the Lord here, "because I testify about it that its works are evil." So the fire that would have purified, consumed.
Where does that leave the brothers, and who resents this testimony most?
They spoke as of the world, and the world heard them. They loved the world and the things of the world, and the love of the Father was not in them. But what they valued more was this: the world loved them as its own. A terrible position for His brothers, but no less true! How could the world hate those who so prized its honours? It did hate Jesus, with a deadly hatred, because He bore witness about it that its works are evil. That testimony galled the religious world most of all.
One writer applies this verse to why believers are in the world at all.
The Christian is not placed here, as so many think, to enjoy himself. He is put here to be in the world as Christ was... so that we, being in it, are not of it; and further, we are put here to testify against it that its works are evil. At the same time we testify to God's grace. That grace longs for sinners to be saved and to enjoy the precious fruits of Christ's work.
One writer argues that being disliked for that testimony is no disaster.
It is really a compliment to be disliked by the wicked. "Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets"... The Lord in His prayer to the Father in John 17 spoke of His disciples as loved by the Father, but hated by the world. The comfort of the one strengthens us to bear the pain of the other.
- Cause. The world's hatred of Christ had one stated cause — His testimony that its works are evil. Not His service, but His witness.
- Exposure. Hatred rises where evil is exposed. Joseph served his brothers and was still hated, because his presence showed up what they were.
- Belonging. The world cannot hate what belongs to it. His brothers were safe from its hostility because they belonged to it.
- Grace. Grace does not soften the verdict. The fire that would have purified men consumed them instead, because they could not bear to have their sin exposed.
- Commission. God leaves Christians here for the same testimony: against the world's works, and to His grace toward sinners. Expect the same reception.
Ye, go ye up to this feast. I go not up to this feast, for *my* time is not yet fulfilled.
His brothers had just urged Him to go to Jerusalem and show Himself to the world at the feast of Tabernacles. His answer sets their timing apart from His: they may go when they like, but His hour is fixed from above.
His answer rests on a set hour, not on preference. One writer sets it beside similar words He spoke at other times.
We find the Lord using a similar expression elsewhere. It implies how perfectly His life was ordered from above, and in no way the result of unforeseen events... So everything in the life of the incarnate Son had its appointed time. He, as the obedient Man, knew this. And it showed how perfect His service for God was: He not only knew it for the joy of His own heart, but said it openly.
Some copies read "I am not going up." Others read "I am not yet going up." Critics used the difference to accuse Jesus of changing His mind, since He does travel to Jerusalem two verses later. One writer traces the softer reading back to that charge, and answers the charge without it.
The reading "not yet" appears to have come from a wish to answer Porphyry's charge that Jesus was inconsistent. But His not going up then only illustrates what this Gospel writer speaks of elsewhere: His dependence on the Father. The Father directed Him day by day, in what He said (verse 16) and in what He did (verse 19). The natural explanation of Westcott and Plummer removes any real difficulty — the Lord meant that He was not going to keep the feast.
Tabernacles pictured rest after the harvest. That rest could not begin yet, and one writer explains why.
This last feast was a picture of the grape harvest. It showed that they had been a people who lived in shelters, but now had rest. Christ could feed them in the wilderness, but He could not go with them to this feast. Before Christ could enter a rest down here, the work of redemption had to be done, and the church had to be taken. So He said that He was not going up to this feast yet, because His time had not yet fully come. His brothers may go, but He could not now declare His glory and enter His rest. But there was an eighth day, when rest comes. Then He would keep the Feast of Tabernacles. Then God's holy rest would be on the earth, with God's church in the glory.
Their advice sounds practical. A man with such power should show it in public. But one writer reads their motive differently.
The brothers of the Lord Jesus could see the astonishing power that was in Him, but their hearts were worldly. They saw at once that it might turn out unusually well for them, as well as for Him, in this world. It was worldliness in its worst form. They were even ready to turn the glory of Christ into present gain.
A public showing of Himself to the world will come. One writer weighs what that display would have cost if it had come then.
If He had shown Himself to the world then, it would have meant the final ruin of the whole human race. Atonement by His blood had not yet been made. There is a time for that display of Himself... We must always be thankful that He did not do what was asked.
Two verses later He does go up — in secret. One writer explains what that secrecy was for.
Having borne witness to His break with the world, the Lord goes up to the feast, "not publicly but in private". He goes up to Jerusalem, not to take a public place in the world, but to attract individuals out of the world.
- Time given. Every step of His life ran on an hour set from above, never on circumstance — and He said so out loud.
- Time refused. Their advice was worldliness at its worst: turning His glory into present gain.
- Time withheld in mercy. Showing Himself to the world before atonement was made would have meant ruin for the whole race. His "no" was kindness, not evasion.
- Time hidden. He went up in secret — not to take a public place in the world, but to draw individuals out of it.
- Time coming. Tabernacles pictures a rest not yet entered. The feast He turned down then, He will keep on the eighth day, when God's rest fills the earth.
Having said these things to them he abode in Galilee.
One short sentence closes the exchange with His brothers. He had spoken, and then He stayed where He was while others went up to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles. Why would the Son of God turn down the public platform His own family pressed on Him?
Jesus had just told His brothers to go up to the feast, and said He was not going up. That has long puzzled readers. One writer notes that some copies soften it by adding "yet," to answer an early critic. He points to what really governed the Lord's movements:
The reading "not yet" seems to have arisen from a desire to meet Porphyry's charge that Jesus was inconsistent. But the Lord's not going up then was simply an illustration of something this Evangelist speaks of elsewhere. He depended on the Father, who directed Him day by day in what He said (verse 16) and in what He did (verse 19). The natural explanation of Westcott and Plummer removes any real difficulty — the Lord meant He would not keep the feast.
Staying in Galilee was not fear. The same writer shows Him avoiding Judea, where people wanted Him dead, while He worked in the north:
So we see the Lord in the despised place, the True Light — not in the city of solemn feasts. There darkness reigned all the more because nobody suspected it. And in Galilee He walks about on His errand of love. He does not wait for souls to seek Him; He seeks them, so that by believing they might have life in Him. He avoids Judea. He knows that the people there sided with the murderous hatred of their rulers and were seeking to kill Him. He was unwilling — one need not say afraid — to walk about there. He was subject to His Father's will in this.
Galilee was the despised region. Another writer draws out what that choice meant:
Having said this, "he remained in Galilee." He had gone there at His first rejection. We do find Him going up to Jerusalem to keep the feasts, but He stayed there. "The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned" (Matt. 4:15-16). For judgment He came into the world, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. "You say you see," He told the Pharisees, "therefore your sin remains." He was "Jesus of Galilee." The poor despised Galileans had the light when the Jews did not.
His brothers wanted a public display. One commentator explains why He could not give them one:
The Lord's reply shows that, if He has been rejected, the time had not come for His public showing to the world, or for His taking a public part in its affairs. When the Lord does step in publicly, it will be by judgment. Suppose He had taken any public part in the nation at that moment, as His brothers wished. That would have meant judgment for the nation.
One writer reads the Feast of Tabernacles as still unfulfilled. That explains why the Lord would not keep it that year:
In this chapter (7) it is the Feast of Tabernacles — that is, after the judgment. The harvest and the vintage must come first, both symbols of judgment (compare Deut. 16:13 and Rev. 14:14-20). So the Feast of Tabernacles has never yet been fulfilled. Christ was not going to fulfil it at that time. His time was not yet come. His brothers said, "Show yourself to the world," but He could not, for His time had not come. He could go up to the Passover, for He was Himself the Passover, so that was fulfilled. Pentecost, too, was fulfilled when the Holy Spirit came down.
One writer sees His staying behind as a picture of where Christ and His people stand now:
There is a clear break with the world. Flesh has proved no longer capable of association or fellowship. It really never was; but now it takes its own way, and the Lord withdraws. His brothers go up to the Feast of Tabernacles without Him; He does not go up, but stays in Galilee. Only after they have gone does He go, and then not openly, as they wanted, but as in secret — more so than ever before. He is content to be hidden, as it were. That is a picture of what He really is now — and of us with Him, hidden in God, as far as our life is concerned.
- Timing — He refused to travel out of obedience, not inconsistency. The Father directed Him day by day, in what He said and what He did.
- Withdrawal — Judea wanted Him dead. He was unwilling to go, not afraid, and He left the city of feasts to its unsuspected darkness.
- Galilee — He stayed in the despised region. There a great light dawned on people sitting in darkness.
- Restraint — A public showing then would have meant judgment for the nation. So He took no public part.
- Hiddenness — The Feast of Tabernacles still waits to be fulfilled. Meanwhile Christ is hidden, and His people's life is hidden with Him in God.
But when his brethren had gone up, then he himself also went up to the feast, not openly, but as in secret.
His brothers had already left for the feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem. He followed too — but not with them, and not in the open.
The phrase describes how He arrived, not a change of mind. Older translations put it, "not openly, but as it were in secret" — the wording the writers below use.
His brothers went without Him. Would Peter, James, John and the rest have gone up without Him? They had found in Him — Judas excepted — what met their hearts' desire. But the Lord would now show His desire to satisfy the heart of every creature. So He went up, not openly, that is, not publicly, but as it were in secret, and only appeared in the middle of it.
His brothers had urged a public display. One writer weighs His refusal against what the feast of Tabernacles still points to.
In John 7 His own brothers were still sunk in unbelief. They wanted Him to show Himself to the world if He did these great things. But the time for this had not yet come. He will do so when the picture given by the feast of tabernacles is fulfilled. The Passover found its fulfilment at the cross, and Pentecost at the coming of the Holy Spirit. The feast of tabernacles has as yet had no fulfilment.
If He had done what His brothers asked, the result would not have been applause but judgment.
Our Lord's brothers pressed Him to go up to the feast publicly. He declined. When the Lord presents Himself publicly, He must take out of His kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 13:41-42). If the Lord had gone up publicly and removed every offender, how many would have been left?
Another writer sees the delay as a door held open:
It is blessed, very blessed for the world, for the saints, and for those still to be gathered in, that the Lord did not show Himself openly at the feast, because His time had not yet come. "Show yourself to the world" was His brothers' request. This He refused. He went up secretly and taught at the feast. He invited everyone to come and share His mercy, before He should disclose Himself openly.
Going up in secret was not withdrawal from people. It changed who He was there for.
Having borne witness to His break with the world, the Lord goes up to the feast, "not openly, but as it were in secret". He goes up to Jerusalem, not to take a public place in the world, but to draw people out of the world.
By this time the feasts had stopped being the Lord's own:
They had long ceased to be the Lord's feasts. He was shut out. They did not want Him. So in John 7, when Jesus was asked to go up to "the Jews' feast of tabernacles," He answered, "My time has not yet come." When He did go, He went privately. He took His place outside the whole thing, and called every thirsty soul to come to Him and drink.
One writer reads the contrast between their journey and His as a pattern that still holds.
His brothers go up to the feast of Tabernacles without Him; He does not go up, but stays in Galilee. Only after they had gone does He go, and then not openly, as they wanted, but as in secret — more so than ever before. He is content to be, as it were, hidden. That is a picture of what He really is now — and we are hidden with Him in God, as far as our life is concerned.
Verse 8 says He is not going. Verse 10 says He went. Critics long called this a contradiction. Some copies smooth it over by adding "yet."
The reading "not yet" seems to have come from a desire to answer Porphyry's charge that Jesus was inconsistent. But His not going up then simply illustrated what this Gospel writer shows elsewhere: His dependence on the Father. The Father directed Him day by day, in both speech and action. The natural explanation of Westcott and Plummer removes any real difficulty — the Lord meant that He would not go to keep the feast.
- Hidden, by design. He went up "as it were in secret" — not publicly, appearing only once the feast was under way.
- Hidden, because the type waits. The cross fulfilled Passover, and the coming of the Spirit fulfilled Pentecost. Tabernacles still waits, so the public showing was not yet due.
- Hidden, and that is mercy. A public appearing would mean removing all that offends. The delay leaves room for more people to come in.
- Hidden, yet reaching people. He took no place inside a religion that had shut Him out. He stood outside it and called every thirsty soul to Himself.
- Hidden, and still so. His hiding then pictures Christ now — hidden in God, and our life hidden with Him, until He shows Himself openly.