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.