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.