My time has not yet fully come

After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He did not wish to go about in Judea because the Jews were looking for an opportunity to kill him. Now the Jewish festival of Booths was near. So his brothers said to him, ‘Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples also may see the works you are doing; for no one who wants to be widely known acts in secret. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.’ (For not even his brothers believed in him.) Jesus said to them, ‘My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify against it that its works are evil. Go to the festival yourselves. I am not going to this festival, for my time has not yet fully come.’ After saying this, he remained in Galilee.

But after his brothers had gone to the festival, then he also went, not publicly but as it were in secret. The Jews were looking for him at the festival and saying, ‘Where is he?’ And there was considerable complaining about him among the crowds. While some were saying, ‘He is a good man’, others were saying, ‘No, he is deceiving the crowd.’ Yet no one would speak openly about him for fear of the Jews.

- John 7:1-13

My study bible notes that this next chapter takes place during Jesus' visit to Jerusalem at the time of the Feast of the Tabernacles (or Booths), an eight-day autumn festival that commemorated the wanderings of ancient Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai, when they lived in tents (or "tabernacles"). With Passover and Pentecost, Tabernacles (Succoth in Hebrew) was one of the three most important festivals of the ancient Jews. This is the final year of Jesus' life. He teaches in the temple and attracts much public attention. A note in my study bible reads, "Some thought Him mad, others believed Him to be the Messiah, and still others (Sadducees and Pharisees who were members of the Sanhedrin) considered Him a threat to the religious and political status quo." In verse 1 we read that "the Jews" (meaning the Jewish leaders) sought to kill him.

It's ironic that we're speaking of the time of the Festival of Tabernacles. John's gospel begins by using the word in Greek for "tent" or "tabernacle" when it speaks of Jesus as Son or Logos coming into the world to "dwell" ("make his tent") among us. (See John 1:14, Greek lexicon page.) For Jesus, this is not a time of welcome in the world, but of hostility. This hostility, we are told is not just from the leadership that sought to kill him as a disruption to the status quo, but also among members of his own family. So his brothers said to him, ‘Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples also may see the works you are doing; for no one who wants to be widely known acts in secret. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.’ (For not even his brothers believed in him.) His brothers ridicule him. For both Eastern and Western Church Fathers, these "brothers" were considered extended family members; they are not called sons of Mary in the gospel. In the East they were understood as sons of Joseph, stepbrothers by a previous wife. Western Fathers understood them to be cousins. Either way, or as brothers in a conventional sense, we get the picture. It's not only that Jesus' disciples fall away, or that he will eventually be betrayed by an apostle (as we read in yesterday's reading), but among his own kin Jesus is not recognized, and his words and teachings about himself are not believed. We get a wider and deeper sense of betrayal and hostility and rejection than his public life and ministry teaches.

Jesus tells them, "My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify against it that its works are evil. Go to the festival yourselves. I am not going to this festival, for my time has not yet fully come." There's a sense that the ridicule takes the pattern of being goaded into "proving himself." But Jesus takes care to follow the will of the Father. When is it his time? When is it not his time? Is he there merely to offer proofs, or something different? Jesus will attend the Festival, but not on the terms his disbelieving brothers set down and tease him with.

But after his brothers had gone to the festival, then he also went, not publicly but as it were in secret. The Jews were looking for him at the festival and saying, ‘Where is he?’ And there was considerable complaining about him among the crowds. While some were saying, ‘He is a good man’, others were saying, ‘No, he is deceiving the crowd.’ Yet no one would speak openly about him for fear of the Jews. One gets a great sense of the crowd being stirred up. He's a powerful healer, speaker, and has many followers. From the previous chapter, we read of his powerful and startling declarations of his gospel: he is our food, we must drink his blood and eat his flesh! His words themselves are spirit and life. He challenges all to believe, and has lost disciples due to these difficult teachings. And yet, he is compelling. He is now a subject of public debate. There is so much tension here in the public arena, just under the surface. We are told, "No one would speak openly about him for fear of the Jews" - that is, the Jewish leadership that wishes to kill him. All of this whispering and debate is going on under the surface, a great fear and tension, murder is also an element now in this scenario of Jesus' life. There seems to be a kind of betrayal everywhere connected with belief or disbelief: his own brothers mock him, he has lost disciples and will be betrayed by one of his own choosing.

All of this comes right after the great dialogue on the gift of himself to us as our spiritual food. (See The bread of life!, For the life of the world, Abide in me, and Spirit and life. ) Jesus has offered to all of us, "for the life of the world," all that he is. His gift to us is himself which he will share with us so deeply that we will "abide in him, and he in us." And yet, out there in the "real world" where his brothers challenge him to go in public and prove himself, there is disappointment, rejection, hostility, debate, judgment, his enemies are searching for him - and there is the threat and fear of death, of murder and betrayal. So there is no "home" - no tent in the wilderness - for Jesus, save in the hearts of those who still have faith in him.

How do we view this man with his courage? Would we call it courage to "show himself" upon goading by his brothers? Do we too fall into the trap of understanding life to be about what we show to the rest of the world for its judgment, or is identity something deeper inside of us? Jesus tells his brothers, "My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify against it that its works are evil." Life is not perfect in this public world of public judgment that does not see into the heart but judges by appearance, by "proofs." Jesus calls this world evil, and calls us all to a deeper recognition of what it is to be filled with "spirit and life" - even what it is to be human and fully alive to all that is within us and in the possibilities inherent as children of the Creator. He draws us to those possibilities. His food will lift us to them, to all that is within us: the teaching in the heart by God. To whom and to what are we called? Within the great public debates about life, about religion and faith, or any issue, remember that there is so much more to us than the judgment of appearances. Faith calls us to dwell somewhere deeper and to seek out life and meanings that He will give us. Spiritual food is not just about being called on the last day. It is about being called upon every day to turn within to that place of inspiration, insight, and love. This gift that gives life in abundance is not just about a notion of living forever. Eternal life is being called to all that Christ is, his nature that will dwell within us, his words of spirit and life that are gifts to us. Seek that for your understanding. We learn, hopefully, of his life itself and it gives us spiritual ears and eyes to see with. Find his truth in his food of spirit and life and see how it changes the way you see things, and keeps giving us greater sight as we walk with him in us. The mystery included therein is infinite, and never ceases offering us new gifts. The world of debate, hostility and intrigue can wait awhile. Find what is there in your heart where we share his food. Make your time his time, and take it wisely, not by following the crowds.