Show Yourself

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

Here we have another instance in which Jesus chooses to do his work in secret, hidden from the crowds. We are often told that this is because it is not yet his time, but in this passage, as in the previous passage of yesterday's reading, we're given perhaps a more important spiritual reason why this is so. He is taunted by his brothers that someone who wishes to be widely known has to go and publicize his acts and his deeds. He must show himself and put himself on display, so that he will be an effective teacher, and prove himself to the world..

Jesus himself tells them that it is not yet his time, but there's more to the story. We're also told that his brothers didn't believe in him - therefore those who are telling him he must be famous, or must seek to show himself and to show off his works are those who don't believe at all. Couple this with the passages from yesterday, about glory and whence it comes, and you have an affirmation about Jesus' perspective that it is not fame or praise of men that he seeks at all. He testifies of the world that its works are evil - because people do not seek the glory given from God - and so the world hates him. He has work to do before he meets his fate, it is not yet his time.

So the shunning of fame and self-glorification for its own sake comes as a component to yesterday's admonition about the difference between glory that comes from God and the glory that comes from self-aggrandizement, or the praise of other men. I couple this with Jesus' teachings about praying in secret. This is not a person who needs others' approval to have faith in what he is doing. Nor is he someone who seeks glory or fame for its own sake, in order to bask in the reflection of the world, in his image in other people's eyes. The taunting that he must show himself comes from those who do not believe, not from the faithful he seeks as his followers, who are able to share a different perception of glory.

So Jesus goes to the festival in secret; he is there but does not show himself. I wonder if that is a wonderful metaphor for his presence in our world today. He is here, he is by our side, for those of faith. We have a companion upon whom we call. But what happens if our faith is based on the showing of works and the praise of others?