My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready

After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him. Now the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. His brothers therefore said to Him, "Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that You are doing. For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If You do these things show yourself to the world." For even His brothers did not believe in Him. Then Jesus said to them, "My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil. You go up to this feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, for My time has not yet fully come." When He had said these things to them, He remained in Galilee.

But when His brothers had gone up, then He also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. Then the Jews sought Him at the feast, and said, "Where is He?" And there was much complaining among the people concerning Him. Some said, "He is good." Others said, "No, on the contrary, He deceives the people." However, no one spoke openly of Him for fear of the Jews.

- John 7:1-13

In yesterday's reading, we read of the aftermath of Jesus' discourse and teaching on Himself as the bread of life. Earlier, He had taught, "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed." But now, many of His disciples complained, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?" Jesus asked, "What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe." He knew what was in their hearts, and which would fall away. He taught again, "Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by My Father." From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?" But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?" He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.

After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him. Again, in John's Gospel, the term "the Jews" here refers to the leadership, which actively opposes and seeks to destroy Him, not to the Jewish people nor to Jewish spiritual heritage. Jesus is wary of Judea, the central place of temple leadership, because by now the opposition has become open and fierce.

Now the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. His brothers therefore said to Him, "Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that You are doing. For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If You do these things show yourself to the world." For even His brothers did not believe in Him. Those who oppose Him are not just in Judea! Here His own relatives oppose Him, at least in their hearts at this point. They taunt Him to prove Himself and show Himself openly. "Brothers" can mean extended family and is still used in the Middle East today for extended relationships such as cousins. My study bible notes that the Eastern Fathers understood "brothers" as stepbrothers, sons of Joseph by a previous wife; while the Western Fathers understood them to be first or second cousins. They're never called sons of Mary. Regarding the Feast of Tabernacles, my study bible notes, "The Feast of Tabernacles (Heb. succoth) is an eight-day autumn harvest festival commemorating the wanderings of ancient Israel in the wilderness of Sinai, a time when the chosen people lived in tents (or 'tabernacles'). Along with Passover and Pentecost, Tabernacles was one of the three most important festivals of the ancient Jews."

Then Jesus said to them, "My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil. You go up to this feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, for My time has not yet fully come." When He had said these things to them, He remained in Galilee. Jesus' time will be what is referred to also as His hour, the time of His Passion - His glorfication, and at the Triumphal Entry when He "openly" goes to Jerusalem. But here we have the contrast between the "worldly" and Jesus' testimony of the Father. His spoken word becomes judgment; the truth He brings is something in which one trusts or does not. His own relations apparently cannot share in this trust, either.

But when His brothers had gone up, then He also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. Then the Jews sought Him at the feast, and said, "Where is He?" And there was much complaining among the people concerning Him. Some said, "He is good." Others said, "No, on the contrary, He deceives the people." However, no one spoke openly of Him for fear of the Jews. We're now in the time of open persecution of Jesus, short of what is to come at the Passion. And I think we have to recall that in the times when John wrote his Gospel (and the Revelation), the Church was also undergoing a terrible and vicious persecution on a number of fronts. John's focus on opposition and betrayal tells us a lot about what the Church was to experience. Here, he gives us Jesus going to festival in secret, as it is not yet His time. But opposition and violence and threats are everywhere from the leadership ("the Jews"). The people themselves are torn about Him. Some call Him good, others do not. But the people themselves do not speak where the leadership can hear them, out of fear. So the people themselves are not "openly" at the festival, either, in some sense.

The menace of persecution is something we can palpably feel in the Gospel at the point of this reading. It comes to us in many ways, including the taunting of Jesus' "brothers." John gives us this picture of what it is to be Christ with His mission, to testify of the Father, and there is so much in opposition to this testimony. It's not a "hearts and roses" sort of picture, a sentimental do-gooder who's everyone's idea of a friend or companion. On the contrary, the Jesus we receive in this Gospel has "hard sayings" that not even His followers can accept (see yesterday's reading). Again, I feel we'd best go back to understand the persecution under which John and the Church suffered in John's lifetime, and know that in the other Gospels as well Jesus warns repeatedly not just of persecution to come, but also betrayal, and even wolves in sheep's clothing among His own, whom we as His followers are always to be vigilant about, on the watch for. In other words, this is not a fairy tale. It's a true story about human beings, about struggles, and even about the ongoing struggles we may receive in our own lives as faithful. Jesus doesn't promise us a rose garden without the thorns. In the "hard saying" of yesterday's (and recent) readings, we find many of His own disciples come to a crossroads: they can't understand about the bread of life, His words about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. And they can't trust past those words. But the twelve, with Peter speaking for them, find themselves at the place of faith where they trust more deeply. Peter's confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, is an affirmation of that deeper step, even as many fall away from them. Here in today's reading, Jesus goes up to the Festival in secret, not openly. He has work to do, but His hour has not yet come. There is persecution and danger. But through it all, there is a mission and a plan, to which He must be faithful. As He trusts in the Father, so He asks our trust in Him. And that's where faith goes; that's the road we're on. Sometimes we encounter danger, and separation even from family, and friends. We come to a crossroads where we have to decide: can we follow in faith, in trust? We don't know where it leads us. But our trust is in love, in the Father of love, in God who is love, in the One who truly has our best interest at heart. Which path do you choose?