Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment

 Now about the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught.  And the Jews marveled, saying, "How does this Man know letters, having never studied?"  Jesus answered them and said, "My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me.  If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority.  He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him.  Did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keeps the law?  Why do you seek to kill Me?"  The people answered and said, "You have a demon.  Who is seeking to kill You?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "I did one work, and you all marvel.  Moses therefore gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.  If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath?  Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." 

Now some of them from Jerusalem said, "Is this not He whom they seek to kill?  But look!  He speaks boldly, and they say nothing to Him.  Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ?  However, we know where this Man is from; but when the Christ comes, no one knows where He is from."  Then Jesus cried out, as He taught in the temple, saying, "You both know Me, and you know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know.  But I know Him, for I am from Him, and He sent Me."  Therefore they sought to take Him; but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.  And many of the people believed in Him, and said, "When the Christ comes, will He do more signs than these which this Man has done?"

The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things concerning Him, and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take Him.  Then Jesus said to them, "I shall be with you a little while longer, and then I go to Him who sent Me.  You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come."  Then the Jews said among themselves, "Where does He intend to go that we shall not find Him?  Does He intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?  What is this thing that He said, 'You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come'?"

- John 7:14-36

Yesterday, we read that after the events following the teachings on His Body and Blood, 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.

 Now about the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught.  We recall that Jesus is in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles (Hebrew Sukkot), an autumn harvest festival.  The events in these next few chapters of John's Gospel concern things that happened at this festival, which covers eight days, and is the feast of the coming Kingdom, commemorating the time Israel lived in tents (or booths or tabernacles) following Moses toward the promised land.

 And the Jews marveled, saying, "How does this Man know letters, having never studied?"  Jesus answered them and said, "My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me.  If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority.  He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him.  Did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keeps the law?  Why do you seek to kill Me?"  The people answered and said, "You have a demon.  Who is seeking to kill You?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "I did one work, and you all marvel.  Moses therefore gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.  If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath,so that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath?  Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment."   Once again we remember that the term the Jews is used to denote the religious leadership (all the people here are Jews, including Jesus).  My study bible says of Jesus' teachings here that the simple desire to know and follow God's will is the key to understanding it.  Spiritual blindness comes from the unwillingness to truly know God or to recognize God's authority.   My study bible cites St. John Chrysostom here, who paraphrased the words of Christ as follows:  "Rid yourselves of wickedness:  the anger, the envy, and the hatred which have arisen in your hearts, without provocation, against Me.  Then you will have no difficulty in realizing that My words are actually those of God.  As it is, these passions darken your understanding and distort sound judgment.  If you remove these passions, you will no longer be afflicted in this way."  Jesus refers here to a quarrel with the authorities which began when Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover, and healed a man near the pool at the Sheep Gate.  He was subsequently accused by the leadership of breaking the Sabbath.

Now some of them from Jerusalem said, "Is this not He whom they seek to kill?  But look!  He speaks boldly, and they say nothing to Him.  Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ?  However, we know where this Man is from; but when the Christ comes, no one knows where He is from."  Then Jesus cried out, as He taught in the temple, saying, "You both know Me, and you know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know.  But I know Him, for I am from Him, and He sent Me."  Therefore they sought to take Him; but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.  And many of the people believed in Him, and said, "When the Christ comes, will He do more signs than these which this Man has done?"  My study bible tells us that these crowds here are mistaken, both in an earthly sense and in a divine sense.  Humanly speaking, they think Jesus is from Nazareth in Galilee.  But they're mistaken, as He was actually born in Bethlehem.  But beyond worldly birth, they can't understand that He has come from the Father in Heaven, eternally begotten before all ages, and therefore His divine origin is also unknown to them.  His hour referred to here is the time of His suffering and death on the Cross.  My study bible says that Christ is the Lord over time, which is an authority that is possessed by God alone.  He comes to the Cross of His own free will and in His time, not in accordance with the plots of human beings (see also 8:20; 10:39).  Jesus makes clear statements here of His relationship to the Father, for which they seek to seize Him.

The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things concerning Him, and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take Him.  Then Jesus said to them, "I shall be with you a little while longer, and then I go to Him who sent Me.  You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come."  Then the Jews said among themselves, "Where does He intend to go that we shall not find Him?  Does He intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?  What is this thing that He said, 'You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come'?"  Here Jesus refers to His death, Resurrection, and Ascension into heaven -- clearly giving us a picture that He knows what is to come.  It is all, in some sense, in His and the Father's hands, and will be a voluntary "exodus" on the Cross (see translation footnote at Luke 9:31).  To go among the Greeks is to go to teach among the Gentiles; that is, Greek-speakers, as the lingua franca of the time was Greek.  This is an unwitting prophecy.  It points to the time after His Ascension, when Christ's name will be preached among the Gentiles by the apostles.  Indeed, all the books of the New Testament (and at Christ's time, as well as for many centuries afterward, even the Old Testament Scriptures) were written and studied in Greek.

Jesus takes the traditions of the past, and something new is born as fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies.  Many of the people believe in Him, but the leadership -- although He does have followers among them -- firmly is against Him.  He is a threat to their place, and they will use the Law against Him, to charge Him with blasphemy.  Here in today's passage we see a common sort of development in John's Gospel.  Jesus' words are hard to understand, and hard to interpret.  A literal reading of His words will not allow one the insight to know what He's talking about.  Like the insistence upon the literal holding of the traditions that were developed around the Law, a literal understanding only of His words will not get anyone very far, because Jesus' words have meanings on many levels.  It requires an opening of the heart to perceive, an act opening to the possibility of faith.  The leadership clings to a worldly perspective, concerned as they are about their own authority and their places.  But Jesus teaches by example, and as we can see from His words, He clings over and over again to His relationship to the Father and His mission given in such relationship.  There is no separation between Father and Son.  That is, even on the Cross, as Jesus teaches, His Father is with Him (see 8:29, 16:32).  Jesus shows us the importance of clinging to this relationship, and that all things come in relation to God, even His identity as well as our identity.  He seeks the glory of the One who sent Him.  Throughout misunderstanding, throughout persecution, through all difficulties, it is the one thing necessary that Jesus clings to -- and by doing so, sets the example for all of us.  How does your relationship to Christ shape you?  How does it shape your decisions?  Does it define you when others would define you otherwise?  This is the key to Christ, and to true faith.  Who are we as we abide in Him?  What does it mean not to judge according to appearance, but to truly judge with righteous judgment?