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

Yesterday we read that many of Jesus' disciples, when they heard Him teach, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you," said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?"  When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, "Does this offend you?  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."  For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him.  And He said, "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.  Now the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles was at hand.   The next three chapters (7:1-10:21) concern Jesus' visit to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles.  This entire section will cover eight days.  The Jews who sought to kill Him refers to the religious leadership, and not to the people in general.  By now Jesus has stirred up enough controversy so that they accuse Him of blasphemy.  The Feast of Tabernacles (Hebrew Succoth or Sukkot) is an eight-day autumn harvest festival, which commemorates the time when Israel wandered in the wilderness of Sinai.  At that time they lived in impermanent dwellings:  tents, or tabernacles.  Together with Passover and Pentecost, this was one of the three most important festivals for the ancient Jews.  It included many sacrifices and celebrations (Leviticus 23:33-43).  In later times, the final eighth day of the feast included drawing water from the pool of Siloam (which will figure prominently in chapter 9 of John's account of Jesus' time at this festival), which was mixed with wine and poured at the foot of the altar -- both as purification and in remembrance of the water flowing from the rock that Moses struck (Exodus 17:1-7).   Moreover, it included the lighting of great lamps in the outer court of the temple.  All of these significant events of the festival are reflected in Christ's preaching in the following passages.

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.   Jesus' brothers are his relatives, either step-brothers from a first marriage of Joseph, or cousins (by custom also called "brothers").  It is one more sign of opposition and lack of faith in Jesus' ministry, even among those closest to Him.  In Jesus' ministry, He frequently points to a spiritual family based on obedience to the will of My Father (see Matthew 12:49-50).  Jesus' time is the hour of His glorification, His time of being "lifted up" on the Cross.

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.   That Jesus goes up to the feast, not openly, but in secret means that He does not make a grand public entrance, such as on Palm Sunday (12:12-16), the "time" of His final open confrontation with the authorities leading to the Cross and His Resurrection.  Here, John gives us the controversy among the people concerning Jesus.  But all are afraid to speak openly about Him because of fear of the leaders.

This time in Jesus' ministry is a time of the building up of tension and controversy.  By now the leadership oppose Him enough to want to kill Him.  Many disciples have fallen away from Him because of the controversial teachings He has introduced (see yesterday's reading, above).  The controversy is enough so that Jesus goes to the Festival in Jerusalem not openly, but "in secret" -- that is, without fanfare or announcement.  It is autumn; the next Passover (in the following spring) will be the time of Holy Week, the final week of His earthly life.  We observe that at this point, even His own relations (His "brothers") do not believe in Him.  John's Gospel reveals all this truth to us.  This is not a story of a typical kind of victory.  Christ's victory will be one shared with all of us, on the Cross, and at Resurrection.  He does not come with a conquering army that displaces and forcibly imposes power.  His is a mission of the heart and of the soul, to those whom the Father has given to Him, He says (see Saturday's reading).  John's Gospel gives us the spiritual reality of this mission, which intersects with each of us as we live in this world.  As the Gospel teaches, there are many who reject His message -- and at the same time, there are those of His followers whose faith only deepens, such as Peter's (yesterday's reading, above).  As Jesus proceeds through the Feast of Tabernacles, we are called to hear and see in His ministry the echoes and reflections of Israel's past, as they wandered in the wilderness with Moses seeking the Promised Land.  Jesus' ministry and preaching in the following several chapters will give us insights and deepened meanings of all of these events within Jesus' mission and our understanding of His Person and work in the world.  John's Gospel -- as we've said in earlier readings -- gives us the meanings behind the works in Christ's ministry.  It deepens our understanding of Christ, His work and presence in the world, through the lens of Jewish spiritual history.  And, in so doing, gives us a sense of the future of His mission in the world, the time in which we now live.  Let us journey through the events of this autumn festival with Him, and follow His meanings and teachings for us.