The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil

 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"; other 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, Jesus witnessed about Himself to the religious authorities, and gave other witnesses to His identity:   "I can of Myself do nothing.  As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.  If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true.  There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the witness which He witnesses of me is true.  You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.  Yet I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved.  He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light.  But I have a greater witness than John's; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish -- the very works that I do -- bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.  And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me.  You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form.  But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom he sent, Him you do not believe.  You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.  But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.  I do not receive honor from men.  But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you.  I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.  How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?  Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you -- Moses, in whom you trust.  For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me.  But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?"

 After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him.  The lectionary skips over chapter 6, to which it will return later on in Lent.  In chapter 6, Christ speaks of Himself as the bread of life.  Once again, we remember that the phrase the Jews is used as a political term denoting the religious leaders, and not the people.

Now the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles was at hand.  The Feast of Tabernacles (Hebrew Sukkot) is an eight-day harvest festival in autumn.  It commemorates the time that Israel wandered in the wilderness of Sinai, and the people lived in tents, or tabernacles.  It is also the feast of the coming Kingdom.  This Festival was one of the three most important festivals of the ancient Jews (together with Passover and Pentecost.  It included many sacrifices and celebrations (Leviticus 23:33-43).  In later times, my study bible explains, this feast had particular special events on its final, eighth day.  These included drawing water from the pool of Siloam to be mixed with wine and poured at the foot of the altar, both as purification and in remembrance of the water flowing from the rock struck by Moses (Exodus 17:1-7).  It also included the lighting of the great lamps in the outer court of the temple.  These events should be understood as backdrop for Jesus' teachings at this festival.

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.  The term brothers is used in the Near and Middle East even today to denote extended family.  These brothers are either stepbrothers of Jesus (children of Joseph by an earlier wife prior to his marriage to Mary, the mother of Christ), or they are cousins.  But the Gospel is careful to illustrate the nature of faith in Christ, and the people's response to Him.  Even His brothers -- His own people -- do not believe in Him.  Jesus' words echo His teaching to Nicodemus, but also the references to rejection, light, and darkness throughout the Gospel:   that the world hates Him because He testifies of it that its work are evil.  (See also 1:4-5; 10:11.)

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"; other said, "No, on the contrary, He deceives the people."  However, no one spoke openly of Him for fear of the Jews.  My study bible explains that not openly means not with a grand, public entrance, as on Palm Sunday (12:12-16).  Again, the Gospel illustrates Jesus' place among the people, in the world, so to speak.  There are those who think well of Him, and others who do not.  But above all, people fear the leadership, and speak only in private about Christ to one another. 

In today's reading, the Gospel illustrates the nature of the crowds.  While we may understand questions of belief as those of individuals, the Gospel makes a clear note of the impact that "the world" has on individual decisions.  The people are eager to speak to one another about Christ, as He is by now a public figure.  The leadership despise Him and wish to put Him to death, for all kinds of reasons.   Out of fear, the people don't speak openly in front of the leaders who have decided to put Christ to death.   John's Gospel is the one that repeatedly speaks of the hearts of people (see, for example, 2:24-25).    Indeed, it is John's Gospel that tells us that Judas criticized the anointing of Christ by a woman (Mary of Bethany) not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief (see 12:1-8).  Darkness and light do not mix; we're told that the light shines in the darkness, but that the darkness does not understand it -- neither can it successfully suppress that light (1:5).  We have already been told of Jesus' saying that a prophet has no honor in his own country, referring to his hometown (4:44).  In today's reading, He speaks to His brothers about "the world" -- the phenomenon of crowds, the effects of fame, and how that is related directly to His truth.  So the Gospel makes it clear that faith, and where we place our faith, is not a simple matter.  Neither is it necessarily easy.  It requires discernment, and we need to separate out our faith in God and in Christ from following the crowds.  There is nowhere in the Gospels where the crowds necessarily have it right.  Frequently, crowds are all-too-easily stirred to an evil consequence through manipulation; for example, at the crucifixion.  There are the crowds who desperately seek Christ (and wish to make Him king) because He's fed them (6:26-27).  The Gospels do not take the point of view that all of this is clear or easy or simple.  Rather they tell us that the key to faith is discernment, a kind of response from the depth of ourselves.  Most essentially, real faith and discernment deeply depend upon an attitude of humility.  When Nathanael asks, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" and Jesus, meeting him, declares, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit" (see 1:43-51), Christ is praising Nathanael's lack of pretense, his directness, and his willingness to "come and see" for himself.  Most of all, no deceit implies simplicity and humility.  This is a man who is not double-minded, but sincere, one without pretense.  In today's reading, even Jesus' own relations do not believe in Him, and the crowds speak all things about Him, even as they fear the leaders.  It is a time of confusion, and we live in a world that confuses, in which all things can be said about anyone.  This is the nature of the world, as presented in the Gospels.  It is the nature of the darkness to despise the light.  Therefore, our best bet is the simplicity and directness of Nathanael, our own willingness to come and see,  and  perhaps most all, the humility to open our own darkness to the light so that we grow in that light.  This is the path of discernment, and Lent is the time where we focus on what we really need to be clear on that path.  We focus on humility, get down to the essentials, strip away the pretense, and focus on what we need and need to do.   Let us consider all the opinions of the crowds, and where we get when we simply follow them.  Openness to Christ requires of us a different discipline, an unpretentiousness, and a willingness to let the light shine on what we don't really want to see.  It is the gate to repentance, a willingness to change, to reconsider, to change our minds.   This is humility.  It puts God first, before everything else, and lets in that light even when it hurts to do so.