7 7:1After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. 2 7:2Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand. 3 7:3So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. 4 7:4For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 7:5For not even his brothers believed in him. 6 7:6Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. 7 7:7The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. 8 7:8You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” 9 7:9After saying this, he remained in Galilee.
10 7:10But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private. 11 7:11The Jews were looking for him at the feast, and saying, “Where is he?” 12 7:12And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, “He is a good man,” others said, “No, he is leading the people astray.” 13 7:13Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him.
14 7:14About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. 15 7:15The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” 16 7:16So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. 17 7:17If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. 18 7:18The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. 19 7:19Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” 20 7:20The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” 21 7:21Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. 22 7:22Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. 23 7:23If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well? 24 7:24Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”
Imagine a great king building a palace for the honor of his son, the crown prince. Prophets informed this great king that past triumphs of the kingdom would culminate in the victory of the crown prince. The crown prince’s conquest, moreover, would be according to the pattern of the past triumphs. To celebrate these past triumphs, and to anticipate the future victory of the crown prince, the king decreed celebrations of the past triumphs in the palace built for the crown prince. The celebrations and the palace and the anticipation and the commemoration of the past were all for the glory of the crown prince.
Imagine how ironic and appalling it would be if the palace came to be occupied by enemies of the crown prince, if his enemies intended to use the celebrations in honor of the crown prince as opportunities to capture and, if possible, kill the crown prince—as though the crown prince’s birthday party in his father’s house might be the time to murder him. Imagine how wrong it would be if the crown prince had to sneak into the palace built in his own honor at the time of the celebration given in his honor in order to attempt to subvert the rebels who had taken over in his home.
Jesus comes as the son of David through whom God would save his people. The temple was built by Solomon, the son of David, and by tabernacling among man Jesus fulfilled the temple. The temple was about Jesus. The Feasts of Passover and Tabernacles were about the salvation Jesus would accomplish. And the shocking irony of chapter 7 is that Jesus has to go to the feast in secret because the rebels against God want to kill him. At the feast, Jesus tells the truth in an attempt to subvert the false narrative the rebels would use to kill him.
John 7:1 explains that Jesus was walking about in Galilee, avoiding Judea because the Jews were still seeking his life (cf. 5:18). The Passover was celebrated in the first month (Lev. 23:5), Tabernacles in the seventh (Lev. 23:34), and Dedication in the ninth (John 10:22). In 6:4 it was the season of the Passover, and now 7:2 tells us that we have arrived at the season of Tabernacles, six months later.
In 7:10 Jesus will go up to Jerusalem, and we do not read of another trip to Galilee in the rest of the Gospel. In 10:40 he crosses the Jordan before returning to Bethany, just two miles from Jerusalem, in 11:1–44. He goes to “a town called Ephraim,” which was in “the region near the wilderness,” in 11:54 before returning in 12:1–19 to Bethany on his way to Jerusalem for the Passover at which he would be crucified.
After the mention of Tabernacles in 7:2 (seventh month), the next time indicator comes at the mention of the Feast of Dedication in 10:22 (ninth month). It thus appears that John 7:1–10:21 is a continuous narrative set in and around Jerusalem between the Feast of Tabernacles and the Feast of Dedication.
Chapter 1 had announced Jesus as the Word-become-flesh from the bosom of the Father, and 7:1 contains the shocking statement that the Jews sought to kill him. Jesus is the King of the Jews, the son of David, the Light of the World, who “came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (1:11).
Jesus’ brothers urge him to go to Jerusalem so his disciples and the world can see the works he does, apparently assuming that he “seeks to be known openly” (7:4). John explains their counsel in verse 5 with the note that his brothers did not yet believe in him.
The statement of Jesus’ brothers could be taken in at least two ways. They could be scorning and mocking Jesus in open hostility to him. Alternatively, they could be responding positively to Jesus without understanding his agenda. They see the mighty works he does, understand he is the Messiah, and assume he should go public, as reflected when they counsel, “If you do these things, show yourself to the world” (v. 4).
This second option seems to fit both the words of the brothers and what Jesus says in response. Jesus seems to speak in an explanatory tone here, not a defensive or rebuking one. If this is correct—if the brothers of Jesus are not being derisive and hostile to him—how are we to understand John’s comment that they were not believing in Jesus? It appears they do not understand what the signs signify, that his hour has not yet come, or what that hour will entail.
The brothers of Jesus would know the purity of his life. They would have seen the supernatural things he was doing. They would know their status in the line of David. They perhaps understood that their brother was the long-awaited Messiah, but they shared with their contemporaries a set of wrong assumptions and expectations about what he had come to do. As a result of their truncated understanding of his mission—they think he has come to conquer rather than to suffer and then conquer—they give bad advice that Jesus rejects.
If we are correct thus far about Jesus’ brothers, we have more insight not only into the nature of their advice but also into the sense in which Jesus rejects it. Jesus’ brothers tell him to go up to the feast (v. 3), he says he is not going (v. 8), but then he goes (v. 10). We might think something amiss here if we fail to understand what the brothers are suggesting and what Jesus is saying he is not going to do. The brothers of Jesus seem to suggest that he should go up to the feast and enter Jerusalem in the very manner he will in fact follow when his hour comes, when the crowds wave branches of palm and cry “Hosanna!” (cf. 12:12–15). The brothers are not simply suggesting that Jesus go to the feast; they are suggesting he parade in with the streaming crowds to be celebrated so that the movement can build momentum.
This understanding of what the brothers of Jesus have suggested explains why Jesus answers that his time has not yet come (7:6), and it allows us to see no contradiction between Jesus’ saying he is not going up to the feast in verse 8 and his going up to the feast privately in verse 10. Jesus does not mean he is not going at all. He means the time has not come for him to enter Jerusalem in triumph to thrill the throngs and marshal thousands for the taking of the kingdom. Jesus does not go to the feast in the way his brothers urge him to. They do not believe because they cannot, and they cannot believe because they do not understand his mission.
The Jews sought to kill Jesus (v. 1), and his brothers did not understand his purpose (v. 5). If ever someone deserved the esteem of his kinsmen, it was Jesus. If ever someone deserved the sympathetic understanding of his family members, it was Jesus. Rather than receiving what he deserves from countrymen and kinsmen, however, Jesus was met with hostility and unbelief, with wrong assumptions and misguided expectations.
Jesus explains himself and answers his brothers in verses 6–8. He states that he will not take the unbelieving advice of his brothers and go up to Jerusalem because his time has not yet come. While his brothers can go up, the time for Jesus to do so publicly has not yet arrived. That time will arrive at the triumphal entry narrated in 12:12–19, when Jesus will declare that the hour had come (12:23).
Jesus also speaks to the hostility of those who seek to kill him (7:1; cf. 5:18), explaining that the world hates him “because I testify about it that its works are evil” (7:7). Since “the Jews were seeking to kill him” (v. 1), when Jesus speaks of the world hating him (v. 7), he thereby identifies the unbelieving Jews as belonging to “the world.” By his presence, by his purity, by his power, and by his prerogative, Jesus testifies that the world’s deeds are evil. The world hates Jesus because he is the light and the world loves darkness.
The brothers of Jesus were calling for him to go public, for him to go to the feast so that his disciples and the world could see the things he was doing (vv. 4–5). Jesus asserted that he was not going up to the feast in that way for that purpose (v. 8). Rather than joining the swarming hordes entering Jerusalem for all to see (v. 9), Jesus went to the feast in private (v. 10), avoiding those who were eager to find him (v. 11).
The various statements John reports in verses 11–12 show the uncertainty of the time. On the one hand are the reports of the mighty deeds of Jesus and what seems to be the power of God at work, but on the other hand is the hostility of the establishment. Whom should the people trust? This uncertainty arose from a mix of expectation, assumption, and concern of different groups responding to Jesus. The Jews were disputing over whether he was good or a deceiver (v. 12), but because of the intimidation of the authorities, no one felt free to speak openly about him (v. 13).
How can such uncertainties be resolved? John presents the resolution for us in the structure of his narrative. He lets Jesus stand up and speak for himself. Those who want their uncertainty about Jesus resolved need only to listen to what he says.
7:14–24 Subverting Lies with Truth. As Jesus begins to teach (v. 14), the crowds inquire about his qualifications for doing so (v. 15). The traditional channels have not authorized Jesus, so the people want to know the source of his insight and authority.
Jesus details the source of his authority, the goal of his teaching, and the method people can use to test the validity of his teaching. What Jesus says in verses 16–18 is very similar to what he said in 5:43–47. In both places Jesus asserts that he teaches not on the basis of his own authority but in the name of the Father; in both places he speaks of the difference between seeking glory from people and seeking God’s glory; in both places he appeals to Moses.
Jesus states the source of his teaching in 7:16 and its authority in verse 18. The teaching, Jesus says, is not his own but that of the one who sent him, God the Father (v. 16). Jesus speaks not in his own name, seeking to make himself great, but seeks the glory of the one who sent him, the Father.
In his teaching, the goal is to seek “the glory of him who sent him” (v. 18), and this can be validated by anyone who desires to do God’s will (v. 17). Jesus declares that anyone who comes to him in good faith—not seeking to trap or trick him—can learn the truth. Anyone who truly seeks to please God by doing God’s will—not seeking to gratify one’s own selfishness or pride—can know with certainty whether Jesus is to be trusted. Anyone who comes to Jesus and hears what he says and heeds it will know that what he says comes from God.
That Jesus seeks the Father’s glory (v. 18) shows there is no selfishness in the teaching of Jesus, no corruption, nothing that would make what he says untrue. If we begin to suspect that people are trying to make a name for themselves, we grow skeptical. We begin to wonder if they really care for us or if they are merely tickling our ears. We begin to wonder if they really believe what they are saying or if they have merely discerned which way the winds are blowing. We begin to wonder if they really have our best interests at heart, if they are really committed to serving us and doing what they can to love us and provide what is best for us, or if they are merely using us as a stepping-stone to the fame and renown they seek for themselves.
Jesus declares that he seeks not his own glory but the glory of the one who sent him. He is not making a name for himself. He is not trying to grow the crowd or cause word of mouth about him to spread or multiply his Twitter followers or sell more books. Jesus seeks the glory of the Father, and the way he does so is by loving people and telling them the truth. Jesus is prepared to do so regardless of what it costs him, knowing it will cost him his life. Jesus is prepared to do so regardless of whom it sets against him, knowing he will be rejected. Jesus is thus to be believed because he is “true, and in him there is no falsehood” (v. 18). No growing influence or stature will cause Jesus to alter his message or nuance his declarations. There will be no crowd-pleasing from Jesus: his heart is pure. His words are true. His hour is appointed. His purpose is set. He will love God. He will love his people. He will go to the cross. He will finish his course.
In 5:1–16, the Jews began to persecute Jesus because he healed on the Sabbath. As Jesus explained himself, he asserted that if his opponents believed Moses, they would believe Jesus too, because Moses wrote of Jesus (5:39, 45–46). The Jews were seeking to kill Jesus for healing on the Sabbath and calling God his own Father (5:18), and they still seek to kill Jesus for those reasons in chapter 7 (vv. 1, 7).
Jesus once again addresses their opposition to him based on Moses by asserting that Moses in fact supports his cause. Jesus indicts his opponents for not keeping the law (v. 19), asking why they seek to kill him. Jesus knows that keeping the law involves not murdering, and it also entails receiving his message rather than rejecting him. How would receiving and believing in Jesus amount to keeping the law? Not only because the law prophesied of his coming, but also because their believing in Jesus would result in fulfilling the law the same way Abraham did: Abraham believed, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6). Because Abraham believed, it was declared that he had kept the law (Gen. 26:5).
Jesus declares that the Scriptures testify about him (John 5:39), that Moses wrote about him (5:46–47), and that trying to kill Jesus is a failure to keep the law (7:19). Christ is the end of the law (Rom. 10:4), so to reject the Christ is to fail to keep the law.
The crowd is shocked at the assertions made by Jesus, declaring that he has a demon and demanding to know who seeks his life. The narrative makes plain that the enemies of Jesus are seeking his life (John 7:1, 7; cf. 7:25, 30, 32), so even though the crowd may be shocked, the narrative shows that the words of Jesus are true.
Jesus then explicitly addresses the animosity from 5:18 when he references the “one work” in 7:21 and then deals with healing on the Sabbath in verse 23. Jesus shows that his opponents do not understand the weightier matters of the law, nor do they understand the purpose of the law itself. Their opposition to him is only superficial (v. 24).
Jesus points out that if the eighth day of a male child’s life happens to fall on a Sabbath, the child is nevertheless circumcised. This shows that keeping the regulation about circumcision on the eighth day does not conflict with keeping the regulation about resting on the Sabbath (v. 23). And if it is right to circumcise a man on the Sabbath, then how could it be wrong to make a man’s whole body healthy on the Sabbath? The law enabled people made unclean by sin and death to dwell in a clean state in the presence of God. Circumcision was part of what made a man fit to live in God’s presence. By healing the man lame for thirty-eight years, Jesus has done something far more significant than circumcision in order to make this man hale and whole to enter God’s presence. He has no more broken the Sabbath than a priest would who performed a circumcision on the Sabbath.
The allegation that Jesus had transgressed the Sabbath by healing on the Sabbath was thus shown to be a superficial quibble with no grounding in the law of Moses. In fact, rightly understood, the law of Moses supported what Jesus did when he healed on the Sabbath. The law of Moses, moreover, looks forward to the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, the king from Judah’s line who would reopen the way to the garden of Eden. The law of Moses pointed forward to Jesus. Jesus was in the process of fulfilling the law of Moses, and those who saw him doing so and desired to keep the law of Moses should have believed Jesus.
1 Or Judeans; Greek Ioudaioi probably refers here to Jewish religious leaders, and others under their influence, in that time
2 Or brothers and sisters; also verses 5, 10
3 Some manuscripts add yet
4 Or this man knows his letters
5 Greek his