John 7:1-9
“Notice what you notice.” Now we are leaving the Synoptics for a while. For the rest of this month we are in John’s Gospel. Today we have Him in Galilee talking with His “brothers” about travel to Jerusalem for the Feast of Booths. They want Him to go, but He says no and stays behind (until tomorrow).
It will probably be the case for the rest of this month that there are many sentences and even entire paragraphs that I do not understand. So there will be many things that will be new to me – or at least new to my understanding! For today, however, I must focus on the old, something that I do understand: For not even his brothers believed in him. (v. 5) It must have been difficult for Jesus to have such opposition, not just with the Jewish leaders (who wanted to kill him – verse 1), but also within His own family. At this point He knew who He was. And presumably His mother surely also knew who He was. So I always wonder at His brothers’ lack of faith. Didn’t Mary tell them about Him? Or did she simply “treasure all these things in her heart” (Luke 2:19), but kept them to herself?
The good news is that at least a few of Jesus’ brothers came to faith in who He was. So I continue to pray that my own brother will soon find his own faith in Jesus.
Slava Bohu!
Hi Fred, his brothers didn’t believe him, but I am not sure Mary told them: “She kept all these things in her heart”. Perhaps she was looking for them to know on their own through the spirit?
I was chewing on Jesus’ telling his brothers “your time is always here” and “the world cannot hate you”. As opposed to his time was not yet and the world hated him. Was he saying that they were of the world, v. of the spirit? They were perhaps feeling self righteous heading to Jerusalem for the feast of tabernacles or tents, commemorating the time in the desert.
Hi Debbie,
You’ve hit on the first couple of my many John confusions for the next few weeks. It’s why I wimped out yesterday and only commented on the item that His brothers did not yet believe…! 🙂 I think I need a copy of Joe Dongell’s Commentary on John’s Gospel!
Amen!