Grace Christian Fellowship: Christian Teachings from John

John 7 "My Time"

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 Jew’s 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 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)

About six months had passed since Jesus had preached in Jerusalem at the Passover feast that He was bread of life. The hatred that the Jewish rulers had for Jesus had become so intense that Jesus avoided Judea and confined His ministry to Galilee. But now the Feast of Tabernacles, another major feast was approaching and all devout Jews would be making the pilgrimage up to Jerusalem and many would expect Him to be there. Jesus’ half brothers, sons of Mary and Joseph, gave Him some words of advice. Basically they thought that as long as He stayed out in the countryside of Galilee where nothing ever happened, He would never amount to anything. If their brother wanted to succeed as a teacher or prophet He had to go where the action was, Jerusalem. "For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly." They urged Him to show Himself to the world. The word tells us that they said this because even they did not believe in Him. Now I think that it is impossible that they could doubt that the miracles that He did were real. They knew that their brother was special, that He could heal the sick and do miracles. That is why they urged Him, "If You do these things, show Yourself to the world." What they did not believe was that He was the Son of God. They did not believe that He was really different than them, that He knew what was in God’s heart. This is a testimony to how human Jesus really became. The people closest to Him, His own brothers who lived in the same house day after day, knew that He got hungry and tired and thirsty and bled just like everyone else when cut. They knew His humanity so well that they found it hard to believe that He was also divine. And so they felt free to give Him their words of advice.
How often we are offered worldly wisdom that lacks faith. Advice that sounds good but does not take into account that God could be part of the equation, solutions that omit the one key ingredient that we dare not leave out. The Feast of Tabernacles was a harvest festival, a time of celebration. There was always plenty of good food and a festive atmosphere as the very hard work of reaping was over and the people settled down to enjoy the fruits of their labor. At the same time this celebration was used to commemorate the time when God provided for His people when they wandered in the wilderness. So each year at the Feast of Tabernacles the people were instructed to build for themselves booths or little makeshift shelters. One commentator called it the Jewish camping festival. And indeed as all the pilgrims gathered around Jerusalem and everyone slept outdoors in their little cabins there would be a lot of excitement in the air. This was the perfect kind of informal setting where someone like Jesus could make a name for Himself. Everyone would be there and they would be in the mood to hear new things and to see something spectacular. It was perfect for publicity. But Jesus wouldn’t go. "My time has not yet come", He said.

As Christians and as a church, it is not hard to know what we are supposed to do. It is all spelled out pretty clearly in the Word. There are a number of different ways of saying it, but it boils down to the "Great Commandment" and the "Great Commission" Jesus told us that the greatest commandment is to love God and to love your neighbor. The great commission means that we should not be satisfied with just our little group of Christians but should endeavor to take the gospel all the way to the ends of the earth. Some groups have phrased it this way, "To Know Him and To Make Him Known" It means the same thing. Jesus asked Peter, "Do you love Me… then feed my sheep. Our lives are to be spent working out the balance between loving Jesus and loving the world that He died for on the cross. It is not hard to know what we are supposed to do, but it is much more difficult to figure out the when, where, how and who. There are many good things that need to be done, many worthwhile projects that need to be taken on, but that doesn’t mean that we need to do them all, or that we need to do them now. The most common error that we make is timing.
Jesus said, "My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready." We tend to think of the timing last. We make our plans and like to think that whenever we do it, it will succeed because we have planned so well. This was Jesus’ comment about His brother’s plan. They thought that Jesus was running out of time. They thought that the sooner He did something the better. But Jesus was actually waiting for the best moment to come. When my family goes to the hot springs we like to play air hockey in the game corner. My son’s strategy is to keep moving the paddle back and forth in front of the goal as fast as he can. He thinks that if he can keep it moving fast enough that we won’t be able to sneak the puck through. This is often our strategy in life. We think that the best thing to do is just to keep busy. As long as we are busy we think that we won’t miss the opportunities that come along. But actually, it is because we are busy that we miss what God is doing. We run back and forth trying to do everything that we think a Christian should do and miss the one thing necessary. Another game in the arcade is called "Mogura Ban-Ban" in Japanese. In it you hold a hammer and try to hit little gophers on the head as they pop up out of their holes. The problem of course is that you don’t know when or where they are going to pop up. Again we end up just bopping the holes as fast as we can at random. This is our problem in life too, I think. We don’t know the when and where of God’s plan and so we try to make up for our lack of inspiration with perspiration. As a church we are tempted to make the Feast of Tabernacles into a religious circus with ourselves in the center ring. We are tempted to do whatever it takes so that the good work that we are doing for God will go forward. We feel the pressure of time running out and think to ourselves that if we don’t do something soon we will miss our chance. But God has a perfect time for us. Jesus did not let His brothers persuade Him into going too soon. Instead when the time was absolutely right. After all the pilgrims had already arrived in Jerusalem and He could go unnoticed, Jesus went discreetly and appeared suddenly right in the middle of the event.

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, never having 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." (John 7:14-24)

Sometime, in the long history of Jewish tradition someone decided that every year during the Feast of Tabernacles someone should get up and read the scroll of Ecclesiastes. During the middle of all the fun and festivities, this ultra-pessimistic little book from the Old Testament would be read. Now the basic message of the book is that all is vanity. The Hebrew word "hebel" has been translated many ways but perhaps the best that I have heard is this, "soap bubbles". The Preacher writes that everything we do in this life is like trying to catch soap bubbles. We work so hard to save money only to lose it when we die. We try to make a name for ourselves only to have our children destroy it after us. We are busy chasing after pleasure, or wisdom, or fame or honor, but none of it lasts. This message is the perfect balance to the joy of the harvest. It is not the harvest that we seek after but the Giver of the harvest. It is the fear of God that lasts, our relationship with Him, not the blessings that we get from Him.
Jesus came at the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles to give this message to the Jews. He did not come to make a name for Himself. He was not after any of the worldly things that His brothers gauged success by. He came to show the Jews the vanity of their religious circus and point them back to the fear of the Lord. Jesus instructed them, "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." This is the same message as the Preacher of Ecclesiastes. To the Jews their traditions and laws were all important, but Jesus saw through them as vanity. The whole crowd was simply chasing after wind. According to their law, Jesus was wrong to heal the man on the Sabbath. But by the very same law they broke the Sabbath themselves when they circumcised a man. Jesus exposed their religious posturing as ridiculous. "hebel".
So why did Jesus heal the man on the Sabbath? Because it was the right time. Why did Jesus come in the middle of the feast and not at the beginning? Because it was the right time. In Ecclesiastes chapter three we learn that, "to everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted: A time to kill, and a time to heal; A time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; A time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to gain and a time to lose; A time to keep and a time to throw away; A time to tear, a time to sew; A time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; A time of war, and a time of peace. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8) God’s time. God’s perfect time. How do we know? How do we know that it is His time and not just our own? The only way to know God’s time is to know God. Otherwise we chase after wind, never knowing when the next thing will come. The only way we can be ready is to quiet ourselves before Him and wait for Him to show us. "He has made everything beautiful in its time." It also says, that He has put eternity in our hearts. We cannot figure out all of what God is doing. Even if we could see His plan I am sure we would not be able to understand it. But we know that there is more to life than the vanity of this world. And in Jesus we have faith that God will share His perfect time with us.

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