Lesson 9: Why Many Do Not Believe (2)

Opening Questions:

1. What barriers to belief can you identify in the text?
2. How was Jesus’ teaching different from the teachings of others?
3. What questions do you have from the text?

Jesus’ Brothers Do Not Believe (vss. 1-13)

The Feast of Booths was approximately six months after the Passover (see John 6.4), thus at the start of chapter 7 it was only about six months until Jesus’ crucifixion. During that time Jesus stayed in Galilee, knowing that the Jews were seeking to kill Him (see John 5.18). However, as the Feast of Booths approached, Jesus’ brothers mockingly told Him that He should go to Jerusalem. Vs. 5 explicitly tells us that they did not believe, and their words to Jesus in (vss. 3-4) were likely spoken with the knowledge that He had lost many of His followers (see John 6.66). In essence, they were saying that if Jesus wanted to regain His following, He should go to Jerusalem and amaze the crowd.

Jesus refused His brothers’ request because “My time has not yet come” (vs. 6, repeated in vs. 8). Jesus’ was not here to do His will, but the Father’s (see John 4.34). Thus, He was operating on the Father’s time schedule, and the time for His death had not yet come. Jesus’ brothers were free to go up to the feast because they were of the world (vs. 7) and would be loved and accepted (see John 15.19). But Jesus had the hatred of the world because He declared its works to be evil.

While Jesus did go up to the Feast at a later time (vs. 10), we should not conclude that Jesus had vacillated in His thinking. Going to Jerusalem after the Feast had started had allowed Jesus to arrive without fanfare, as is evident by the questioning of both the Jews and the people in vss. 11-13.

Division Over Jesus’ Teaching (vss. 14-36)

We can only assume that Jesus teaching in the Temple was according to the Father’s will and timeline. “We must recall, however, that the focus of Jesus’ concern was not privacy but obedience to his Father. Even so, had he gone publicly with the other pilgrims at the beginning of the Feast, it is not unlikely that a premature ‘triumphal entry’ might have been forced on him, an event the authorities would have judged all the more destabilizing if this Feast occurred shortly after the slaughter of the Galileans in the temple courts (Lk. 13:1)” (Carson).

Vs. 15 is key to understanding the passage. Trained rabbis would normally appeal to precedent and previous rabbinical teachings when discussing the Law. By contrast, Jesus declared, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me” (vs. 16). The people could know that Jesus’ teaching came from God ONLY if they desired to do God’s will (vs. 17), but their willingness to violate the Law by seeking to kill Jesus had shown that they were not seeking to follow the Father’s will (vs. 19). Jesus then referenced the healing which led the Jews to seek and kill Him (vs. 21; see John 5.1-17) and pointed out both their ignorance of God’s will and their hypocrisy. “The Rabbis counted 248 parts to a man’s body. In the Talmud (b. Yoma 85b) R. Eleazar ben Azariah (ca. A.D. 100) states: ‘If circumcision, which attaches to one only of the 248 members of the human body, suspends the Sabbath, how much more shall the saving of the whole body suspend the Sabbath?’” (NET Notes). If they circumcised on the Sabbath to keep the Law, how could they not see that Jesus was doing the Father’s work on the Sabbath (see John 5.17)?

Jesus’ teaching only further divided opinions regarding His identity (vss. 25-27). “the Jerusalemites hold the view… that the Messiah would be born of flesh and blood yet would be wholly unknown until he appeared to effect Israel’s redemption” (Carson). Jesus’ countered that while they may know where He came from (see John 1.45), they didn’t truly know Him because they didn’t know the One who sent Him (vss. 28-29). Again, opinion was divided, but Jesus was not yet arrested “because his hour had not yet come” (vs. 30). Even though further efforts were made to apprehend Him, Jesus revealed that He would only be present for a short time before returning to the Father (vs. 33). Regarding Jesus’ statement that “You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come” (vs. 34) note that Jesus would repeat this to both opponents (John 8.21) and to His disciples (John 13.33). However, to the disciples it was promised that they would “follow afterwards” (John 13.36).

Division Over Jesus’ Promise (vss. 37-52)

Some background information on the last day of the feast will help us to better understand Jesus’ words. “The eighth, the close of the whole festival, and kept as a Sabbath (Leviticus 23:36). It was called the Day of the Great Hosanna, because a circuit was made seven times round the altar with “Hosanna;” also the Day of Willows, and the Day of Beating the Branches, because all the leaves were shaken off the willow-boughs, and the palm branches beaten in pieces by the side of the altar. Every morning, after the sacrifice, the people, led by a priest, repaired to the Fountain of Siloam, where the priest filled a golden pitcher, and brought it back to the temple amid music and joyful shouts. Advancing to the altar of burnt-offering, at the cry of the people, “Lift up thy hand!” he emptied the pitcher toward the west, and toward the east a cup of wine, while the people chanted, “With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.” It is not certain that this libation was made on the eighth day, but there can be no doubt that the following words of the Lord had reference to that ceremony” (Vincent).

Jesus’s words in vss. 37-38 were significant for a couple of reasons. First, He was proclaiming that He was the fulfillment of God’s promises found in Isaiah 55.1; Zech. 13.1;14.16-17; see John 4.14. Second, John adds the note that Jesus was speaking of the Spirit (vs. 39). It is significant that Jesus’ promise of the Spirit came on the heels of His declaration that He was going away (vss. 33-34), since the Spirit would only come after His glorification.

However, the people remained divided over Jesus (vs. 43). Some continued to believe that Jesus was the Prophet whom Moses had foretold (Deut. 18.15-18; see John 6.14), some thought He was the Christ, while others thought it impossible, not knowing that Jesus had in fact been born in Bethlehem (Micah 5.2; Luke 2.1-7). There was even divided opinions amongst the Jewish leaders (vss. 44-52). While most wanted Jesus apprehended, the temple guard was unwilling to do so because “No one ever spoke like this man!” (vs. 46). Of the Jewish leaders, only Nicodemus spoke up on Jesus’ behalf, but his efforts were met with ridicule (vss. 51-52).

Textual Notes:

• Note Matt. 15-18; Mark 7-9; Luke 9:18–50 for what events transpired during this six month window.
• Vs. 2: see Leviticus 23.34-43; Deuteronomy 16.13-15. This feast occurred in September or early October. “According to Josephus, this Feast was the most popular of the three principal Jewish feasts that brought the faithful flocking to Jerusalem (‘especially sacred and important’, Jos., Ant. viii. 100). People living in rural areas built makeshift structures of light branches and leaves to live in for the week (hence ‘booths’ or ‘tabernacles’; cf. Lv. 23:42); town dwellers put up similar structures on their flat roofs or in their courtyards. The Feast was known for a water-drawing rite and a lamp-lighting rite to which Jesus quite clearly refers (cf. 7:37ff.; 8:12).” (Carson)
• Vs. 5: see also Mark 3.21,31-35; Acts 1.14.
• Vs. 6: see also John 2.4; 7.30; 8.20; 12.23; 13.1; 17.1.
• Vs. 20: note that the crowd was unaware of the schemes of the Jews (i.e. the leaders)
• Vs. 32: “The temple guards were a kind of temple police force, drawn from the Levites, with primary responsibility for maintaining order in the temple area. But since the Sanhedrin governed the internal affairs of the country in all matters of little interest to the Roman prefect, the temple police could be used at the pleasure of that high court in matters quite removed from the sacred precincts” (Carson).
• Vs. 35: in an ironic twist, it would be Greeks seeking Jesus that signaled “the hour” had arrived (see John 12.20ff).
• Vs. 39: see John 12.16; 14.16-17,26; 15.26-27; 16.12-15.
• Vs. 51: see Deut. 17.6; 19.15; 1.16.
• Vs. 52: “They proved their own ignorance by this question because prophets had come from Galilee (cf. Jonah, 2 Kgs. 14:25; Elijah, 1 Kgs. 17:1; Nahum, Nah. 1:1), but they succeeded in dispelling any attempt to defend Jesus on a legitimate basis. Prejudice is a thief of the truth!” (Harkrider)