John 7:1-13

John 7-8

Chapters 7 and 8 have a series of separate incidents rather than a single theme.  Jesus goes to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles.  Some of the things he says and does have direct connections to that feast, while other incidents don’t have a such a direct connection (though John might have included them here simply because they happened while Jesus was on this trip).

The Feast of Tabernacles, also known as the Feast of Booths or Sukkot in Hebrew, is the most joyous of the Jewish feasts.  It was a 7-day festival held in Jerusalem each fall that celebrated the ingathering of the fall harvest and commemorated how God provided for the needs of the Israelites in the desert after they escaped from Egypt.  (Since the Jewish holidays follow a lunar calendar, Sukkot can begin as early as late September or as late as mid-October on our calendar.)  Leviticus 23:33-43 and Deuteronomy 16:13-17 directed the Jews to construct small shelters or “booths” that were like tents or tabernacles and live in them during the festival, and to make offerings and sacrifices to God.  A tabernacle is a tent.  The Israelites lived in tents in the desert.  Living in tabernacles or booths during the feast would help them recall how God had provided for their ancestors in the desert.

Two of the ceremonies held during this feast have direct connections to things Jesus says in these chapters: First, each morning the priests would draw water from the pool of Siloam and pour it out in the Temple as an offering to God.  In John 7:37-39, Jesus says that he provides “rivers of living water” for anyone who thirsts.  Second, during this festival, giant candelabras were set up in the women’s court of the Temple that flamed brightly for all to see.  In John 8:12, Jesus said, “I am the light of the world” (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, fn. to 7:2, p. 175).  The water recalled the miracles of water in the desert and the lights recalled the pillar of fire by which God led the Israelites by night as they lived in tents in the desert (Flanagan, p. 36).

Jesus’s conflict with the religious leaders in Jerusalem reaches a peak at the end of chapter 8.

Read John 7:1-13 The feast of Tabernacles or Booths – will Jesus go to Jerusalem for it?

John begins in 7:1 by reminding us that there are Jewish leaders in Jerusalem who want to kill Jesus (we saw that in John 5:18).  His “brothers” urge him to go to Jerusalem anyway.  (See Mary, Session 5: Jesus’s family for a detailed exploration of what the Gospels might mean when they refer to Jesus’s “brothers.”)  John tells us that his brothers do not believe in him (verse 5).  Why do they say he should go to the feast?

The brothers of Jesus do not become believers until later, but we find then in the Upper Room after Jesus dies, rises, and ascends to heaven (Acts 1:14).

What is Jesus’s response in verses 6-7?

When Jesus says, “My time has not yet come,” the word he uses for “time” is kairos, a word that has the connotation of the right time, the opportune time, the moment when God is prepared to do something special.  Why is Jesus so attuned to those kairos moments?

Many Christians have learned that there are special kairos moments in our lives when God wants to do something special in or through us.  If we aren’t attuned to God, we can miss opportunities to do his work or receive his grace.  How can we become more aware of those kairos moments so that we don’t miss them?

In the Gospels, Jesus almost never immediately does what anyone tells him to do, even if he does it later.  Why do you think that is?

In verse 7, Jesus says, “The world . . . hates me, because I testify . . . that its works are evil.”  What do you think he mean by saying that the world’s works are evil?

How do you see that resistance to Jesus in the society around you?

Notice that in verse 7 it is his testifying that elicits the hatred.  Why is it that speaking up puts us at risk of opposition, and what should we do about it?

Jesus is basically saying that he needs to stay true to the mission his Father has given him, even though it may cause some people to oppose him.  How can that sense of mission guide you as a follower of Jesus in your relationships with the people around you?

John tells us in verse 11 that the Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem are looking for Jesus.  Why do you think they are looking for him?

Verse 12 tells us that the crowds are divided about Jesus.  What are the different views they have of him?

Why do you think the people in the crowds react in such different ways?

Why do people react to Jesus in such different ways in our time?

Verse 13 is one of the verses that shows us that when John uses the term “the Jews,” he means specifically the religious leaders, not the people as a whole.  We can see that because the crowds of people eat the feast were Jewish, but Johns says that the people don’t speak openly because they are afraid of “the Jews.”  They aren’t afraid of themselves; they are afraid of the Jewish leaders, and that is what John means by “the Jews.”  Why do you think that the everyday people in the crowds might be afraid of the Jewish leaders?

John may have included the point he makes in verse 13 because some people in his own time were afraid of the leaders of the Jewish synagogues, where many Jewish Christians still worshipped.  Are there times when you hesitate to speak freely about what you believe because you are concerned about how people in power (religious or secular) might react?

Jesus sometimes chose his words and actions carefully, to avoid triggering an arrest before the right time.  It takes wisdom and discernment to know what to do when we encounter opposition.  What guidance do you think Jesus would give you about what to do when people in authority don’t like what you are saying or doing?

Take a step back and consider this:

John’s Gospel does not have an account of Jesus being tempted by Satan.  The highly respected Scripture scholar Raymond E. Brown noticed a similarity between the challenges Jesus faces in John’s Gospel from people who are not convinced that he comes from God and the temptations Jesus faces when he resists Satan in the desert in Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels (Perkins, The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, par. 105, p. 964):

• In John 6:14-15, after Jesus feeds the 5,000, the people want to make him king.  This parallels the temptation in which Satan offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if he will bow down to Satan (Matt. 4:8-9).

• In John 6:31-34, the people ask Jesus what he can offer that compares to the miracles of manna in the desert and then ask him to give them bread every day.  This calls to mind the temptation in which Satan tells Jesus to turn the stones of the desert into bread (Matt. 4:3).

• And in John 7:4, Jesus’s brothers tell him that he should go to Jerusalem and do works publicly that would manifest him to the world.  This is reminiscent of the temptation in which Satan takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem and encourages him to throw himself off and show who he is by letting the angels catch him (Matt. 4:5-6).

There is no way to know whether John was intentionally making these connections, or the Holy Spirit was guiding him to unconsciously describe what happened to Jesus in ways that would allow us to make these connections, or the connections can be made simply because most temptations fall into these three categories (the temptations of power, comfort, and fame).  Regardless, John has now made it clear that Jesus was encouraged in a variety of ways to do things that would not have aligned him with his Father’s will and the mission he came to Earth to achieve.

We face temptations every day.  Those temptations can come from (1) people who are impressed with us and want us to do great things (for them), (2) people who aren’t impressed with us and are pushing us to prove ourselves (to them), and (3) even our own family when their priorities or values are different than ours.

Jesus kept his eyes on what his Father wanted him to do.

Are you more likely to find yourself being asked to do things that are not in line with God will for you (1) by people who are impressed by you, (2) by people who are skeptical of you, or (3) by family or friends who just don’t have the same priorities as you?

What can you do to keep your eyes on what God wants you to do?