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John

John 
Day 
Day 98

The challenge of making every effort of understand Jesus

Text: John 7 : 1-10

THE CHALLENGE OF MAKING EVERY EFFORT TO UNDERSTAND JESUS

Many assumed that it was easy to understand Jesus. The Jews failed to understand Jesus almost completely, and abruptly abandoned following Him (John 6:66). Strangely, the brothers of Jesus thought that they could tell Him how He should reveal Himself to the world as the Messiah, if indeed He were the Messiah! Deep down in their hearts, they did not understand their Brother, let alone believe in Him as the Saviour.

One of problems could well be that they did not understand the deep language that He spoke. It was a great challenge to understand what Jesus said and meant. Every effort must be expended to understand His words.

THE PROBLEM OF SEEING JESUS ONLY THROUGH HUMAN EYES

The siblings of Jesus made a serious mistake when they sought to limit or confine Jesus. They imagined that they knew their Brother since they had lived with Him all their life. They also thought that they could advise Him as to what He should do and how He should go about revealing Himself. They were guided by their own human understanding of things, and they thought that Jesus should operate in the paradigm that they had made up for Him. They couldn’t be more wrong.

There is much to be said for human wisdom. Yet, the humble reality is that human wisdom is rather limited when compared to Divine knowledge. The brothers of Jesus did not understand Him on at least a few issues.

1. Jesus’ Understanding of “Time”

There is the ordinary understanding of time. You and I know what that means. Time is just time. It measures days, months and years. Time is often only a measurement. In that sense Jesus could say,

“…your time is always ready.”
John 7:6

The brothers could decide when and if they wanted to go to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. Almost anytime they chose would be all right.

However, time was something else in the mind and in the life of Jesus as the Messiah. His time was not His own. His time was ordered by His Father. His time was very limited on earth. He must make full use of His time, every single day. Every moment counted! Every bit of time must fit into His Father’s perfect plan. Thus he could say,

“…My time has not yet fully come…”
John 7:6, 8

Jesus understood that nobody else outside Himself would ever be able to understand how He saw time. Nevertheless, He must be true to Himself. He must retain His understanding of time, as He understood it.

2.Jesus’ Comprehension of “The World”

To the brothers of Jesus, the matter of “the world” was a simple idea. They suggested that all He needed to do was to reveal Himself to the world, that is, Israel, and surely if He could prove that He was indeed the Messiah, He would be readily accepted. Thus they said,

“If you do these things, show Yourself to the world.”
John 7:4

In the mind of the brothers of Jesus, “the world” was uncomplicated. Their world was Palestine. Their world was the Jewish nation. Since Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, and He could prove it, nothing could be simpler than just to reveal Himself in all His glory!

Jesus’ comprehension of the world was vastly different. The world was far more complex than the brothers imagined. There was the physical world, and that was indeed not complex at all. The world physical was God’s creation (John 1:3, 10).

There was another way of looking at “the world”. The second idea of the world was a very badly marred one. It was a world made evil by sinful and wicked men. It was a world that did not know Him (John 1:10). It was a world that was so hostile to Him that it hated Him.

One must therefore live with the greatest sense of caution in “the world”. It would not do to behave unwisely. Those who belonged to “the world”, and Jesus classified His own brothers as belonging to that world, need not fear it. However, those who like Jesus saw through the vileness of “the world” and dared to challenge it – must be prepared to pay the consequences. Thus He said,

“The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me
because I testify of it that its works are evil.”
John 7:7

His Father had not yet given Him the green light to go up to Jerusalem at the time when His brothers spoke to Him. Thus He declined their invitation to travel with them to Jerusalem. He had to wait upon His Father, and only when He had given clear indications would He make His move.

THE LITTLE-UNDERSTOOD MISSION OF JESUS

The Mission of Jesus was not fully understood. Not even His Disciples could guess at the extent of His quest on earth. Even when He tried to explain about how He must yield His life to die eventually, nobody fathomed what He really meant.

In times and circumstances like that, Jesus deemed it wise to do things “in secret”. Thus, even when He chose to attend the Feast of Tabernacles, He decided that He would go, as it were, secretly. It is important to distinguish between secrecy and inconsistency. Thus John noted that Jesus did go to Jerusalem, but not with His brothers.

“But when His brothers had gone up, then He also
went up to the Feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.”
John 7:10