John 7:10-15

John 7:10-15

But when His brothers went up into the feast, then He also went up – not publically but privately.  Therefore the Jews were seeking for Him in the feast and they were saying, “Where is that one?”  And there was a large amount of grumbling about Him in the crowd.  On one hand they said that He is good.  But on the other hand others were saying, “No, but He causes the crowd to wander off the path.”  However, nobody was speaking openly about Him for fear of the Jews.  And already in the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and was teaching.  Therefore the Jews were marveling while saying, “How has this one have learning having not been instructed?”

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

Jesus did go up into the feast.  Yet, in yesterday’s reading we heard that Jesus told His brothers that He wasn’t going.  Is Jesus lying?  No.  What Jesus told His disciples is that if He went up into the feast publically that the opportunity for which He was seeking would not come.  However, He did not say that He wasn’t going.  He just wasn’t going to go publically.  He was obedient to God’s calling and God’s timing rather than the calling and timing of His brothers.

Why is it important to be obedient to God the Father?  How confident are you that you are obedient to the Father and not your own desires or the desires of the people around you?

Second Thought:

When the crowd didn’t see Jesus, they began to grumble.  Some thought Jesus was good.  Others saw Jesus as a danger because they accused Him of leading people astray.  It is good to realize that even Jesus was accused of leading people astray.  Even the Son of God wasn’t liked by all people.  If the world rejected Him, they will reject those who come in His name.  Yet, not all rejected Him.  Others embraced Him and His teaching and thought that He was good.  It was for these people especially that He lived, taught, and died.  That is the example we should all follow.

Who are the people in your life that reject you and believe you lead people astray?  Who are the people in your life who embrace your teaching and desire to be around you?  Is it ever hard to face rejection?  Why can it help to remember that Jesus Himself faced rejection?

Third Thought:

After some in the crowd attacked the character of Jesus, they also begin to attack his teaching and doctrine.  There could be no denying that Jesus was an incredible teacher with incredible ability to teach.  They marveled at Him!  However, they wrestled with His teaching because He wasn’t credentialed!  There were those in the crowd who refused to listen to Him because He didn’t have the right pedigree of human learning.  They couldn’t see the Son of God through their own human lens.

Do you ever miss out on what God is saying because you can’t accept the person from whom the message comes?  Why is it dangerous to evaluate the quality of the message based on the pedigree of the message-bearer?

Passage for Tomorrow: John 7:16-19