John 7:1-31

HIGHLIGHTED PASSAGE John 7:14-24 14 About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. 15 The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” 16 So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. 17 If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. 18 The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. 19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” 20 The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” 21 Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. 22 Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. 23 If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well? 24 Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”   COMMENTARY Jesus goes up to the temple during one of the major festivals in the Jewish calendar, the Feast of Booths. This feast celebrates God's leading and provision during the Israelites' time of wandering in the wilderness. It also occurrs at the conclusion of the fall harvest, celebrating God's provision of rain for the crops. A critical theological message underlies the joy of this festival: The Israelites must trust in Yahweh as the God who always cares for them. This might sound easy, but the Israelites are often quick to doubt God in the wilderness and frequently find their faith tested whenever they face questions of material provision, just as we are also tested today. When Jesus goes to the temple to preach openly about who He is and why He has come, he returns to the way the people responded when he healed the man by the pool. Although the feeding of the crowd and the ensuing rejection of Jesus by many of those who followed him serves as a kind of interlude, Jesus returns to the people's response to his miracle of healing because he again stands at the temple where the preceding discussion took place. Recall that Jesus used the healing of the man to point the Jews to the fact that He was one with Yahweh and was been sent by Him to deliver His people. This was the rationale behind His response to their complaint that he had healed a man on the Sabbath and told the man to pick up his mat and walk. Yet, just Yahweh had been at work from the very beginning without rest, so too, Jesus said, was he. In this speech at the temple, during the Feast of Booths, Jesus returns to this miracle and its purpose in order to call his hearers to put their faith in Him, the one sent from Yahweh to save them. As with preceding dialogues concerning his deity, this speech provokes a division between those present. Some want to arrest him while many others believe.   QUESTIONS 1. What was different about the way Jesus went to the festival compared to the way his brothers thought he should go to the festival?   2. Jesus exposes the sin of those who oppose him by asking why they seek to kill him (7:19). He shows their desire is antithetical to the law, which they claim has made them angry at Jesus for breaking. Jesus' critique can rebuke us as well. How do we either commit, or passively observe, acts that are wicked and wrong, all while justifying our action/inaction with religious rationales?   3. When Jesus heals the man by the pool, he fulfills a higher principle found within the Law of Moses than Sabbath observance. The command in Leviticus 19:18, "you shall love your neighbor as yourself," is a summary of all the Mosaic law regarding other people. In healing the man, then, Jesus fulfills the Mosaic law's chief aim, love for others rooted in love for God. What does Jesus' rationale reveal about those who are angry at him for healing the man on the Sabbath?