The story at the beginning of the eighth chapter of John is one of the best known and best loved stories about Jesus. It is also, in part, controversial: Some modern translations (and some “Bible answers” websites) tell the reader it is probably not in the original version of the Gospel because it is missing from many of the earliest Greek manuscripts. Once this statement is made then other reasons are found to reinforce this verdict. That is unfortunate…

If you have ever been in Sunday school, you know Nicodemus’ name. Usually, we only remember him for coming to see Jesus at night. But he appears in the gospel more than once… as a believer embedded in the Sanhedrin. He was one of the religious leaders. He worked with them. He understood how they thought. And so, he witnessed first-hand how many of his colleagues – possibly even close friends – chose to blind themselves and reject Jesus. Sometimes I think he is a good picture of our lives as believers living in the world.

Gospel of John, chapter 7: Jesus is in the middle of the escalation. And it is having its desired effect. The crowd is divided: some on His side, some against Him. He can no longer be ignored. And the Pharisees are alarmed. The status quo is in danger of being shattered.

Have the rulers then indeed recognised that this is the Christ? This is where we left off last time, partway into the 7^th chapter of John’s gospel. In the face of conflicting opinions, with eyewitnesses testifying to the merciful (and miraculous) deeds of Jesus on one side and His detractors claiming that He is misleading the crowds on the other, the people want an answer, they want to make a decision; but they are afraid to make it on their own…

As I pointed out when we read chapter 6, the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 stands as a turning point in Jesus’ ministry. To many in that crowd, the miracle (and Jesus’ healing of the sick in the crowd before it) did not speak about the mercy and goodness of God but rather about power – worldly power. So, their reaction was a “kingdom of the world” kind of reaction: they decided they should make Jesus king.

At the beginning of chapter 7 of the gospel of John, when Jesus’ relatives tell Jesus to go to the feast of Tabernacles in Judea and do his miracles before those huge crowds, so that he can attain the notoriety he was obviously looking for (or so, they thought), John ‘s editorial comment is simple: for neither did his brethren believe on him. Yet, in what follows, Jesus is about to show us how unbelief is anything but simple.