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.

In so doing, they proved that all that Jesus was trying to teach them about the Kingdom of God was going in one ear and out the other. So, Jesus escalates His message to force them to see that the two kingdoms are incompatible and that they are required to choose one or the other… to see that living life as usual is no longer an option. Now as we continue in Chapter 7, we see that His strategy has worked:  The people are divided…

John 7:10-13 But when his brethren had gone up, then he himself also went up to the feast, not openly, but as in secret. The Jews therefore sought him at the feast, and said, Where is he? And there was much murmuring concerning him among the crowds. Some said, He is [a] good [man]; others said, No; but he deceives the crowd. However, no one spoke openly concerning him on account of [their] fear of the Jews.

It is no longer only the Pharisees and other religious leaders that are objecting to what He says. Now we have a large portion of the crowds that is also choosing to oppose Him.

John 7:14-15 But when it was now the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught. The Jews therefore wondered, saying, How knows this [man] letters, having never learned?

We have seen people wonder about this before. Jesus taught with authority: as someone who knew the Word and exactly what it meant. And that is how He explained it… not rehashing other previous Rabbis’ opinions. It made so much sense, that the worst challenge his enemies could bring against Him was, precisely, that He had not been taught in any of the “accepted” rabbinical schools. The implication being that He was spouting rogue doctrine – well-sounding but unvetted – doctrine that could easily mislead the uneducated crowds.

Jesus will not let them get away with that insinuation:

John 7:16-17 Jesus therefore answered them and said, My doctrine is not mine, but [that] of Him that has sent me. If any one desire to practise His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is of God, or [that] I speak from myself.

Again, Jesus is escalating. He doesn’t stop and try to show them how what he is saying is in agreement with Scripture, or even in agreement with what many other Rabbis have taught.

Why?

If He had done that, this could have devolved into a battle of opinions “my Rabbi versus your Rabbi”. And then, his adversaries would have risked nothing because, after all, they were relying on other people’s learned opinion. If anyone was wrong, it certainly would not be them. So, instead, Jesus cuts them off from any such option.

He essentially tells them, “Here you are arguing about what man taught me what I am teaching you, questioning what kind of credentials he may have had. Well, I have news for you. It was no man.  But you are right, I didn’t come up with this by myself. This doctrine comes from God!”

Now, He could have stopped there and let them balk and let them argue: “that’s what you say”; and get again into the spitting contest of “what miracle are you going to do to prove your authority?” But even that escape route He cuts off because He goes on to tell them:

“And since this doctrine is from God, then all of you, any one of you, can verify it! Go on, go ahead, you say you believe in God, you say you worship Him: If you do, if you truly want to do His will, you will hear His Voice and you will recognize this is it.”

I have said it before in this series and I will keep saying it: This Truth is as True today as it was back then because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Any human being in this world that wants to know God and do His will, will hear His Voice and be guided to the Truth.

This is personal

You notice that this reply Jesus gave them brooks no argument. Certainly, a crowd of Israelites –  who claimed to know God and worship Him as the One and Only God of gods and King of kings – cannot argue with Jesus’ logic because to do so would be to imply that their God is unable to make Himself known.

But even among Gentiles, even today… how can anyone dispute this argument?

The only way to dispute the argument is to say you do not believe God exists. Because if I believe God exists then I must mean by that that I believe in a Real God, not some pseudo-god or demi-god that is more powerful than I but is somehow limited in the extent of that power. No, the only God worth believing in, is a limitless God. And, by definition, nothing can prevent a limitless God from making Himself known to the human heart.

Jesus’ reply is then part of the escalation; the escalation that demands of each individual listening: “Where do you stand?” And this is very important. He is not asking them to tell Him what their religious leaders think, He is demanding that they reply on their own… “you can verify this on your own… what do you say?” And now He continues that theme of personal responsibility:

John 7:18 He that speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but he that seeks the glory of him that has sent him, he is true, and unrighteousness is not in him.

He is asking the crowds: “Whose glory are you seeking? There is only one glory worth seeking, and that is the glory of God. You cannot go wrong that way because He is True. But if the glory you are seeking in this world is your own, you are wasting your time.”

Notice the implication that the life worth living (in this world) is the life of one who has been sent. And that means sent by someone Higher than I. If, however, I am living for myself, for what I want, for what I claim is good and desirable, then I am going nowhere worthwhile… because I am not higher than myself… I am just human, fallible, woefully unrighteous.

You see, deep inside we all have a need to do well, to accomplish something, even to be praised for doing something good, for achieving a great goal. There is nothing wrong with that. The fallacy comes when we ourselves invent the goal, call it worthy, and then praise ourselves for achieving it. And the same thing holds when we accept some other human being’s goal as worthy. How can that person be “higher” than I? We are all the same.

Now that Jesus has put these challenges before them, challenges that prove that His insight pierces through our lies and pretensions, He does not stop there, He presses on. For, this is the escalation: If you engage Him, He will engage you and force you to look in the mirror because the choice must be made sooner than later.

John 7:19-24 Has not Moses given you the law, and no one of you practises the law? Why do ye seek to kill me? The crowd answered [and said], Thou hast a demon: who seeks to kill thee? Jesus answered and said to them, I have done one work, and ye all wonder. Therefore Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is of Moses, but of the fathers), and ye circumcise a man on sabbath. If a man receives circumcision on sabbath, that the law of Moses may not be violated, are ye angry with me because I have made a man entirely sound on sabbath?

The whole “where did this man learn letters?” argument (in John 7:15) was a smokescreen. They just wanted an excuse not to believe Him. But the real problem they had with Him, the problem the religious leaders were so incensed about, was the fact that He was healing people on the Sabbath. So, He turns the question around on them: “If you don’t like that I heal people on the Sabbath (so much so that you want to kill me), how come the Law allows you to circumcise a baby on the Sabbath? Isn’t that doing work also?”

Furthermore, as Matthew tells us in Chapter 12, Jesus also said to them, “and what about the priests in the Temple? Aren ‘t they doing work on the Sabbath, by fulfilling all their duties?”

Again, the way He challenges them, He cuts off the possibility of escape, of using someone else’s authority to justify their position. He puts the question to them as a logical question and demands that they give a reasonable answer, their own personal reasonable answer. “What does working on the Sabbath mean? You tell me. When the Law forbids it, WHY does it do so? Do you understand? Have you even thought about it?  Didn’t My Father in heaven give you a brain to think with?””

John 7:24 Judge not according to sight, but judge righteous judgment.

This is one of the most powerful verses in the Gospel… because it is personal, because it eliminates every possible excuse. It tells every one of us that we are responsible to judge: to judge our thoughts, to judge what others tell us, to judge what the world feeds us, and then use righteous judgment to decide what we choose to do.

I think this next verse is funny because as soon as Jesus told His adversaries that they wanted to kill Him, they quickly denied it and told Him He was crazy. And yet, immediately afterward, the other people in that crowd react…

John 7:25-26 Some therefore of those of Jerusalem said, Is not this he whom they seek to kill? and behold, he speaks openly, and they say nothing to him. Have the rulers then indeed recognised that this is the Christ?

There is hope, then, for this crowd. But the choice of believing always brings a risk. Remember, John 7:13 However, no one spoke openly concerning him on account of [their] fear of the Jews. Taking a definitive stance meant risking the wrath of the religious leaders. You could even be kicked out of the synagogue.

The same is true today. If we take a stand for Jesus, the real Jesus (the one who called sin sin, and yet also had dinner with sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes), we expose ourselves to attack from all sides. The world will deride us for being intolerant (because we acknowledge that there is such a thing as sin.) The religious fanatics will scorn us for not hating the sin enough to do something about it. (That something being defined by them.)

How do you stand in the middle of that pressure? For the answer, all we need to do is see how Jesus stood. As He walked among us, a world of people who find so many ways to go astray, He never ever reacted with hate in thought, deed, or word. Instead, driven by compassion, He counted each one of us as worthy to be rescued – each one of us, as the one lamb among the hundred. And then He moved to find us, pick us up, and point us back to the Father.