“About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple
and began teaching. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this
man has learning, when He has never studied?” So Jesus answered them, “My
teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. 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. 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. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the
law. Why do you seek to kill Me?” The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is
seeking to kill you?” Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel
at it. Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the
fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. 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? Do not
judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”” (John 7:14–24, ESV)
(Caps added to pronouns in ESV referring to God the Father, Son, and Spirit)
In the last post we focused on the contrast between the
intimidation of the crowd for fear of the Jews and the boldness of Christ and
His disciples to speak the right words at the right time. The
previous verses started with Jesus going to the feast by Himself without being
noticed by the crowd such that He could freely observe what was going on
without garnering attention. Today’s verses tell us at about the middle of the
Feast of Booths (Tabernacles) which lasted seven days, Jesus went up into the
temple and began teaching. In doing this He went from not being seen to putting
Himself up front for all to see. The words that He spoke in teaching we do not
have recorded here, but we do have the response of the people. As they heard
Him they “marveled” or were astonished by His knowledge (likely of the Scriptures).
They recognized Him as being a man who had no formal instruction, but who for
some reason had incredible learning.
It is here in His response that John records for us the
words of Jesus. Having said similar words previously to different crowds, Jesus
said, “My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me.” Here He restates that it
was the Father’s instruction that He was giving just as He was sent to do. In
this sense He, as the Son of Man, was the ambassador of God the Father sent to
say exactly what the Father wanted said, and this is just what He was doing. He
spoke the words that He was compelled to speak, and He did so boldly. I could
imagine a silent (or maybe not so) retort from His hearers, saying, “And how do
we know this is true? It’s just your words!”
But we really have no indication of any response here,
likely because they didn’t yet realize who He was. What we do have is Jesus
continuing by telling them how His words could be verified. First He pointed to
the consistency of His words with the words given before, saying, “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.” Here He spoke to their hearts. If
any of them truly were about seeking after God and doing His will then God
would give them the assurance that the words that Jesus was speaking are true.
Later in this gospel John wrote, “When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide
you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but
whatever He hears He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are
to come.” (John 16:13, ESV) Just as Jesus was speaking the words of the Father,
so would the Spirit at the proper time give the disciples direction in truth as
well. This is part of the work of the Spirit, to teach and affirm the truths of
God, and Jesus told the crowd that if they were truly seeking to do the will of
the Father that the Spirit would give them the same assurance. He told them
that God Himself was the endorser of the words that He was speaking, and if
they went before Him with sincerity of heart that He would assure them such.
Next Jesus spoke to them about motivation and how that motivation
would evidence itself in individuals. He said, “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.” Nothing Jesus had said was
intended to bring glory to Himself, but such that the Father would be glorified
in His works and His words. Sure, people marveled at His words, but they also
knew Him to be unlearned in man’s terms. As such it was easy for Him to point
to the source of that learning being from God the Father Himself. People also
were amazed at the works He had been doing, but even in them He demonstrated
over and over that this also was being done to the glory of the Father, as the
Father had sent the Son. Jesus did not pad his pockets with money from the
miracles He worked. He did not pat Himself on His back because of His ability
to capture individuals’ minds with His words. In all things He humbly submitted
Himself to the Father, thus evidencing His sincerity in seeking to glorify the
One who sent Him and the truthfulness of His words. This was in stark contrast
to many who put their thumbs up tightly under their armpits while they loudly
proclaimed how good they were and how much people should listen to them as a
result. These people were the ones who claimed that they had arrived and they
invited the adulation of others. For Jesus, His clear objective was that the
Father might be glorified.
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ
Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a
thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant,
being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled
himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore
God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every
name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on
earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:5–11, ESV)
The last point in His response was concerning their own
hypocrisy, saying, “Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the
law. Why do you seek to kill Me?” All Jews were given the law by Moses, and all
Jews broke the law. There was not a single one of them who kept the law in
perfection, and like us today every single one of them violated the law
willingly in order to satisfy their own desires. Yet, the claim of “the Jews”
against Jesus was that He performed a miracle on the Sabbath by healing a man,
and broke their added Sabbath rules by instructing that the healed man to take
up his bed and carry it away. If they were so intent on His perfect adherence
to their understanding of things, then every single one of them stood guilty as
well and deserved the same consequence. This issue of healing on the Sabbath
was confronted several times by Jesus. Each time He stated in one way or
another how much better it is to make one whole on the Sabbath than to focus on
the particular prohibition over which they were struggling. As Jesus said
earlier in John, their real issue was much deeper than the breaking of their
rules. It was that He claimed to be from the Father, making Himself God with
the Father. So, it wasn’t as much the breaking of the rules, which they all did
in various ways, as it was Him who was doing it.
At this point at least some in the crowd did not recognize
Him as the Jesus who the Jews were seeking after. Their response indicates
their lack of making this connection. They responded basically by asking Him if
he was crazy or possessed or off His rocker. They followed this by asking Him
who it was that was seeking to kill Him. In response Jesus pointed back to the
one miracle recorded thus far in Jerusalem, which was the healing of the man at
the pool of Bethesda which He did on the Sabbath (John 5).
“I did one work, and you all marvel at it. Moses gave you
circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you
circumcise a man on the Sabbath. 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? Do not judge by appearances, but
judge with right judgment.”
There were some things that the Jews permitted to be done on
the Sabbath and others which they did not permit. One of those permitted actions
was circumcision. Under Jewish law male children were to be circumcised on the
eighth day. If a child was born on the Sabbath then the eighth day would also be
on the Sabbath. As such the instructions to circumcise were permitted to supersede
the prohibition against work. Circumcision was a ceremony whereby the young
child was set apart to God according to the instruction given by God to Moses
and again spoken through Moses. The reason for the eighth day was that the
mother was ceremonially unclean for seven days following the birth, so on the
eighth day she would be ceremonially clean and the observance of circumcision of
the son could happen.
“The Lord spoke
to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If a woman conceives
and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days. As at the time of
her menstruation, she shall be unclean. And on the eighth day the flesh of his
foreskin shall be circumcised.” (Leviticus 12:1–3, ESV)
If it was okay to recognize her being cleansed and the son
being circumcised on the eighth day then how much more would it be okay to see
one made fully whole on that day as well? This is the question Jesus put before
them. Having said this He then told them to step back and really think about
what they were saying and believing. There was an inconsistency there that He
challenged them to consider.
Emotionalism and legalism both call for responses that tend
to alienate themselves from sound judgment. On the emotional side, we can
ignore what we know or presume to be right for the sake of what might make us
or others feel better. On the side of legalism we can lose the heart of the
instruction for the letters we used to write it. Oftentimes legalism results in
a hard line being drawn far to one side of where truth might dictate. The
Jewish Sabbath rules, of which there are thirty-nine such prohibited activities
with numerous considerations of each, were a response to the biblical dictate
that the Jews were to observe the Sabbath and do not arduous work on it and an
outgrowth of some specific instructions such as not gathering manna on the
Sabbath but twice as much on the day before. Regardless of the intention, they
were so concerned about not breaking this law that they drew lines not drawn by
God Himself. And over time, these lines became the measure of the law itself
such that Jesus was charged with breaking the Sabbath. On the emotionalism side
lines might be altogether thrown away for the sake of a particular compassion
or desire. Jesus told the crowd not to think based upon appearance, but to do
so with sound judgment.
“For the Lord gives
wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding; He stores up sound
wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding
the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints. Then you will
understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; for wisdom
will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, delivering you
from the way of evil….” (Proverbs 2:6–12a, ESV)
“The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound
judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. Above all, keep fervent in
your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. Be
hospitable to one another without complaint. As each one has received a special
gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace
of God. Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of
God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God
supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom
belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 4:7–11,
NASB95)
“Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard
from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 1:13, ESV)
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