Meditation for 25 August 2010
From The Rev. Peter A. Munson
John 7:1-13

After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He did not wish to go about in Judea because the Jews were looking for an opportunity to kill him. 2Now the Jewish festival of Booths was near. 3So his brothers said to him, ‘Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples also may see the works you are doing; 4for no one who wants to be widely known acts in secret. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.’ 5(For not even his brothers believed in him.) 6Jesus said to them, ‘My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. 7The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify against it that its works are evil. 8Go to the festival yourselves. I am not going to this festival, for my time has not yet fully come.’ 9After saying this, he remained in Galilee.
10 But after his brothers had gone to the festival, then he also went, not publicly but as it were in secret. 11The Jews were looking for him at the festival and saying, ‘Where is he?’ 12And there was considerable complaining about him among the crowds. While some were saying, ‘He is a good man’, others were saying, ‘No, he is deceiving the crowd.’ 13Yet no one would speak openly about him for fear of the Jews.
External vs. Internal Affirmation
Sometimes you and I want (or feel like we need) validation from others. It is nice to be appreciated, and I believe that we as a faith community still have some room for growth when it comes to how we appreciate each other. But that’s not exactly what I’m referring to here. I’m referring to those times when, for various reasons, we feel insecure – so insecure that we want assurances and reassurances from others. Think back to the days of junior high and high school, when perhaps you wanted to fit in or know that you were “in” with some group at school. Whether it was the jocks or the theater group or the band or whatever group it was, it felt very good to feel accepted, to be part of the “clan”, to be seen and accepted.
In my experience, we can get carried away with this desire to be accepted by others. We might even do something that goes against our personal values, just so that we can be part of the group. And if we become too dependent on the reactions and opinions of others, we can develop a “people-pleaser” persona that ultimately comes with a cost. That cost can be that we no longer know who we really are. What can be sacrificed, in a very real sense, is our soul.
In this passage from John, Jesus’ brothers are urging him to go to the Festival of Tabernacles (or Booths) in Judea. (This was a traditional Jewish festival commemorating the time when the Jews were wandering in the wilderness, after the Exodus from Egypt.) Evidently they thought that this would give Jesus the opportunity to be more widely known, and more people could “weigh in” on who Jesus was – on whether or not he might be the long-awaited Messiah. John points out that “not even his brothers believed in him” (verse 5), so apparently his brothers wanted him to be exposed as a fraud.
But Jesus was having none of it. He eventually went to Jerusalem for the festival (v. 10), but not for the reason that his brothers suggested. My guess is that he went simply because he was Jewish and felt called to participate in the tradition. But he was very clear that his “time had not yet come.” (verses 6 and In John’s Gospel, it is very clear that Jesus’ “time” – the time when his mission would be accomplished, and the time when God would ultimately reveal who he was, would be when he was crucified. Because he was staying connected to God on a daily basis, Jesus was clear that that time was not yet. It was drawing closer… from the moment he began his ministry it was drawing closer, but it had “not yet fully come.” (verse
He wasn’t going to get “sucked in” by what others thought he should do, or even by when others thought he should do certain things. And he didn’t get sucked in to others’ expectations and opinions (see verse 12) because he wasn’t depending on them for validation. He wasn’t living for the praise of men, you might say. As he grew up and and as he grew in faith, it was more and more important for him to seek and to do his Father’s will, and not worry about anyone else’s will for him. And in the daily prayer time with his heavenly Father, and even in some other more public moments (i.e, at his baptism, on the Mountain of Transfiguration), he heard the most important affirmations and validations that any of us can hear. He heard that he was God’s beloved Son, and that God was very pleased with him, and that God’s favor rested upon him. He knew, as the Psalmist did, that he was “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps. 139:14), and that he didn’t need to put on a show to be adored by others, when his heavenly Father already adored him.
This “egging-on” by his brothers strikes me as another kind of temptation, similar to the test he passed in the wilderness, when he was tempted by Satan after fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, subsequent to his baptism. (Matthew 4:1-11) One has to be grounded in God to pass such tests. One has to know who she or he is – in God – to pass such tests.
For that is where our true identity comes from. We are in Christ, Paul says. We are God’s beloved children, in the same way that Jesus was God’s beloved Son. You, too, were fearfully and wonderfully made, and are the apple of God’s eye. Our identity doesn’t come from what others say about us, or whether or not they accept us. (What a fickle way to establish an identity!) Our true identity is all wrapped up in who God is, and in God’s never-ending love for us.
The affirmations that we most need ultimately come from the One who is Ultimate. They come from within, from the Holy Spirit who resides in us and breathes in us and whispers, to all those who will hear, “You are my Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”