"Mixed Reviews" John 7:1-24

The Feast of the Tabernacles (also called the Feast of Booths) was a harvest celebration (Thanksgiving?)held each year. It began on a Sabbath and ended on a Sabbath, and the people lived in make-shift shelters for seven days. The booths were to remind them of the booths the Israelites made for shelter when they left Egypt in the Exodus.

On the last weeked of February at St. Barnabas, our youth participate in the 30-Hour Famine sponsored by World Vision. As part of that event, they each construct cardboard houses to sleep in to relate to the homeless and those who live throughout the world in that condition.

It'interesting think about this chapter in light of John 1:14 - "And the Word became flesh and dwelt (literal Greek - made his tent)among us, and we beheld His glory..."

At the time of this feast, Jesus had been avoiding Judea because of the threats on his life. Jesus' brothers, who were not believers, chide him for hiding out. After all, if he really was the Messiah, he would do hims miracles right out in the open and they would validate who he was. Jesus tells them to go on to the Feast, and then secretly shows up on his own later. I had a teacher once who would send some of his students to hide out and listen to what other people would say about him. The teacher ended up hearing quite an earful, because people were talking about him. Jesus gets to hear the real stuff as people debated whether we was truly a good man or a fake.

One of the things that set Jesus apart was that he "spoke with authority," in contrast to others who spoke information and opinions. His authority came out of 1) his relationship with his heavenly Father, 2) his authenticity, 3) the truth of his words and 4) the miracles he performed. From the time he was a child (Luke 2:41ff), he had a certain wisdom and ability to communicate that struck people. He possessed and communicated a revealed knowledge from God. At the same time, he walked the walk. He confronted the Pharisees and Saducees because they taught the law but they didn't follow it, especially since they were plotting to violate the sixth commandment ("Thou shalt not kill")! He further confronts them on their Sabbath interpretations. They were quite open to do circumcisions on the Sabbath but they considered it illegal for Jesus to heal on the Sabbath.

The problem for Jesus was that the religious leaders were so obsessed with "looking right" that they were missing being right. Paul later would talk about people having the "form of godliness, but lacking the power there of. (II Timothy 3:5)" This is a major difference between religiosity and true Christianity. How much of our faith is "just for show" and how much is God-related, authentic and consistent, true and backed up by action?