John 7

John 7 is another exercise in listening. In this chapter, Jesus visits the feat of the Tabernacles in secret, though He still speaks to the crowd. It is interesting to see this because when Jesus speaks, he almost speaks out of frustration. We always think of Jesus speaking calmly and rationally, but here it is almost like He loses His patience for the crowd He is talking to.

21Jesus said to them, "I did one miracle, and you are all astonished. 22Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a child on the Sabbath. 23Now if a child can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing the whole man on the Sabbath? 24Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment." – John 7:21-24

Can you see the frustration here? Jesus knew of the hypocrisy that the people were talking about. As I mentioned yesterday, Jesus wanted to grow and think beyond what they were told. This was a radical idea at the time, as regular people being involved with worship and church affairs was unheard of. They were supposed to bray it up with the other sheep and regurgitate what the religious leaders of the day told them.

In this section Jesus is asking for us to think for ourselves. We are only accountable for ourselves, so it is important that we make our own judgments instead of blindly following the teaching others. We are supposed to ask questions and form opinions. If we don’t do so there is no way we can grow into a relationship with Christ.