Dear John 7- Division

Second oldest grandson.

January 7

So there was division among the people over him, 

some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

John 7:43:44

Whew, there is still division among the people over him today.  If you really know Him and love him, you are going to stand up for him.  Why is that so hard for people to do?  John takes us on an inside look at how Jesus' own brothers didn't believe in him.

Have you ever been watching a sporting event and one team is getting killed and it's not even halftime? Shouldn't they have the option to just quit and go home at that point? There had to be moments when Jesus wanted to just bail on this earthly assignment and GO HOME!

Check out the beginning of John 7 from The Message translation.  

Later Jesus was going about his business in Galilee.  He didn't want to travel to Judea because the Jews there were looking for a chance to kill him. It was near the time of Tabernacles, a feast observed annually by the Jews.

His brothers said, "Why don't you leave here and go up to the Feast so your disciples can get a good look at the works you do?  No one who intends to be publicly known does everything behind the scenes.  If you're serious about what you are doing, come out in the open and show the world."  His brothers were pushing him like this because they didn't believe him either.

Jesus came back at them, "Don't crowd me. This isn't my time. It's your time-it's always your time; you have nothing to lose. The world has nothing against you, but it's up in arms against me. It's against me because I expose the evil behind its pretensions.  You go ahead, go up to the Feast.  Don't wait for me. I'm not ready. It's not the right time for me."

He said this and stayed on in Galilee. But later, after his family had gone up to the Feast, he also went.  But he kept out of  the way, careful not to draw attention to himself.  The Jews were already out looking for him, asking around, "Where is that man?"

There was a lot of contentious talk about him circulating through the crowds. Some were saying, "He's a good man." But others said, "Not so. He's selling snake oil."  This kind of talk went on in guarded whispers because of the intimidating Jewish leaders.  

So, when we are sitting with our girlfriends at lunch and the chat begins about someone who just bowed and prayed over their meal in public; and another person pipes up mocking the neighbor who invites them to church every Sunday and their teenager to Young Life; while I third raga on the person at the PTA meeting who was talking about the amazing sermon that she heard on a Christian radio station…what do we do?