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Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost

August 24, 2022

The Invitatory

Send out your light and your truth, that they may lead me, and bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

The earth is the Lord’s for he made it: Come let us adore him.

Reading: 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. Now the Jewish festival of Booths was near. So his brothers said to him, ‘Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples also may see the works you are doing; for no one who wants to be widely known acts in secret. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.’ (For not even his brothers believed in him.) Jesus said to them, ‘My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify against it that its works are evil. Go to the festival yourselves. I am not going to this festival, for my time has not yet fully come.’ After saying this, he remained in Galilee.

But after his brothers had gone to the festival, then he also went, not publicly but as it were in secret. The Jews were looking for him at the festival and saying, ‘Where is he?’ And 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.’ Yet no one would speak openly about him for fear of the Jews.

Meditation: Jo Ann B. Jones

I used to be so surprised by how quickly opposition to Jesus would arise in the Gospel accounts. I shudder to admit to such naiveté on my part. I focused on opposition in the forms of antagonism, hostility and combativeness. And indeed, there are many expressions of these forms of opposition, including in this lesson. Note that the Jews were looking for an opportunity to kill Jesus. But there is a larger, more extensive and invasive kind of opposition that is always operating… and necessarily so. This opposition was destined to arise for it acknowledges that Jesus’ efforts to reveal God to us would stand in marked contrast to what humankind desired of life and of God. God’s view stands in opposition to the desires of humankind - desires for power, dominion, and worldly possessions. Where do truth and love, forgiveness and salvation stand with respect to those desires? In opposition. Consequently, as Jesus begins to teach and to preach, he is met with opposition in all its forms.

Why does this Gospel present so many challenges that seem to stretch us and cause us to wonder? Is it intended to remove anything that is false in our understanding of who Jesus is and what we might be tempted to see as saving faith and show us who Jesus really is and what true saving faith is.

In this passage take a moment to think about what his brothers were doing…They wanted Jesus to go to the celebration at Jerusalem and literally, make a name for himself and perform by means of miracles so that the world would see His miracle-working abilities. Do they see for themselves the possibility of greater status due to their blood relationship to him? Do they merely want a grab for fame, glory and power? They seem to value fame and fortune that devolves upon them because of Jesus’ presence. They have overlooked the true value of Jesus’ presence in that moment. They will not be in any position to realize its true gift. Later Jesus will say, “I came that you may have life and have it more abundantly. What Jesus’ brothers wish to grasp is so much less than abundant life.

It appears unbelievers are more focused on the good Jesus can do them rather than on Jesus, himself. Unbelief can be very deceptive. It can masquerade as genuine belief. Unbelief can do things one would expect to be done by belief. We’ve seen how unbelief can follow Jesus, trust him for provisions, diligently seek Him out, understand miracles and signs are real, believe him, and even on some levels believe in him. However, unbelief only seeks Jesus out for personal gain and personal exaltation. So the common denominator between the unbelieving crowd and Jesus’ unbelieving brothers is self-exaltation or using Jesus to get things. This is the way of the world. This is exactly what Christ intends to undo.

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven,

   hallowed be thy Name,

   thy kingdom come,

   thy will be done,

       on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

   as we forgive those

       who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

   but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

   and the power, and the glory,

   for ever and ever. Amen.