Christ at the Feast in Jerusalem.

(John 7:1-9).

Having written in the 6^th chapter about the Lord’s conversation with the Jews about Himself as being “bread of life,” Evangelist John narrates that after this, the Lord walked in Galilee. As we have seen above, the Lord’s lengthy stay in Galilee and His works there are narrated in detail by the first three Evangelists. The Lord didn’t want to go to Judea, as “the Jews sought to kill Him,” while His hour of suffering had not arrived. “Now the Jews’ Feast of Tabernacles was at hand.” This was one of the three main Jewish feasts (Pascha, Pentecost and Festival of Tabernacles) and was celebrated for 7 days from the 15^th day of the month of Tisrah — in our calendar, the end of September and the beginning of October. It was established in memory of the 40 year wandering of the Jews in the wilderness. The whole 7 days of the feast was spent by people in tents, especially pitched for this occasion. Because the feast was celebrated shortly after harvest time, the celebrations were very merry with partaking of wine, which gave cause for Plutarch to compare it with the heathen celebrations in honor of Bacchus. Before this feast day, the Lord had already been absent from Jerusalem for nearly one and a half years (from the second to the third, and from the third to the Festival of Tabernacles — nearly 6 months), and His brothers were urging Him to go to Jerusalem for the feast. They wanted the Lord to enter Jerusalem triumphantly, like the Messiah in all the miraculous manifestation of His power. The Lord’s rejection of human glory was not understandable to them, and this was tempting them. “For even His brothers did not believe in Him” notes the Evangelist: they were baffled by their named Brother and wished to be released from this perplexity; on the one hand, they could not deny His extraordinary works, being witnesses to them themselves; while on the other hand, they were unwilling to acknowledge a person, with Whom they had an ordinary earthly association from childhood, as the Messiah.

It was in this frame of mind that they suggested He get out from this uncertain (in their opinion) position which Jesus maintained. If He is truly the Messiah, why is He afraid to appear before the whole world in Jerusalem as the Messiah? He must appear there in all His greatness and glory (Interpretation of the Gospel by Bishop Michael). In reply, the Lord explains to His brothers that His appearance in Jerusalem has a different meaning to that maintained by others, including His brothers. His brothers will not see any hatred there toward themselves, because they were one of them; while the Lord will be greeted with hostility as the denouncer of evil deeds of the world. Consequently, they can go there whenever they wish, but He can go there only at the appointed hour, determined from above, of His suffering for the world. Having farewelled his brothers, the Lord remained in Galilee with the intention of coming to the feast secretly, in the company of His trusted disciples.