Friday 29th September
Read John 7:6-10
“Therefore Jesus told them, ‘My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. 8 You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.’ 9 After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee. 10 However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret.” (NIVUK)
There are many things Jesus said that people today find offensive. People in His own day found many things He said equally offensive! They are probably different things though…
We probably underestimate how offensive Jesus’ response to His brothers actually is. When it was clear that Jesus wasn’t going up with them, and didn’t agree with their reasoning, He explained why He could not go up. We could read this as Jesus’ self-importance asserting itself and that He thinks He is meant for better things than going up to the feast. Particularly with all this talk of His ‘time’ having not yet arrived (v6, 8). But that would miss the point.
It is a particularly sharp point. Some commentators equate ‘time’ here with the frequent reference to Jesus’ ‘hour’ not yet coming. Jesus’ ‘hour’ refers to when He is lifted up on the cross and finally glorified through His obedience. But the words used are different and ‘kairos’ is only used here. With Carson, I think the ‘time’ that has not yet fully arrived is God’s divine and sovereign timing. Like Ecclesiastes 3, there is a ‘time’ for everything under God’s sun, and Jesus will not go up to the feast at this time and in this way because it does not align with the divine master plan. This means that His comment to His brothers that ‘for you any time will do’ (v6) is both derisive and dismissive.
Jesus is saying that any decision they make, any plans they have, are completely irrelevant to God – so far out of His divine plans do they find themselves. His brothers are so consumed by worldly interests and desires (v7a), and so out of step with what God is doing (v7b), that their opinions and actions are completely inconsequential. ‘Any time will do for you’…
Can you imagine anything more offensive?
