Family conflict

July 7, 2021 (Wednesday)

 

Jesus had a difficult relationship with His earthly family. Matthew, Mark, and Luke record what seems to be a family intervention. You know the kind, when the family just hast to do something to deal with one of their own that has gone off the rails.

                        

Mark 3:31 simply records, “And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him.” [ESV] Jesus refuses to go with them.

 

The plot thickens in John 7:1, “After this Jesus traveled throughout Galilee. He didn’t want to travel in Judea, because the Jewish authorities wanted to kill him.” This is the set up. We later find Jesus teaching in the Temple. The context of the story is found in the next verse, “When it was almost time for the Jewish Festival of Booths,” [John 7:2 CEB]

 

The Festival of Booths was when the Jews would live outside in make-shift booths. This festival occurs on the day after the Day of Atonement, generally in September or October and lasted for seven days. It was the celebration of the end of the harvest season.

 

At this point, there is recorded something that seems like a taunt. “Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee. Go to Judea so that your disciples can see the amazing works that you do.” [John 7:3 CEB] This is a curious statement because they must have been at the wedding in Cana (see John 2) where Jesus turned water into wine. Then again, maybe that’s the reason.

 

When we are familiar with someone and they do something special, in our minds, we don’t see how special it is. Another idea is that water into wine seems like a parlor trick: something insignificant. With all the need in the world, why make wine. Maybe they felt like they did not benefit from Jesus’ miracles. When we see God work in another situation, and not ours, it can be discouraging.

 

The brothers continued, “Those who want to be known publicly don’t do things secretly. Since you can do these things, show yourself to the world.” [John 7:4 CEB] We have a hint that they understood Jesus as an attention seeker. It was just that attention that Jesus was strategically avoiding, for now. I’m still puzzling out why Jesus never made it easy to follow Him, at times discouraging people from doing so. This makes me question the easy-believe American theology of evangelism.

 

Here’s the shocker, “His brothers said this because even they didn’t believe in him.” [John 7:5 CEB] They were not saying this to give Jesus advice. It was a taunt at best. It could have been a satanic temptation. Doesn’t it sound familiar? Everyone will believe if you toss yourself off the temple wall and the angels rescue you… (see Luke 4:9 – 11).

 

Jesus responds, “You go up to the festival. I’m not going to this one because my time hasn’t yet come.” [John 7:8 CEB] When Jesus talked about “my time,” Jesus was talking about His crucifixion. Jesus makes this statement seven times in the book of John.

 

This story may seem difficult to understand because it sounds like Jesus misled His brothers, “However, after his brothers left for the festival, he went too—not openly but in secret.” [John 8:10 CEB] My thought is Jesus going with them would have been obvious and placed the brothers in danger. It’s possible that the word “yet,” in verse 8, is better understood earlier in the verse (Robertson). Such as I’m not going yet.

 

For all those who have endured misunderstanding and conflict with family, Jesus understands. He’s been there and done that… Jesus never gave up on them. We know He appeared to James after the resurrection (see 1 Corinthians 15:7). Jesus’ pattern for us today is patient love.