Familiarity Breeds Contempt

John 7

The Jewish Festival of Shelters, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles, was a weeklong celebration of God’s faithfulness to the Israelites during their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. As part of the celebration, Jewish families traveled to Jerusalem in Judea, where they stayed in temporary shelters made of branches and leaves.

Jesus didn’t want to draw attention to Himself in Judea because He knew the religious leaders there were plotting to kill Him. He wasn’t afraid of them. He was simply following God’s timeline. It wasn’t time for Him to die yet.

His brothers, the children of Joseph and Mary, thought that was a mistake. One of the reasons the “important” Jewish leaders rejected Jesus is that He did most of His miracles and teaching in Galilee, a region they considered unsophisticated. His brothers wanted Him to show what He could do on the big stage of Jerusalem.

His brothers saw that He could work miracles, but they didn’t believe He was the Messiah. Maybe their sibling rivalry was too strong. It wasn’t until after Jesus’ resurrection that His brothers became His disciples.

Jesus traveled to the festival alone to avoid making a big entrance. But He didn’t avoid making His message known. He went to the temple and began to preach—boldly and with authority.

When the Jewish leaders heard Him, they were amazed and confused. He taught like a highly educated rabbi, but He had no formal training. They were more concerned about His credentials than His message. Jesus explained, “My message is not my own; it comes from God who sent me” (verse 16 NLT). In other words, “If you reject it, you reject God.”

Jesus questioned why the religious leaders, who were guilty of sin, wanted to kill Him, who was sinless. He pointed out their hypocrisy. They performed circumcisions on the Sabbath, but they condemned Him for healing people on the Sabbath.

Jesus’ bold confrontation left many people confused. If the religious leaders wanted Him dead, why didn’t they arrest Him? He was challenging them to their faces. Did that mean they believed He was the Messiah?

On the other hand, many of these people knew who Jesus was. They knew His family. They knew where He’d come from and what He’d done for the first three decades of His life. He was one of them. They were waiting for a Messiah who was mysterious and heroic—not a local guy. And especially not a local guy from an insignificant place like Galilee.

The people wanted a Messiah who checked off very specific boxes of their own making. Since Jesus didn’t check off all those boxes, they refused to believe in Him. They chose to overlook the miracles He performed and the powerful truth of His teaching. And they continued their fruitless search for their type of Messiah—one that God never promised.

If we want to understand the truth about Jesus—who He is, what He did, and what He wants from and for us—we have to go straight to the source, God’s Word. We can’t rely on our own ideas or the educated guesses of others.

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