Expecting Jesus

After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill Him. Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand. So His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works You are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. 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 about it that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for My time has not yet fully come.” After saying this, He remained in Galilee.

But after His brothers had gone up to the feast, then He also went up, not publicly but in private. The Jews were looking for Him at the feast, and saying, “Where is He?” And there was much muttering about Him among the people. While some said, “He is a good Man,” others said, “No, He is leading the people astray.” Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of Him.

About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this Man has learning, when He has never studied?” So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on My own authority. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the One who seeks the glory of Him who sent Him is true, and in Him there is no falsehood. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill Me?” The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill You?” Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with Me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”

Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the Man whom they seek to kill? And here He is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to Him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? But we know where this Man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where He comes from.” So Jesus proclaimed, as He taught in the temple, “You know Me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of My own accord. He who sent me is true, and Him you do not know. I know Him, for I come from Him, and He sent Me.” So they were seeking to arrest Him, but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come. Yet many of the people believed in Him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will He do more signs than this Man has done?”

John 7:1-31

On a recent, very cold Wednesday morning, a boy in our family noticed snowflakes starting to fall as his mother drove him to school. “It’s snowing! School will be canceled!” He fully expected to arrive at the campus and see staff members turning cars in the drop-off lane around, as the cancellation text hit his mom’s phone. But sadly, those cars were moving steadily as usual; education was relentlessly pressing on. Expectations can be tough.

The brothers of Jesus, John 7 reveals, had expectations too. Jesus was in Galilee, avoiding the authorities’ hostility toward Him in Judea after He healed a man on the Sabbath. Now the Feast of Tabernacles had arrived, and Jesus’ brothers had opinions about what He should do. Despite the danger to Him in Judea, they urged Him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that Your disciples may see the works You are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly.” And John added, “For not even His brothers believed in Him” (John 7:3-5).

Their thinking was to go more public with your miracles. Draw more crowds—get more notice! The NIV translation says, “No one who wants to be a public figure acts in secret.” If you want to be an influencer, you need more followers.

Jesus answered that He timed His actions in union with His Father’s will. He would go to the feast but would wait for the right time, especially for the right time to set in motion actions that would lead to His redemptive purpose—His death and resurrection.

What about us now? What are we to expect of Jesus?

We have nothing to bring to the Lord, no basis on which to make any demands on Him at all. His thoughts are infinitely higher than ours; we know Him through what He has revealed. We know that through God’s gift of faith in Jesus and His death and resurrection, we are freed from sin’s judgment and control and have new life, eternal life, through His Spirit.

These gifts, founded in Jesus’ stunning sacrifice, call for our deepest praise forever. But in His mighty grace, Jesus has given us promises—right expectations of Him for our lives now.

Always, always—we can expect His presence—He promised, in the Person of His Spirit, to be with His people who trust Him (Matthew 28:20). He’s present in that tense interview, in the dreaded doctor’s appointment, in another evening alone. The believer in Jesus is never really isolated, because He is unfailingly here. When hardship presses down on us, we understand He is with us and forms us into His likeness, as we rely on His strength.

We can also expect His power, given and curated by His Spirit (Acts 1:8). This is not for our prominence or promotion, but for our growth, our courage and wisdom for service, and for glory to Him, according to the Father’s design. 

Jesus also promised that we can expect His peace (John 14:27). He accomplished our reconciliation with the Father (Romans 5:10-11), and because we are united with Him through faith, we experience the solid, light-filled assurance of His constant, preserving, enfolding love.

He “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine!” (Ephesians 3:20-21)

We praise Him.