John 7:1-9

05/24/09
John 7:1-9
Hudson UMC

We have finally gotten ourselves out of John chapter six and have moved forward into chapter seven. Though it might seem like we have just turned a single page, we need to realize that a lot of time has passed. In chapter six, all of the events and teaching were happening around the celebration of Passover. Here in chapter seven, we find ourselves at a time when, as our text says, “the Jewish festival of Booths” is “near.” Now, since we do not often celebrate Jewish holidays as Christians, we might not realize how much time has passed. Passover corresponds to our season of Easter. It is something that takes place in early Spring. The festival of Booths, or Succoth, is a major festival in the Fall. We have only gone forward a single passage, but about six months have passed.

I think that it is important that we spend a bit of time on what the festival of Booths is and why it is significant to the story of Jesus. When God lead the Israelites out of their captivity in Egypt, they wandered in the wilderness for forty years. An entire generation grew up while living in temporary shelters. During this time, the people were radically dependent on the miraculous provision of God. This event was a major formational experience to the Jewish nation. Every year, the people of Israel, during the festival of Booths, or Succoth, remembered that they had been delivered by the mighty hand of God and that they were dependent on God’s provision to survive.

In light of this symbolic remembering, the festival of Booths took on some theological and practical significance. Every year, the people would build a temporary shelter, called a Succah and live in it for a week. There were a few rules that had to be followed. The most significant rule was regarding the roof. The roof of a Succah had to be made of natural materials. These materials had to have been cut off from plants and trees that were still living. So far, this does not sound like all that bad of a situation. The other part was that the roof was not allowed to be complete. The roof had to be open enough that you could see the stars while you were in it and the rain could get through. This served as a reminder that the people, even though they lived in comfortable houses, had ancestors that had a much more difficult time.

In light of all these things, Succoth became a time that focused around radical hospitality. It was expected that if you participated in the feast of Booths, you would invite friends and family over to share meals throughout the week of celebration. Also, if a guest were to arrive, either according to a plan or suddenly, you were obligated to take them in and be hospitable to them. In a way, some of this might remind us of our celebrations of Thanksgiving and Christmas. During those times of the year, our culture dictates that we should be more selfless and hospitable and to turn people away on Thanksgiving or Christmas is seen as being worse than doing so during other times of the year.

Now that we have spent a bit of time understanding the context of this passage, let us turn to the text itself. “After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jews were looking for an opportunity to kill him.” Here are the Jewish leaders, seeking to kill Jesus during the most hospitable time of the year. It is as if it was not bad enough that they wanted to kill Jesus, they still wanted to kill Him, even during the celebration of Succoth. It is as if a beloved pastor or other spiritual leader came to visit you for Thanksgiving or Christmas and you used that opportunity to kill him or her. It would be simply unthinkable. And yet, this gives us a good idea of just how much the leaders hated Jesus.

We continue reading. “Now the Jewish festival of Booths was near. So his brothers said to him, ‘Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples also may see the works you are doing; for no one who wants to be widely known acts in secret. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” I think that the words of Jesus’ brothers show us a kind of presupposition that we often have, especially as Americans. They assumed that Jesus wanted to be a celebrity. After all, He was doing amazing things, He was healing people and teaching with authority. These are the kinds of things that make celebrities in America today, are they not?

We Americans are really good at making celebrities. We can see a money-making opportunity a mile away and we know just how to exploit it. If someone has a great idea, we turn it into a product and market it as much as we can. If someone has a special talent, we do whatever we can to package it up in such a way that people will buy it. In fact, it seems that, even when we can’t find talented people in a conventional way, we will manufacture them through shows like American Idol. Jesus’ brothers were doing basically the same thing. They wanted to turn this homely preacher from Nazareth into a worldwide star. Why would they want to do this? It would make them seem to be more significant if they were related to someone famous. Even though the words that they spoke seem to be looking out for Jesus’ best interests, they are really selfish.

We realize that the brothers missed the point because the Scriptures tell us, “For not even his brothers believed in him.” Their offer to make Him famous in Jerusalem was not simply an innocent remark. It was based in unbelief. If they had believed in Him, they would not have made this suggestion. We need to understand that, with Jesus, fame is nothing. The greatest Christians of all time have been the ones that nobody made a big deal about. They were the people who committed themselves to prayer, to fasting, to serving others without glory. They are the people who work in the food kitchens, who give from the little they have to help those who have nothing, who sacrificed their time and energy to do the task that needed to be done but that nobody wanted to do. Jesus became popular, to be sure, but it was not because of having good PR.

Jesus tells His brothers, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify against it that its works are evil. Go to the festival yourselves. I am not going to this festival, for my time has not yet fully come.” Now, the very next verse is going to tell us that Jesus does indeed go to the festival, but He is taking this time to encourage ordinary people to begin to participate in His ministry. It is this idea that is the main thing that we need to take from this passage.

Jesus tells them, “Your time is always here.” This is something that we need to remember. There are two words in Greek for “time.” One of them, χρονος, means nothing more than time in the absolutely literal sense, time that can be measured with a clock or a calendar. This kind of time rolls calmly on, regardless of what is going on. The other word for time, καιρος, refers to time in a way that is full of meaning. It is a reference to time being ripe, a time for something. It is not a question of hours or days, but of significance. Today is Sunday according to χρονος time, but it is time to worship the Lord and be united to one another in καιρος time. It is this idea of significant time, of καιρος time, that is in this passage.

This is an important distinction, because, since we only have one English word for “time,” we tend to blur the two Greek ideas together. We really want to measure ourselves by a time that is measured by hours in the week and years of service. We want to be able to say, chronologically, that we have done our service and it is now time for other people to step in and take over. We might feel that we have done our part and are tired and worn out and ready for a break, but that is not what Jesus tells us in this passage. What does He tell us? He doesn’t say, “Your time is here and will go away,” but “Your time is always here.” He never gives us a break. Our time is always here.

How does it change the way we live if our time as the people of God is always here? If our time is always here, it means that there are always opportunities for doing the work of God, of spreading the good news. Time has passed, culture has changed, and so it might seem like we can’t do much, but Jesus tells us otherwise. In spite of the fact that we might not feel up to the task of reaching out to those who are different from us, Jesus informs us that our time, our opportune time is now and it is always now. No feelings of unworthiness, no weakness of faith, no fear is enough to negate the words of our Lord.

Do we really believe that our time is always here? Do we not often feel like our time is either in the distant past or in the distant future; either something to long for that will never return or something to hope for that we will never see? I think that the idea that our time is now scares us to death. If our time is really now, that means we need to act on it, we need to move, we need to be catapulted out of our comfort zone and be put into radically new situations. If our time is now, it means that God is already at work in the people around us and we need only participate in the work that God is already doing in order to bear fruit. It means that the promises of God are at our doorstep, ready to be claimed. It means that, if we move forward in the slightest bit of obedience, God will multiply our efforts and renew our lives, both individually and collectively, before our very eyes.

Allow me to speak in more specific terms. Our time as a church is always here, but I have what might be an even more scary idea for you. Your time as an individual is always here; specifically, it is here now. God is not calling you to take action for the kingdom someday, but today. This action might take many different forms. It might mean getting yourself into more productive study habits; it might mean committing yourself to prayer; it might mean seeking out a position of leadership within the local church or within the larger body. It might even mean that God is calling you into some form of vocational ministry. Whatever it is, it is not a call for sometime in the future, but for now.

It is easy to stand here and say that the fact that our time is always here is over and against the idea that our time is sometime in the future, but it is equally true that it is over and against the idea that our time was sometime in the past. The disciples were not able to say on the day of Pentecost, that they had already served for three years in full-time ministry; not just full-time like we think of it, a mere forty hours a week, but full-time as in all of their time, twenty-four hours a day. If they had given so much of their time, surely they had done enough and they could relax and let others carry on the work, right?

Wrong. Those three years of day and night discipleship were not the totality of their ministry under the Lord, they were simply the training period. They were called to a lifetime of service where they would be hated, ridiculed, and murdered. At no point could they say that their time was up, that they no longer needed to be in active discipleship and ministry. Their time was always now.

If you have never been involved in active Christian ministry, begin to pray about where God would have you serve. It may be that you have gifts and graces to serve in a capacity that our church is not yet prepared for. Help us develop the programs and attitudes that we need to empower you in that ministry. No skill is too small to be used for the kingdom and no willing heart is turned away by God. If you are currently involved in active Christian ministry, pray about how God wants you to work within that ministry to help the church fulfill her calling in a greater way. If you have been involved in active Christian ministry at some time in the past, pray to see where God is leading you today. You are never too old to be useful to the Lord and God wants to use you even now because your time is always here.

Each of us has been given gifts for ministry by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Let us be faithful in them. Our time is always here. There are opportunities for ministry now. God is moving in our midst and is calling us to respond in faith. Let us do so with joy, knowing that God will transform our weakness into strength, our shortcomings into greatness, and our doubt into faith. Let us pray.

AMEN