After his relatives went to the feast, Jesus also decided to go. He wanted to observe it, but he didn't want to be the focus of all the attention. You can see it in the way people were talking about Jesus, that he would have been the focus. Also, there may be a mystery in the Father's plan, which meant that he had to go to the feast slightly later than he might have otherwise.
Whatever Jesus hoped to avoid by not announcing himself came to pass anyway, when he taught in the temple. His opponents had to wonder where he got his knowledge, because they knew he wasn't trained like they were. Even though Jesus's knowledge is special and supernatural, we should take this as a lesson, that none of us has to be a trained expert to have knowledge of God. And our knowledge is meant to serve the love of God.
Jesus grounds what he is saying in the fact that he was sent by the Father. His opponents wanted to get him on a technicality of breaking the Sabbath. Jesus appeals to the spirit of the Sabbath, more than the letter. And then he notes that the boys were circumcised on the Sabbath, in order to keep the covenant. No one would say that circumcision--which was the covenant sign of being part of Israel--was somehow an unnecessary work that could wait. Jesus called them out on their pretended devotion to the Law. He doesn't say that we should never judge anything, but he is telling us to judge carefully, and with wisdom.
Comments