March 3: Being misunderstood
John 7:1-24 TNIV from Biblegateway.com
1 After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him. 2 But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, 3 Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. 4 No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him.
6 Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. 8 You go to the Festival. I am not going up to this Festival, because my time has not yet fully come.” 9 Having said this, he stayed in Galilee.
10 However, after his brothers had left for the Festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. 11 Now at the Festival the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus and asking, “Where is he?”
12 Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, “He is a good man.”
Others replied, “No, he deceives the people.” 13 But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders.
14 Not until halfway through the Festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. 15 The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?”
16 Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. 17 Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. 18 Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. 19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”
20 “You are demon-possessed,” the crowd answered. “Who is trying to kill you?”
21 Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. 22 Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath. 23 Now if a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing a man’s whole body on the Sabbath? 24 Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.”
Devotional Comments:
Have you ever been misunderstood by the people closest to you? It’s one thing to not be understood by strangers but when it is somebody who you really count on…it’s painful. Jesus has just had a whole crowd leave him because they don’t “get him” and when he gets home, he finds out that his family doesn’t “get him” either. Jesus spent a lifetime here on earth in relationships. Jesus deeply relates to and understands our experiences of being misunderstood.
I wonder how much we misunderstand Jesus? Here he is trying to explain that he only brings what his Father gives him to bring. The Way of life he is describing and teaching is radical and it is so good. He asks us whether we will even give it a try.
The crowds he talked to were obsessed with Moses’ Law (though none of them could live up to it and rarely even tried). I wonder what we are obsessed with? Living our own way - are we self-reliant, following self-imposed rules and expectations? How radical would it be to give Jesus’ way a true try? Only a few pages over he explains more fully: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) This is the Way Jesus offers to us.
Kirsten Waldschmidt
Pray that we can live Jesus’ way.