“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.”’ John 7:1-10. ESV.
This passage has blown my mind in several ways.
First, we see that Jesus’s half-brothers have murderous intentions by challenging Him to go up to the Feast of Booths (also called the Festival of Tabernacles) in Judea, because the Jews there were seeking to kill Him. The sarcastic and derisive challenge issued by Jesus’s own brothers hides a thinly veiled desire that Jesus would be publicly humiliated, or worse, by going there! In the least, we see the brothers are hating Jesus, and are jealous of Him at this time. Remember that Jesus said hating your brother is like murder in your heart.
The spirit of their challenge reminds me of Joseph’s half-brothers, and how they want to kill him because of their jealousy, and how they mock him before actually taking action against him. Joseph, is, in this way, a “type” of Christ. Joseph’s brothers wanted to kill him to save themselves in various petty ways, not realizing that Joseph would subsequently be used to accomplish a greater salvation than anyone could imagine, which included all of Egypt and Israel.
Their actions against him, (they were going to murder him, but Reuben intervened and the brothers ended up selling Joseph into slavery, and then they lied to their father, Jacob, about Joseph being killed by a wild animal), made him “dead” to their father, which allowed them to go on with their lives without him. Joseph was seen to be “resurrected” when the brothers traveled to Egypt to get food during the famine, for Joseph had risen to a position of second to Pharoah by interpreting Pharoah’s dream. God had revealed through Joseph a plan to provide for all the people, during the seven year famine prophesied in the dream, through the storage of seven years’ worth of abundant harvests that preceded it.
The brothers were shocked at the eventual discovery of Joseph’s “resurrection” and glorified position, and were immediately alarmed at the depth of their guilt, and the power of Joseph to pass judgment on them, even though Joseph reassured them of His forgiveness. And Jacob enjoyed renewed fellowship with his son after Joseph had purchased salvation for all Israel—the sons of Jacob and their families.
In the same way, our sin brought about the need for the Son’s physical body to be sacrificed to death, in order to accomplish a salvation that we are powerless to secure for ourselves. For a time, Jesus was considered “dead” by His Father, when the sin of the world was upon Him, and the hatred, and murderous intention of mankind, was allowed to kill His human body. Jesus was physically resurrected and revealed to His brothers, and all mankind, as the second person of the Trinity, after purchasing the salvation of all believers on the cross. And fellowship was restored with the Father, after being broken for our sake.
There are other parallels between Jesus and Joseph, (how Joseph was falsely accused and taken into custody, for instance), but I just wanted to plumb the depths of the hearts of Jesus’s half brothers within this short account in John 7, through illumination of the “types” in the Old Testament account of Joseph.
The second mind-blowing realization is that Jesus seems to change His mind later about going to the feast, or it seems that He deliberately misleads His brothers by saying that He is not going up to this feast.
The Feast of Booths, or Sukkot, is a seven-day feast in remembrance of the 40 years of wandering in the desert during the Exodus from Egypt. During that time, the Israelites moved from place to place, following the pillar of cloud that indicated the presence and will of God to stay put or to pack up and go. Since the Israelites had to be ready to move at a moment’s notice, their ephemeral dwellings were light wooden structures covered with branches or palm fronds. These “booths,” then, could be quickly constructed or dismantled to suit the will of the Lord. I will come back to this important idea in a moment.
Jesus could very well have known that He would later be going up to the feast, and so was telling the truth about not going up to “this feast,” today. The festival is seven days long, with feasting each day. Perhaps Jesus’s words convey the truth that He was not going up to this feast on this day, but leaves room for Him to go to tomorrow’s feast, or one of the other feasts, later in the week.
This doesn’t really square with how the feast is represented in a later verse, where the whole week is presented as “the feast.” “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.’” (John 7:37. ESV. Italics mine). This verse refers to the whole week as “the feast,” and does not distinctly describe the sub-feast on the last day. Otherwise, it would have said, “At the feast on the last and greatest day…”
If Jesus is speaking in a specious manner in John 7:8, then we would have to admit that He is delivering an impression to His brothers that would later be proved false. He knew that they were suggesting He should go up to the Feast, (any time), and He says that He is not going up. His appearance at the feast, then, would make it appear to His brothers that either He lied, or changed His mind. We know, however, that Jesus cannot lie.
We can observe from Jesus’s statement, in John 7:6, “my time has not yet fully come,” that the Father has made Him aware that “now” is not the time to go to the feast. I believe that Jesus spoke the words matching what the Father gave Him to know. Since Jesus does not speak in half-truths, as Satan does, I’m inclined to believe that Jesus only knew “not now.” If He had known that He would eventually be going, He could have avoided the charge of lying or making a specious statement to say that He isn’t going “yet,” instead of “I am not going up to this feast.”
What we can say definitely here is that Jesus’s mind was made up about one thing. His mind was constantly set upon following the Father. If the Father says, “No, do not go up to this feast,” then Jesus expresses that He will not go up to this feast. If the Father later says, “Now, go up to this feast, and go privately,” then Jesus goes up to the feast, and in a way that He will not seek to be known until the proper time. With such an interpretation of the event, we may rule out that Jesus lied about not going.
Jesus appears to all the world to have changed His mind, when, in fact, His mind is made up, and His allegiance is to the Father’s whim and will. This desire manifests throughout His life as spontaneity, as the Father’s instructions are immediate, and freshly updating, within the mind of Christ.
Jesus constantly lives out the idea behind the Festival of the Booths, and it is poetic how this question of going up to the feast actually demonstrates the meaning of the Festival! Jesus was led by the Father to decline the invitation initially, and then led by the Father to accept the invitation privately, at a later time.
When He did go, he went incognito, led by the Father. Though He went clothed in such a manner as not to be recognized, He subsequently reveals Himself and begins to preach publicly, “About the middle of the feast” (John 7:14. ESV). Jesus changed in intention from blending into the crowd to standing out. Did Jesus change His mind, or was He expressing the flexibility of obedience to the Father in a life lesson about the Booths?
Jesus was responsive to the move of the Father, obedient down to every moment. He did not build a solid paneled house in one spot, settle down, and set out strong roots into a place. Instead, Jesus moved from place to place, traveling in such a way as to follow His Father (in the “pillar of cloud” or “pillar of fire,” to use the Exodus 13 idioms).
When He replied to His brothers’ invitation to go up to the feast, He responded with the words given Him by the Father. He did not build an estate upon the idea of not going up to the feast, however. If He had, He might have reasoned with the Father, when the Father gave a new command to go down to the feast, that He had already stated that He was not going up to the feast, and that going to the feast would then cast doubt upon His word. Knowing that His brothers would think Him a liar under such circumstances, He might have contended with the Father, that He should not go to the feast in order to appear to remain true to His word because, after all, He must live up to being “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
This is a very good point, and one that seems to elevate Truth to the highest place. It is hard to find fault with such an idea, and I wonder if Jesus did have just such a conversation with the Father, similar to His questions in Gethsemane?
On the other hand, while seemingly elevating Truth, such an argument is formed around maintaining the appearance of truth from man’s perspective.
Jesus constructs and dismantles His booth moment by moment, according to the desire of the Father, regardless of what mankind may think or say about His structure or His vacillating modes. He is unafraid of criticism from man for following the immediate and precise instructions of the Father. We see this later in the matter of the cross. Jesus was ultimately unconcerned that His death on the cross would make it appear that He is weak and an imposter.
So, what lesson can we draw from the Festival of the Booths? There is a multitude, I am sure, and I’m not writing here a comprehensive survey of lessons to be drawn from a very rich tradition. I am merely pointing out that Jesus lives in constant obedience to the Father, even when others would censure Him for His words or actions. We are merely men and women, however, and our imperfect interpretations of God’s leading, moment by moment, require continual adjustments and updates. If we feel that we have received a leading from God—good! We should act upon the leading, but remain open to Him for fresh instruction—and even be willing to reverse ourselves at a later time—ready to dismantle our plans and understanding should God give us updated orders.
We may look to the world to be foolish. We may look to the world to be hypocritical. Our actions will invite censure. We will be persecuted.
In every way, when we live out the Festival of Booths in our lives as Jesus did, God is honored in our hearts, and glorified in the world. Through continual adjustments, we can endeavor to allow the course of our lives to be shaped and altered by the whim of the Spirit, Who leads us to stop and build, or to get up, dismantle, and move on. As we consciously throw aside our concealing habit in mid-feast and stand up in Christ, He reveals Himself to the world in our thoughts, words, and actions, and the world will hate us.
The special days, in which our lives are an open invitation and a demonstration of the “rivers of living water” flowing from within, will be the greatest days in our lives, not because of our own accomplishments, but because the Spirit makes a way in the desert and moves us hither and yon, all the while revealing that a promised land has already been entered through a sweet fellowship with Jesus. Though we may feel that we are in a small, insecure, and uncomfortable booth in the desert, and long for a spacious, secure, and luxurious eternal dwelling, we have living water to drink and Heavenly manna to eat, and may luxuriate even now within the personal and powerful presence of the Lord.
No matter where we are or what circumstances befall us, we have an open invitation to luxuriate in the company of Jesus and the fellowship of His sufferings. The booth is a palace, and Jesus, our brother, is GOD HIMSELF, THE KING OF KINGS, and LORD of LORDS!!!