Jesus Divides the Jews: John Chapter Seven
By: Deji Yesufu
The ministry that our Lord Jesus Christ led appeared to have been doomed from the start. You get the impression from some quarters that if God is with a man in Christian ministry, everything will work out for him. For Christ, it was different. John chapter seven ends with Nicodemus’s testimony about Jesus. The Jews are haranguing the Lord. This man, who himself belonged to the top hierarchy of the Jewish religious system, called their attention to something: “…does our law judge a man before it hears him…” (John 7:51). He was saying that the principle of natural justice should at least allow the Jews to examine the claims of Jesus – and not to condemn him outrightly only because he did not fit their religious prejudices. But I also feel sorry for Nicodemus because he spoke with Christ in John 3, where Jesus told him about being “born again”. He had asked the Master then whether that meant that a grown man would return to his mother’s womb. Jesus replied saying something about being born of the spirit and water. It appears that our Lord was not even going to make things even easier for those who had a sincere desire to follow him.
You can imagine the confusion of the same Nicodemus when, in John 19:38-42, he suddenly finds himself carrying the corpse of the Lord – along with one Joseph of Arimathea. How could a man who raised the dead, himself die? What about all the mighty claims he made of himself being the Son of God and in some cases, claiming that he was God himself? Where are his twelve disciples? Why is it that it is two men who were not even in his close circuits that are burying him? Despite the questions, something propelled the actions of Nicodemus. Something within him told him that this man was indeed the Christ. It might appear gloomy, dark, and incomprehensible, but there is a light that will shine at the end. Whatever led Nicodemus to see Jesus that late night in John chapter three, and then helped him to give a defence of the Lord in chapter seven, was the same force that propelled him to give the dead Jesus a befitting burial. Nicodemus will learn with time that in the story of Jesus, God brings glory out of a doomed narrative. With this in mind, we will examine further some debates that Jesus had with the Jews in this chapter and also look at their outcomes.
John chapter seven opens with Christ appearing to debate his siblings. They agree that Jesus’ life was extraordinary. They were there in John chapter two when he turned water to wine in Cana of Galilee (John 2:12). They had likely been partakers of some of his supernatural works, as this is the only reason why his mother would have instructed the servants to do anything Jesus told them. Despite it all, the scripture records a very sad commentary on his siblings – “…for even his brothers did not believe him…” The strange deduction some people make that if a man is called to ministry then all his family will agree with him – appears to be incongruent with what is happening in Jesus’ life here. His brothers witnessed his godly life; they saw the consistency of his message and words; they probably even enjoyed some of God’s providences through Christ at home; yet, they did not believe in him. Eventually, all of them came to submit to his leadership – particularly after he had risen from the dead. But initially, this was not the case. I think that the pursuit of some seeming positive results from Christian ministry is one of the worst testimonies about the way and manner ministry is done in our day. A man truly called by God and doing the ministry may never see the result of his work in his lifetime. It might please God to only allow for this man to sow seeds for the next generation to reap on.
In this chapter, Jesus offers three defences of his ministry. First, that his doctrine is from God and that any man who is truly committed to doing God’s will know the veracity of his teaching (John 7:16-19). Second, it behoves us all to live life judging righteously (John 7:24). Simply look at issues in the same manner you will want others to look at yours. Third, pursue a knowledge of God – know God and you will have peace (John 7:28-29). In previous chapters, Jesus had also enumerated many other points to prove the veracity of his ministry but he would never tire of responding to the Jews as long as they had something of an opposition to his ministry. It appeared that our Lord was not going to make any breakthrough with these very hard-hearted Jews, and then John wrote:
“Therefore, many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, “Truly this is the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ”. But others said, “Will the Christ come out of Galilee…” (John 7:40-41).
For the first time in the book of John, people appear to begin to believe the witness of Jesus beyond the miracles he worked or the bread he provided them to eat. The Bible records that at a point, a division occurred “among the people because of him” (John 7:43). The matter was made worse when the soldiers that were sent to arrest Jesus returned to the religious rulers and confessed that nobody ever spoke as this man is speaking. The religious leaders countered them and said that people should not believe Jesus only because they had not approved of him (verse 46). It sounds like today when people expect you to take a position in a religious debate only because the church you belong to holds to such a position. Obviously, from the account of this passage, Christ will prefer that you and I will have our independent positions on issues. Understandably, a church should have well-spelt out biblical doctrines. A church should have a body of confession. A church should have traditions they hold to. The problem with the Pharisees was not that they were not biblical. Jesus and the Pharisees took their first principles from the teachings of Moses. The difference between Christ and the Pharisees is verse 17: “…if anyone will do his will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on my authority…” The hallmark of Phariseesm everywhere it rears its ugly head is that people tend to say all the right things; they uphold sound doctrines; but deep within their lives, they do not do these things. They create cliques in church. They have double standards – they use one standard for Mr A and another standard for Mr B. They are not consistent. If the Jews had been committed to Moses in both word and deed, they would easily have recognized Christ as the Messiah. But because their religion was mostly hypocritical, they were blind to God when he appeared to them in the flesh.
Jesus did not enter John chapter seven with the sole aim of dividing the Jews. In John chapter six, the Jews had divided the church of the Master. Our Lord commanded a congregation of 5,000 men and more in that chapter but by the time he began to teach what they called difficult doctrines, they left his church. He had only twelve disciples left. But as fate will have it, in the very next chapter, the Lord returned the favour: the Jews were divided, including their leadership. We do not live the Christian life to carry out vengeance. It is however some consolation to know that God says that vengeance is his and he will repay every evil done against his people. God’s ways are good and perfect. We see his working here in the seventh chapter of John.
Deji Yesufu is the pastor of the Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY.
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