Lesson 22: John 7:21-36 - The Feast of Booths (part 2)

21 Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it.
22 Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.
23 If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well?
24 Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”
25 Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill?
26 And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ?
27 But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.”
28 So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know.
29 I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.”
30 So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.
31 Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”


32 The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.
33 Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me.
34 You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.”
35 The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?
36 What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”

Jesus openly challenged the rituals the people celebrated, because they were different from what God had given to Moses as part of the sacred days of feasts. He challenged not only the beliefs, but also the authority of the religious leaders – and the people took notice. But the people weren’t asking the right questions. They liked what Jesus was saying, but they were not yet completely convinced He truly was the promised Messiah of God.

The religious leaders, however, knew it could not be long before they began to understand, and wanted desperately to end His teaching by whatever means they could – but it wasn’t God’s time yet. God had designed the perfect time for His Lamb to die, and this wasn’t the right time or the right feast. So the leaders were made powerless by God Himself.

*Memorize Isaiah 55:6 - “Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.”