When Even Your Own Family Doesn't Believe You

(Note – This sermon is out of order, but is my current sermon. I will try and catch up in future posts.)

I suppose that all of us have at one time or another have had our motives and intentions questioned; we have been misunderstood. This hurts. It hurts even more when we are not believed – when we are really telling the truth. Jesus not only told the truth; he was the truth, yet even his own family didn’t believe that he was who he said he was. How did he handle this? Perhaps the answer can help us when we are misunderstood. Let’s look at the scripture lesson:

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. But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” For even his own brothers did not believe in him.

Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.” After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee.

 However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. Now at the festival the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus and asking, “Where is he?”

 Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, “He is a good man.”

   Others replied, “No, he deceives the people.” But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders. (John 7:1-13 NIV)

The scripture starts with Jesus in Galilee. Chapter 6 ended with Jesus in Jerusalem attending the Feast of the Passover. Since the Passover occurred in the spring and the Feast of Tabernacles in the fall, 6 months have passed from the end of chapter 6 and the beginning of chapter 7. Jerusalem is located in the southern region of what we now call Israel, but then was known as Judea. Since the Jewish establishment was in Jerusalem, Jesus was prudently remaining in Galilee – in the North. Even though it is only Jesus that is mentioned, he was not up there alone. His disciples were with him and he was actively teaching in the synagogues and he was healing; the ministry centered in the town of Capernaum.

The Feast of Tabernacles was a celebration of the harvest and a remembrance of God’s grace in bringing the Israelites into the land. Jesus brothers tried to goad him into going to Jerusalem for the Feast. This was somewhat ingenuous since the gospel explicitly states that his brothers didn’t believe in him. Of course they did believe later after the crucifixion and the resurrection – but that is a different story. They were intimating that if he was the Messiah as he said (which they didn’t believe) that he needed to be where the action was.

Jesus’ answer is interesting; my time is not yet. Throughout the gospel, Jesus refers to “his time” and “his hour”, which usually refers to his crucifixion; his glorification. He knew he was going to lay down his life, but this was not the time. Essentially he told his brothers that he worked on the schedule of the Father and wasn’t on his own agenda. He told the brothers that they could go because their schedule was there own. In fact they don’t need to fear persecution because the world likes them – in fact, they were the world. The reason that the world (those in power) hated Jesus was that he confronted this world with the truth; it was filled with evil.

Well Jesus did go to the feast. The scripture states that he went secretly. There is no cloak and dagger here; he just didn’t make a splash. It was in Jerusalem that we find three kinds of people; he was the talk of the town – but not openly. There were definite hostile enemies; the establishment. They wanted Jesus dead. There were also those of the fickle crowd. They liked Jesus, but they were not committed to him. They thought that he was a good guy. Finally, the third group wasn’t really enemies; they just weren’t buying what Jesus was selling. They thought he was trying to lead the people astray for his own gain. These three kinds of people are still with us. Of course the fourth kind of people were also there; his disciples.

It seems that no one (except the disciples) believe Jesus. They all misunderstand him. Jesus didn’t seem bothered. Why? How did he manage this? I believe that there are things that helped him:

1. He knew who he was. He was God’s son.
2. He was committed to the agenda of the Father – “thy will be done.”
3. He knew that the Father to whom he was committed wanted the best for him and “had his back.”

These are essentially the three things that will help us when we are misunderstood. Do you know who you are? If we belong to Jesus, then we are sons of God. No one can take that away from us. Are you committed to His agenda or are you trying to do your own thing. When we do our own thing, we are on our own, but when we are committed to his agenda, he has our back.