No one would have blamed Jesus for being restless. The Feast of Tabernacles was coming and he should have been on his way to Jerusalem to celebrate, but his Father had told him not to go yet. The Jewish leaders in Jerusalem were looking for an excuse to kill him, so for at least a little while longer, Jesus was going to stay where he was in Galilee.

His siblings teased him about why he wasn’t going with them to the festival. Didn’t he want to be even more famous than he already was?

“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 him.” John 7:3-5

Jesus explained that he couldn’t go; it just wasn’t time yet.

“‘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 said this, he stayed in Galilee.” John 7:6-8

The tide of public opinion was turning against Jesus and only his Father knew how he should navigate the choppy waters ahead. So Jesus waited and watched for a signal from heaven.

“After his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret.” John 7:10

Going to Jerusalem

“As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.” Luke 9:51

Jesus planned to pass through Samaria, but the Samaritans told him not to. The Jews of Jerusalem were prejudiced against them and they resented Jesus for going there. James and John were so angry at this rejection that they wanted to call fire from heaven down on the Samaritans, but Jesus turned and rebuked them. No one was going to die because of Jesus.

Traveling on, Jesus met several people who wanted to follow him.

“Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, ‘Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.’

Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.’” Matthew 8:19-20

Most teachers of the law were accustomed to more creature comforts than Jesus could offer them.

Other people didn’t understand that following Jesus meant giving up their current lives. They had older relatives to take care of and family affairs to put in order. Jesus told them it was all or nothing with him. If they followed him they gave up everything else without looking back.

“Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.’” Luke 9:62

Jesus lived this way himself. When he left his home and family in Nazareth, the Kingdom of God became his new home and God’s people became his new family.

Jesus in Jerusalem

The Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus to arrive at the festival; word was out that they were looking for him. People had lots of opinions about Jesus, but they mostly kept their thoughts to themselves for fear of the authorities.

Halfway through the weeklong festival Jesus appeared in the temple courts and began to teach. The Jewish establishment wondered how he had gained such amazing knowledge without being taught by any of them.

“Jesus answered, ‘My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. 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. 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.’” John 7:16-18

It was simple for Jesus: He only taught what God the Father gave him to teach. If people paid attention, they would recognize that everything Jesus said glorified the One who gave him his teaching, not Jesus the teacher. That was how those who heard Jesus knew he was trustworthy.

He was fearless with the truth. He confronted the leaders over their hypocritical enforcement of the Law of Moses. They broke the Mosaic Law for the sake of circumcising a baby boy on the Sabbath, but they wanted to punish Jesus for healing a whole man on the Sabbath.

Is Jesus the Messiah?

The crowd discussed whether Jesus met the qualifications for being the Messiah. Was he from the right place? What authority did he have? Did God really send him?

Jesus finally cried out that yes, God had sent him and given him authority to teach. The people didn’t recognize the presence of God with Jesus because they didn’t know God.

“You do not know him, but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.” John 7:28-29

The Jewish leaders sent temple guards to arrest Jesus for claiming to be from God, but they came back empty handed. The guards had never heard anyone speak the way Jesus did. The leaders were furious, but Nicodemus, who was part of the ruling council, reasoned with them.

“Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?” John 7:51

Jesus Makes Bold Claims

Now that Jesus was out in the open, he told the full truth about himself. He had authority to heal on the Sabbath and teach at the temple because he was from God. He was only with them for a short time because before long he was going back to the Father in heaven.

On the last day of the festival Jesus stood up and shouted that anyone with a thirsty soul should come to him for living water. He was offering people the Holy Spirit and it was extremely bold because only God bestows his Spirit on people.

Behind the scenes the Jewish leaders were trying to gather evidence against this upstart rabbi with such a huge following. When they all went home at the end of the day, Jesus crossed over the Kidron Valley to the Mount of Olives and spent the night there.

The Woman Caught in Adultery

Jesus was back in the temple courts at dawn the next day. The people who gathered to hear him teach at that hour had probably spent the night at the temple. They might have been out-of-towners or poor people who had nowhere else to go, but now they had Jesus all to themselves.

Suddenly Pharisees interrupted Jesus by dragging before him a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. The Pharisees claimed that the Law of Moses commanded them to stone the woman, but they wanted to know what Jesus said about it.

In his ministry Jesus had never condemned anyone and no one had ever died because of him. The Pharisees hoped he would stay true to form and suggest that they acquit this sinful woman. Then they could accuse him of breaking the law and arrest him.

Jesus bent down to write in the dust on the floor; then he stood up and said, “Let any on of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” John 8:7

None of them could claim to be without sin, so one by one they turned and went away until only the woman was left standing in front of Jesus.

“Jesus straightened up and asked her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’

‘No one, sir,’ she said.

‘Then neither do I condemn you,’ Jesus declared. ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’” John 8:10-11

The Light of the World

When Jesus did something like give new life to a sinful woman he proved that he truly was the light of the world.

“Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

The Pharisees challenged his claims about himself because by law he needed to have at least one other witness who agreed with his claims. But Jesus had that other witness.

“In your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father who sent me.” John 8:17-18

The Pharisees asked where his Father was.

“‘You do not know me or my Father,’ Jesus replied. ‘If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” John 8:19

Jesus was in a dangerous situation, standing in the temple with the Jewish leaders all around him, but he didn’t back down, and “No one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.” John 8:20

The safest place for Jesus to be at any time was right in the middle of God’s will for him.