Pentecost 12
John 7:1-24
In my last congregation we had a regular stream of people coming into the church off the streets and asking for help. We gave out blankets and
jackets in winter and food all year round. Sometimes I would take people across the road to the shops for some particular item. But most people wanted cash, usually $50, for a ticket somewhere or petrol for a car that ran out of fuel just down the road. When I offered to go to the bus station with them or to their car they would get quite aggro as in most cases their was no planned bus trip and no car. They simply wanted cash. We had five or six such people come by most weeks. One week had been particularly busy and by Friday three people had already stopped by who wanted cash. So when about lunch-time a man who had clearly been sleeping rough on the streets came to the door I had become a little impatient. I opened the door and said rather curtly: ‘Listen, we can help with a blanket or jacket or a food voucher, but we do give out cash and do not keep any cash at the church. So sorry, but we are not able to help you.’
The man starred at be for a moment then said. ‘That’s okay. I’ve got enough food for today and a place to sleep tonight. I just wanted to know if you would be willing to say a prayer with me. It’s been a long time since anyone prayed for me and I really need it today.’
I apologised for my curtness and sat him down in the church. I asked him what was going on in his life and then prayed for him. Then returned very red-faced and humbled to my office.
I had judged the man by his appearance. I thought I knew exactly what he wanted. But I had been wrong.
Today’s reading finishes with Jesus’ famous call to not judge by appearances. It reminds me of the time I judged the homeless man at our church door by appearances. And the other times I have judged someone by appearances, and found later how wrong I had been. In this text, Jesus is calling the people to not judge him by appearances.
But what was the context of this call?
The account in chapter seven begins approximately six months after the events described in chapter six of the feeding of the multitude, Jesus walking on water, and his confronting sermon in the synagogue in Capernaum where he told the people that he was the bread of life. We are told that these things took place around the time of the Passover.
Now, six months later, Jesus is still in Galilee and the third of the yearly pilgrimage feasts is taking place in Jerusalem. It is the Feast of Booths, which celebrate the exodus from Egypt and was also something of an autumn harvest festival. The people were all meant to built shelters make of branches, wood, and other materials to remember their ancestors living in tents and shelters after they left Egypt. People in Jerusalem build these shelters in their courtyards or in the streets in front of their homes. Pilgrims, if they could not find space in the city, built shelters outside the city. The festival lasted seven days while people took all their meals and also often slept in these shelters (or booths). The entire city would have resembled an oversized caravan park during the peak of summer holidays with wall-to-wall shelters and tents. And the atmosphere was festive. Also popular with the crowds was going the temple courtyards to listen to various preachers.
It is this festival that Jesus’ brothers ask him to accompany them to, in order to show his followers, especially those in Jerusalem, what miracles he could do. Their invitation seems to come from a perspective of skepticism rather than faith. His younger brothers seem to be daring him to go to Jerusalem and repeat his miracles if he is who people say that he is rather than hiding out in Galilee. Jesus declines the invitation, saying his time has not come. He says to them, ‘God to the festival yourselves, I am not going to this festival.’ So hie brothers head off and he remains in Galilee.
But then, after they leave, Jesus discretely heads to the festival himself, arriving about halfway through the week.
So what is going on here? Why does Jesus tell his brothers he is not going and send them off without him, then a few days later follows them? Did he change his mind? Unlikely. Did he mislead his brothers? Also a difficult view to hold. Perhaps he meant he was not going just then, though he seemed to imply he was not going. With the crowds looking for him showing up with his brothers, who were at this stage skeptical of who he was, it would have been risky for Jesus to travel with them. And this seems to be born out by the fact that he travels discretely to Jerusalem, only making himself known when he shows up at the temple and begins teaching.
The people were looking for Jesus. Some were for him and others against. Many were asking where he had gained some obvious learning, as he had not studied in any of the major schools in Jerusalem.
And he picks up where he left off when he was last in the city and healed a lame man on the Sabbath (chapter 5).
He picks up the argument from his last visit to Jerusalem, which would have been at least more than six months previously. On that occasion he had healed a lame man and was accused of violating the Sabbath. Because of this the Jewish authorities intensified their plans to kill Jesus.
Now when Jesus returns they are arguing whether about how he could ‘have letters’’ or be so educated and also whether he was a good man (not exactly an endorsement as Messiah) or a fake. Then Jeus reminds them that the authorities are had threatened and are seeking to kill him.
The crowd claims ignorance. Who is trying to kill you, they ask. We don’t see anyone trying to kill you.
Perhaps they were visitors from outside the city who knew nothing of the politics and plotting of the religious leaders. Perhaps others are conveniently feigning ignorance. They respond to Jesus’ claim by saying that it is proof he has a demon. It was their way of saying he was crazy.
Then Jesus reminds them of his last visit to Jerusalem and the temple. One miracle, he says. That is all I did last time. And you were all astonished. Notice he doesn’t take his brothers’ advice and do some more profound miracles. He simply reminds them of what he did last time and how the authorities responded.
He broke the Sabbath, they had claimed.
How hypocritical, he points out. The leaders are concerned about the law of Moses. The circumcise on the Sabbath when if fall eight days after the birth of a male child. And no one complains. They make one part of the body right in accord with the law. But Jesus reminds them that he has healed an entire man on the Sabbath, and the law of Moses is deemed to have been broken.
The lesson?
Jesus says, ‘Do not judge by appearances, but judge with a right judgement.’
His whole talk builds to this point.
Let’s unpack what Jesus means by it.
Who has judged by appearances in this chapter?
First, Jesus’ brothers have judged Jesus by appearances. To them, Jesus appears to be a preacher and miracle worker with much unrealized potential. He is the emerging social media sensation of his day. But he is not managing his talent well. He needs to take the show to the big stage in Jerusalem.
Next, the crowds in Jerusalem judge Jesus by appearances. Some thought Jesus appeared to be a good man. But he was much more than that.
Others, at looking at his claims, jumped to the conclusion that he was a charlatan. But they did not consider that Jesus was legit.
Neither group saw Jesus for who he was. They judged him by appearances.
Then the educated teachers in the crowd asked how Jesus came to appear to be so learned. He was from the academic and cultural backwater of Galilee. So they judged him by appearances. They assumed he would not be well-educated and struggled to get their heads around how a clearly uneducated man knew so much and spoke so well.
When Jesus pointed out that the authorities were planning to kill him some in the crowd thought this made him appear paranoid. So they accused him of having a demon. Which was there way in that age of saying he was crazy. But they had not judged Jesus truly. In fact, they should have known better. Six months earlier Jesus had to leave Jerusalem because the authorities were plotting to kill him. And a few verses after this the same crowd asks: Isn’t this the man the authorities want to put to death?
The Jewish authorities judged Jesus to be a law-breaker because he had healed the lame man on the Sabbath.
And finally, there is us, the readers. Since the beginning of this section we have been judging Jesus for saying he was not going to the festival and then going. We have been trying to decide if Jesus changed his mind about it being his time, or if he lied to his brothers about his intentions. We, too, have been caught up in judging by appearances rather than looking beyond appearances to see who Jesus is: the one who came down from heaven, the holy one of God.
At the end of a series of incidents in which it seems everyone is making assumptions and judgments about Jesus based on appearances Jesus challenges his hearers and he challenges us: Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.
We all know the dangers of judging by appearances. Like my judging the intentions of a homeless man based on how he looked and how he was living.
Judging by appearances is never a good idea.
But Jesus is specifically cautioning not to judge him by appearances. He reminds us who he is and from where he has come. He is truth. He is life. He is the bread of life. He is the one who has come from above. He is the creator himself.
But the people of his day saw only a carpenter from Nazareth. They saw only a trouble-maker. They saw only someone who was not careful about the finer points of keeping the Sabbath. They saw only a good man. They saw someone who must be crazy. And in doing so they missed who was standing before them.
Today we also judge Jesus. He appears to be simply a good teacher. He appears to be someone who was simply a very good person. Perhaps he appears as someone who expects to much of us, or who wants to meddle in our lives. Maybe we judge him based upon all the paintings and images of Jesus we have seen in Sunday School books and other religious art. So meek and mild and gentle and harmless that he really doesn’t merit much attention in our rough and tumble world. Or maybe we judge him according to hellfire and brimstone sermons we remember from our youth, and cower at the mention of his name. Maybe he appears as another riddle to solve. Maybe we are too caught up trying to judge such questions as did he or did he not deliberately mislead his brothers about his travel plans.
There are so many ways that we, like the people in Jesus’ own day, judge him by appearances.
But Jesus calls us to look beyond appearances. To look beyond our assumptions, our prejudices and our fears. He calls us to judge him truly. He calls us to recognize who it is who stands before us and calls us to himself.
Amen.
Pastro Mark Worthing.
Port Macquarie