Here – in bold above – is a most unusual thing. This incident occurred around AD 30 in Galilee, about 60 miles from Jerusalem, the capital city of Judea.
At that particular time, Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Judeans were seeking to kill him. Why did they want to kill him? John, the writer of this first-century biography records the reason. A few weeks earlier Jesus had been in Jerusalem. Whilst there he had totally restored a man who had been lying paralyzed for 38 years. The Judean authorities were angry because he did this on the Jewish Sabbath. (The fact that their authority did not extend – despite its superb existence for those 38 years – to healing this paraplegic was not the issue…..)
So, Jesus is in Galilee – where his siblings, his brothers and sisters, lived. They knew that the Judeans wanted to kill Jesus. They knew that Jerusalem, in Judea, would be full of people attending the Feast of Booths. So they said to their brother, to Jesus, “Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.”
This was a murderous intention on their part. A murderous intention.
Have you been struck these days by the murderous intentions (and actions) all over the globe? |
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• In the Andaman Sea a riot broke out on a boat containing 300 desperately poor refugees over the remaining food and water. They killed one another until only 200 remained. 100 bodies were tossed into the sea.
• In Waco, Texas, nine bikers were killed in fighting which started when a biker’s foot was run over. Armed police were also involved.
• Every year in the UK 1,400,000 women and 700,000 men are victims of domestic violence, physical and non-physical.
What did Jesus mean when he said to his siblings, “My time has not yet come….. " And when he added, “I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come”? Is it that his time to die had not yet come – had not yet fully come? Within the next year or so, he did die in Jerusalem, in Judea at the hands of the Judeans and the Romans. (And rose from the dead.)
Of equal importance, what did Jesus mean when he said to his siblings, “...but your time is always here.” Did he mean the time for killing? After all, they were openly encouraging him to go to Judea, knowing that the Judeans wanted to kill him.
Can it be that, within every human being (apart from Jesus) there is, in extremis, a killer streak? And always has been? Within Richard Syvret as well? If so, it seems to arise and become an action when I perceive that my life is threatened (Andaman Sea), others are causing me pain (Wako, Texas) and things are not going my way but should do (UK).
John the eye-witness biographer gives us now the explanation which Jesus gave to his siblings at the time. “The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.” |
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‘Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.’ (Jesus – in John’s biography 10:7-11)
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