Reading for Aug 20: John 7:1-9

1 After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him. 2 Now the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. 3 His brothers therefore said to Him, "Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that You are doing. 4 For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world." 5 For even His brothers did not believe in Him.
6 Then Jesus said to them, "My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil. 8 You go up to this feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, for My time has not yet fully come." 9 When He had said these things to them, He remained in Galilee.

Comments:

"After these things" meaning after the events in chapter 6, which based on the two "Feast" mentioned (Chapter 6's Passover in Apr. and Chapter 7's Booths in Oct.) puts about 6 months between the chapters. During these 6 months Jesus spent walking with, and I'm sure teaching, those following Him. If you remember at the end of Ch. 6 some of His "disciples" left and walked with Him no more, missing out on the opportunity to meet with Jesus face to face. This left a smaller group, but as we will see, still within this group were those who did not fully comprehend who Jesus was and what He was there to do.

Verse 3 says that Jesus' brothers wanted Him to go show Himself in Judea. They wanted everyone to see all that Jesus could do. Their motivation for this is not explicitly stated but it is likely that they wanted one or each of these two things: that Jesus would show Himself publicly as the Messiah and become the political king they expected and/or that Jesus would show Himself authentic to them because of their own lack of belief. Whatever their motivation, Jesus responds by telling them that He is not going because it is not yet His time.

In the verses following, Jesus reveals the true nature of His brothers. He tells them that even though His time has not yet come because He is in the will of His Father; their time is always ready because they are not in the will of the Father. In fact they are of the world, that's why He says the world cannot hate them. The brothers did not believe in Him (verse 5) so they were still trying to put things on their timetable instead of God's.