John 7:1-5: Do you believe?

Presented to Nipawin Corps 11 January 2009
By Captain Michael Ramsay

Do you believe? This is a central question to the gospel according to John, “Do you believe?” In his gospel John mentions belief quite a bit (49 times). John repeatedly asks the question and then offers a new way of presenting the idea that we should believe that Jesus is the messiah. Jesus is the one. Here in our text today, however, we run into a bit of a problem...

We read in the previous chapter (6:66) that many of the disciples have left Jesus. These are the same disciples who have been following him around. These are the same disciples who were part of the crowds that were fed miraculously with the fish and the loaves, these disciples were part of the same crowd of people who heard Jesus explain that he was the ‘bread of life’; these disciples were part of the same crowd that recognised him as an important historical-political figure, they tried to seize Jesus and make him King (6:14-15) and now they have left him.

Many of Jesus’ own disciples it appears even don’t believe in him and now in 7:5 it appears that even many of his own relatives don’t believe him. It says that in 7:5: It says, “for even his own brothers did not believe in him” (NIV).

Now if we remember back to when we were studying Mark last year, this should not be such a surprise to us (Mark 3:20-35: The family of God). We remember in Mark Chapter Three[1] that we are confronted head on with the parallels between the Pharisees that are calling Jesus demon-possessed and his own mother and brothers who come to the house he is at to arrest him because they believe he is ‘out of his mind’. And now John tells us today in 7:5 that these brothers do not believe in him.[2]

So this is an interesting passage to look at in January with the Christmas story so fresh in our memory, isn’t it? Mary and Joseph were certainly present during many of the miracles that we remember at Christmas time: the angles, the shepherds, the magi. We remember as well that the archangel Gabriel appears directly to Joseph (one of Jesus’ custodial parents) as well as to Mary, his mother.[3] I don’t imagine that they forgot all of this did they? So how come Jesus’ brothers don’t believe? Did they forget to share this with their other sons? …as strange as this might sound actually this is a possibility.

I never would have thought that to be the case but I remember along this vein a situation that quite a few years ago –long before I ever became an Officer - that I will never forget: After work I went out with a group of my colleagues. We had a temporary contract and this was our first week there so many of us were just getting to know each other. We decided to head out to the local pub after work. Some of us had worked together on other contracts before and some of us have just met so cliché conversation developed the way it normally does in situations like these…until something very strange happened.

Mark was there.[4] I had known Mark for many years – Mark was quite a few years younger than I. I had known his family for years and someone asks me how I know Mark. “Matt, Mark’s half-brother is one of my closest friends, I say. We’ve known each other for years” – at the time I think Matt and I were even living together – In response to this Mark surprisingly starts to get upset. You should have heard the silence from everyone else in the place as Mark stands up and I look up in bewilderment wondering what on earth is going on.

“Take it back” Mark says. I stare at him still wondering what it is that I have done and trying not to laugh in my confusion as I can see that he is quite upset. “Take it back.”

Not knowing if he is trying to play some kind of a strange joke – and realising too that the whole section of the pub is now looking at us…I extend my arms and ask him, “what!?”

“Take it back,” he says.

“What?”

“Take it back…you said that Matt was my HALF brother…my HALF brother. Take it back.”

“He IS your half brother…you have different dads” Thus began a very long evening… as I – stunned – explain to this 19 or 20 year-old that this brother that he had grown up with all of his life had a different biological father. And as all of the acquaintances, strangers and other people in the pub looked on. I, not on purpose and with no mal-intent, I explain to this friend that his brother that he had grown up with, his brother with whom he’d lived in the same house his whole time growing up, his brother did not have the same biological father. This is a little awkward to say the least.

Still in shock, after he sobers up a bit, and calms down a lot, I drive him to his parents’ and then to his brother’s and explain honestly to them that I had know idea that I was sharing a family secret… to which both his dad and then his brother in turn explain first to me and then to Mark (in detail) that they didn’t realise that Mark didn’t know. They didn’t realise that Mark didn’t know who Matt’s father was; they thought he knew.

You see all the signs were there. At different times when Matt and Mark were young and growing up as well, Matt’s biological dad even stayed with them in their house and even only a year or two before this evening’s revelation, Matt’s sister had stayed with them for the summer. All the signs were there. Everyone around Mark, Matt’s youngest brother knew. No one had kept it a secret from him but he didn’t know that his brother really had a different biological father and when I told him - at first - he didn’t believe me.

In our text today Jesus’ brothers don’t really know who their half brother is and they don’t immediately (though they will later when all the evidence is presented) believe.[5]

It certainly is similar to what is playing out in John Chapter 7. You’ll notice that his brothers do know that there is something special about Jesus. They do know that he has been performing many miraculous signs. They do know that he has all these followers. They do know that Jesus is important in some way. They do seem to care even that some of his followers are leaving him and they do offer, in our text today (7:1-5), what they think is some good advice. They say, 7:4, “No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” 7:3: Jesus’ brothers said to him, “You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do.” But John 7:5 says that even with all their quite possibly good intentions here, they still don’t believe. They still don’t fully understand (at the very least) the implications of the fact that Jesus has a different biological father and that Jesus has a very specific mission to fulfill. They do not recognise him YET as the Christ who will die and be resurrected so that we all may live.[6]

But there is even more. We remember from looking at Matthew (Matthew 11:1-11: Are You The One To Come Or Should We Expect Someone Else?)[7], a while ago that even John the Baptist who is there with Jesus when the heavens open up and God declares, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased (Matt 3:16)” and still John the Baptist later asks, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”

Well this is interesting then – if John, who knows Jesus so well; if the disciples who wanted to crown Jesus king; if Jesus’ own brothers, who grew up with Jesus and know Jesus so well; if they recognise the miraculous signs that Jesus is performing, who other than the Messiah, the expectant King, could they think he is?

Could it be that his brothers are expecting that Jesus is Elijah?[8] Some theorists have posited that John the Baptist may have thought that Jesus was Elijah; certainly other people at the time did (cf. Matt 17:10-12; Mark 6:15, 8:28; Luke 9:19). After all – even though Jesus claimed that John was Elijah (Matt. 11:14; cf. also 9:11-13; Luke 1:17), John himself at one point denies that very claim (John 1:21). So then if John the Baptist does not realise that he himself is fulfilling the role of Elijah, then certainly Jesus’ brothers could have thought Jesus was Elijah – maybe.

Jesus certainly could appear to be a prophet of some sort (Jeremiah; cf. Matt. 16:14); he did have many followers but what exactly does it mean to be a prophet and who, who is Jesus? Is he the one? Do we believe more than his brothers that indeed he is God’s own Son who came to die for our sins and be the first fruits of the resurrection?

Well this is an important question for us today then, isn’t it? Do we believe any more than Jesus’ own brothers? What do we answer when we are asked, ‘who is Jesus’? Many of the most educated, religious people of Jesus’ day, the Pharisees and Sadducees did not accept him as the Messiah, the Christ, the King to come, and in Matthew’s account of John the Baptist, someone who knows Jesus even before he is born, someone who is his cousin, someone who baptises him, someone who teaches the same message of ‘repent for the Kingdom is near’ (cf. Matthew 3-4), someone as close to Jesus as John asks him the question, ‘are you the one to come, or should we expect someone else’? Jesus’ disciples, who wanted to make him king, desert him.

In our story today, even Jesus’ very own brothers. Those who have grown up with him, those who have at times - I’m sure - been there when his biological Father (in essence anyway) visited him in their very own home. They who know that he is someone important because indeed they are telling him to go down to Jerusalem to show everybody what he can do. It says here that even after spending so much time with Jesus, even after living with him daily and seeing miracles and hearing testimonies that still at this part of our story – like Mark when he fell about Matt – they don’t believe. Well, do we? Who do we say Jesus is?

Do we say he is a good man? - I have heard people say that. An imaginary figure? I have heard that too – this one is rather silly though since we have much better evidence for Jesus as Christ than we do for Julius Caesar as Roman Emperor or the even the very existence of Socrates.

Was Jesus just a prophet as some – such as the Muslims and the Jews – suggest? Was he a mere man? Was he only a voice calling from the wilderness? Much of the world today would say that he was some kind of the prophet.

Could he just have been a religious teacher from a minor Roman province who developed a cult following that continued to grow for well – thousands of years now – there are more Christians in the world than ever before and, of course, the Bible is the world’s best-selling book. But all that aside, could he be just a dead teacher?

These are all answers with which people today answer the question, ‘Who is Jesus?’ Is Jesus the Son of God and the first fruits of the resurrection? Is he the one who died and was raised so that we can all be resurrected from the dead? Do we – more than his brothers – do we believe in Jesus?

This is important because it changes everything. If Jesus is our Lord; if he is our king and his kingdom is at hand; if he is our wonderful counsellor, mighty God, everlasting father and prince of peace (Isa 9:6) – then we need to submit to his authority don’t we? So who is this Jesus? I am reminded of a story, that I may have even shared from this pulpit before, by Margaret Forrester.[9]

James V, the King of Scotland used to go around the country dressed like everyone else: a common person. That is because he wanted to meet the everyday people of the country not just the rich and powerful. He wanted to see how the normal people lived.

One day he was dressed in very old clothes and was going by a place known as Cramond Brig, when he is attacked by robbers who don’t know who he is. There is a fierce struggle and he is nearly overcome when, at just the right moment, a poor farm worker - Jock Howieson - hears the commotion comes to the disguised king’s aid.

Now Jock, the poor labourer, who works on this portion of the King’s land, known as Cramond Brig, now Jock unawares takes the undercover king home and gives him a dinner of broth and Jock - as the king is recouping – naturally asks the man who he is.

The King responds – in a Scottish brogue that I am not even going to attempt – ‘Ach, I’m a good man of Edinburgh.’

‘And where do you live in that city and where do you work?’

‘Well,’ says James, ‘I live at the palace and I work there too.’

‘The palace, is it? I’d like to see the palace; if I could see the King, I’d tell him a thing or two…’

‘About what?’ asks the man.

‘I’d tell him that I should own this land that I am on. I work it every day and he never comes here & gets his hands dirty working this land’

‘You’re right enough’, says the man. You come tomorrow to the palace at Holly Rood and I’ll show you around. Come at two.’

So the next day at two o’clock, Jock Howieson, is washed, dressed and at the palace to meet his new friend at the back door. The good man, whom Jock had saved the day before, shows him around the kitchen, the dining room, the bedrooms – the whole place. Then, at last, the two of them come to the great rooms of the State.

‘Do you want to see the King?’ the man asks Jock.

‘Oh yes indeed’, says Jock, ‘I do. I do want to see the King.’

So they enter the great hall and as they come in, men bow and ladies curtsey. It is really quite a thing to see.

So Jock whispers to his friend, ‘How will I know who the king is?’

‘He’s the only one who keeps his hat on’

Jock says, ‘But… there’s only us two with our hats…’ and Jock immediately takes off his hat as he realises that James is indeed the King of Scotland.

And so it is with us today. Jesus is King. Believe it. He is walking around with each of us showing us his domain here on earth and just waiting for us to take off our hats as we realise that indeed Jesus is the one to come and he has arrived (and he’s coming back too, soon!)

If there are any of us here today who do not yet believe; if there are any of us here today who have not taken off our hats and lain them before the Lord, I invite you to come up front here to the mercy seat and do just that – acknowledge the truth that Jesus Christ is Lord.

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[1] Available on-line at http://www.sheepspeak.com/
[2] Merrill C. Tenney, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:John/Exposition of John/II. The journey (7:1-13), Book Version: 4.0.2:To "believe in him" may carry with it a recognition of his purpose and sympathy with it, which his brothers did not have. Consequently their counsel may have been for him to abandon the idealism of teaching multitudes in obscurity and of risking death. If he possessed the powers his miracles seemed to imply, he should display them to the best advantage and capitalize on them.
[3] Cf. Matthew 1:18-25: Do You Believe? and Luke 1:26-37: Do You Believe?
[4] I have changed the names of the people involved in this otherwise accurate story.
[5] Actually – there is even more irony to this story – as I was telling Susan about it in preparation for this sermon, she had the TV in the hotel on. And on the show on the TV happened to be unfolding this exact scenario – so maybe this is not as uncommon as it seems.
[6] Cf. Gerard Sloyan, “John” in Interpretation. Eds. James L. Mays and Paul J. Achtemeier (John Knox Press, 1988), 86. Cf. Gail O’Day, “John” in NIB IX, Ed. Leander E Keck (Abingdon Press Nashville, 1995), 616, for very brief discussions on the brothers’ disbelief. I think it is significant that they come to believe in Jesus after his resurrection. I think this points to the fact that they do have a certain level of understanding/belief but at this point it is not yet crystallised into a full blown, informed faith. After all, if the disciples at this point don’t understand exactly what it means to be the Messiah, how can his siblings?
[7] Matthew 11:1-11: Are You The One To Come Or Should We Expect Someone Else? Available on-line at http://www.sheepspeak.com/
[8] Cf. D.A. Carson. The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Matthew/Exposition of Matthew/IV. Book Version: 4.0.2.
[9] Margaret Forrester. The Expository Times. Vol. 119 Number I Pages 47-48.