Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Wednesday, February 19, 2014 Read John 7:25-31 It is apparent that Jesus created quite a stir when he came to Jerusalem for the Feast of Booths some five or so months before he would be crucified just prior to the Feast of Passover. As we have noted, for all intents and purposes Jesus does not leave the area of Jerusalem again after his attendance at the Feast of Booths. In fact, the implication is that Jesus has been in Jerusalem a good deal of the time – enough to cause an uproar when he returned for the Feast of Booths. All of this, of course, is quite different from the picture painted by the synoptic gospels in which Jesus comes to Jerusalem only once at the very end of his ministry and is crucified. Of course we are tempted to ask, “Which one has it right – Mark or John?” While a final answer to that question escapes us it is more likely that John’s scenario is more accurate than Mark’s. In fact it makes sense to think of the encounter of Jesus with the religious authorities in Jerusalem to have been much longer than the single short week portrayed by Mark – in fact for Mark it is only a couple of days. The case for John’s storyline of a longer time of dispute in Jerusalem is stronger than Mark’s storyline. This leads to an interesting time of pondering why Mark told the story as he did. But that pondering is for a study of Mark. In our reading for today the question really is the origin of Jesus – where does he come from? The people are wondering if the religious authorities really know that Jesus is the Messiah since he does such great signs. They answer their own speculation by concluding that Jesus can’t be the Messiah because they know where he comes from. There is great irony flowing in John’s gospel at this point. The people think they know where Jesus is from but, ironically, they don’t have a clue. Readers of John’s gospel know that Jesus is “from above,” that he comes from God the one who sent him. Jesus says as much but the crowd does not hear him. Misunderstanding again occurs. Unable to hear and understand what Jesus is saying, the crowd turns on Jesus to arrest him. But they are not able to do so because Jesus “time has not yet come!” The whole experience leads to a dispute – some of the crowd “believe” in Jesus and some don’t. The same division that has emerged before happens here. We need to be caution, though, about the report that some “believe” in Jesus. We have seen how apparent belief can vanish. We’ll have to wait and see whether this belief is authentic or insufficient.