After the long discourse on Jesus body and blood from John 6, John 7 moves on in the story to cover Jesus returning to Jerusalem at the feast of booths. 

John 7:1-31 (ESV)

>Jesus at the Feast of Booths

>7 After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. ^(2) Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand. ^(3) So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. ^(4) For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” ^(5) For not even his brothers believed in him. ^(6) Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. ^(7) The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. ^(8) You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” ^(9) After saying this, he remained in Galilee.

>^(10) But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private. ^(11) The Jews were looking for him at the feast, and saying, “Where is he?” ^(12) And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, “He is a good man,” others said, “No, he is leading the people astray.” ^(13) Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him.

>^(14) About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. ^(15) The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” ^(16) So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. ^(17) If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. ^(18) The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. ^(19) Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” ^(20) The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” ^(21) Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. ^(22) Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. ^(23) If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well? ^(24) Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”

>Can This Be the Christ?

>^(25) Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? ^(26) And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? ^(27) But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.” ^(28) So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. ^(29) I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.” ^(30) So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. ^(31) Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”

Questions for Contemplation and Discussion

1.       John 7:1 says Jesus was not going to go to the feast due to the Jews wanting to kill Him. How does this reconcile with the boldness he shows later in the chapter when he does go up to the feast; first privately and then teaches publicly? What does this suggest about how Jesus' "hour" or “time” governs his movements?

2.       The Feast of Booths is the setting of today’s reading. What is this feast commemorating, and how does that backdrop sharpen the irony of Jesus' brothers urging him to "show yourself to the world" (v. 4)? 

3.       This feast was also significant in celebrating God’s provision of water and light in the wilderness.  What relationship does this have to Jesus’ treatment of water and light so far in John’s gospel?

4.       In v. 15 the authorities marvel: "How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?" Jesus' answer in vv. 16-17 ties knowing the source of his teaching to willing to do God's will. What's the claim here, and how does it contrast to a purely intellectual approach to faith and revelation?

5.       The people’s reasoning in vv. 26-27 is interesting: "When the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from." Where does that tradition come from, and how does Jesus' reply in v. 28 ("You know me, and you know where I come from") answer their question?

6.       The tension between public and secret (vv. 4, 10, 13) runs throughout this section (and much of John’s gospel. What's John doing with this contrast, and what do we learn from it?

Today’s reading from John has familiar ground with other gospels (a healing, and a sabbath controversy) and unfamiliar ground (an extended and detailed discourse on the Son’s relationship to the Father).  Every chapter so far has laid some groundwork for this discussion, but this is Jesus’ first deep dive into high Christology in John’s Gospel.

John 5:1-30 (ESV)

>The Healing at the Pool on the Sabbath

>5 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

>^(2) Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. ^(3) In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. ^(5) One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ^(6) When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” ^(7) The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” ^(8) Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” ^(9) And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.

>Now that day was the Sabbath. ^(10) So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” ^(11) But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’ ” ^(12) They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” ^(13) Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. ^(14) Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” ^(15) The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. ^(16) And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. ^(17) But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

>Jesus Is Equal with God

>^(18) This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

>The Authority of the Son

>^(19) So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. ^(20) For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. ^(21) For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. ^(22) For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, ^(23) that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. ^(24) Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

>^(25) “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. ^(26) For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. ^(27) And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. ^(28) Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice ^(29) and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

>^(30) “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

Questions for contemplation and Discussion

1.        Why do you think Jesus asks the man if he wants to be made well?  Seems like it should be a pretty obvious answer.

2.       The initial conflict is about the Sabbath and Jesus follows that with the statement that “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”  How does Jesus relate the idea of Him and the Father working to the sabbath?  

3.       In vss. 19-23 Jesus expresses both dependence on the Father and equality with the Father.   How do we reconcile these two idea, or how do we hold them both despite the tension between them?

4.       Jesus warns the healed man to ‘sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”  Other passages seem to deny that bad things necessarily happen to people because of their sin, but here Jesus seems to make that connection Himself.   Why might this idea be true in some situations, but not in others.

5.       How would you summarize the relationship between Jesus and the Father based off of what is revealed in this passage?  What importance does this relationship have to you?

John 1 focused mostly on thins that introduced Jesus’ ministry to his readers, we had the prologue anchoring us in who Jesus is, Jesus’ baptism that officially starts His ministry, and the calling of the first disciples.  Chapter two moves us to Jesus’ ministry properly, the first of His signs in the book of John and the cleansing of the temple. 

John 2 (ESV)

>2 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. ^(2) Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. ^(3) When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” ^(4) And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” ^(5) His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

>^(6) Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. ^(7) Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. ^(8) And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. ^(9) When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom ^(10) and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” ^(11) This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

>^(12) After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.

>Jesus Cleanses the Temple

>^(13) The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ^(14) In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. ^(15) And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. ^(16) And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” ^(17) His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

>^(18) So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” ^(19) Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” ^(20) The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” ^(21) But he was speaking about the temple of his body. ^(22) When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

>Jesus Knows What Is in Man

>^(23) Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. ^(24) But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people ^(25) and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

Questions for Contemplation and Discussion

1.       What does Jesus mean when He responds that His hour “has not yet come.’?

2.       Why do you think Jesus chose this as His first miracle?  (Or at least why does John present it as such?)

3.       How does this reveal Christ’s glory?

4.       What does the cleansing passage reveal about Christ’s relationship with the temple?

5.       How does the identification of Christ as the temple inform this?

6.       If this passage is John’s public introduction to Jesus as a person, what kind of portrait is John “painting” here by placing these events together (including the statement of knowing what is in a man)?