Midweek Reflection for July 7, 2021

 

John 7:1-9 CEB

Jesus traveled throughout Galilee. He didn’t want to travel in Judea, because the Jewish authorities wanted to kill him. ² When it was almost time for the Jewish Festival of Booths, ³ Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee. Go to Judea so that your disciples can see the amazing works that you do. ⁴ Those who want to be known publicly don’t do things secretly. Since you can do these things, show yourself to the world.” ⁵ His brothers said this because even they didn’t believe in him.

⁶ Jesus replied, “For you, anytime is fine. But my time hasn’t come yet. ⁷ The world can’t hate you. It hates me, though, because I testify that its works are evil. ⁸ You go up to the festival. I’m not going to this one because my time hasn’t yet come.” ⁹ Having said this, he stayed in Galilee.

 

What a surprising text to discover! Jesus’ brothers don’t believe in him, don’t believe in what he is saying and doing. They want to get rid of him, probably because people are harassing them about what their brother is doing.

The brothers try to coax him. “Why don’t you go to Judea (in other words to Jerusalem)?  Get out of Galilee. This way, more people can see what you are doing.”

But Jesus knows the timing is not right. If he gets too close to the city, he will be arrested. Assuming it is Jesus’ plan, and God’s plan, for him to be arrested and executed at Passover time, he can’t get anywhere close to Jerusalem when the leaders are looking for him right now. He will wait until the fervor to get rid of him cools off a bit.

Life for us all comes down to timing, doesn’t it? If we hadn’t been in a certain place at a certain time, we would not have met our spouses, for example. Or, if we had left the house 2 minutes later, we would have been in it when the tree fell.

I don’t believe that God has every minute of our lives planned out, but I do believe that God makes good use of what happens to further God’s purposes.

Many times in my ministry I have heard people who are old and infirm ask why they are still alive. “I can’t walk. I forget things all the time. My body hurts. All my friends have died. Why am I still here?”

The answer is always, “it isn’t God’s time for you to go.” There must be something God is waiting for. It could be our body isn’t ready to die. It may be there is something we need to do, or a person who needs to see us. It may be some simple interaction with someone else that God wants us to have, either for ourselves or for the other person. We often don’t know who’s heart we touch with our words or actions.  

God’s timing is also true for congregations in transition. Even though the congregation seems ready, the pastor is not yet ready. Before a pastor can accept a call, she or he needs to be prepared for the next thing God is calling them to do.

Whenever we find ourselves waiting, we want to pull aside the curtain and peek behind it to see what God has planned, but that spoils the best part of it, the surprise at how perfect the timing proves to be. Whatever the reason for the wait, we wait with hope and trust that God has our best interests at heart. Be patient and believe in Jesus that God’s timing is perfect.

Amen