Road Trippin With Rachael

Have you ever just wanted to be anonymous? To be able to go and do something without anyone knowing who you are, where you work, or where you live? I have. At a previous job I had in a small college town, there were multiple alumni that remained in the area. Because they were so invested during their college years in the local university, it became very difficult to walk into any business, restaurant, or church without someone asking me questions about the health of the institution – which could mean all number of things depending on what they meant by “health.”

It ended up meaning that my job followed me everywhere. I was never allowed to just be “off” even when I was not at my office. It has only been recently with a job change that I’ve realized how much mental space my previous took up, and how nice it is to be able to meet someone who knows about my job and have them just ask me how it’s going, not asking me for detailed information about the institutions “health.”

I image that to some degree this is what Jesus felt in John 7. He was becoming more well known and the religion leaders of the day had already determined that they were going to need to do something about him, and everyone wanted something from him. This wasn’t necessarily because of their love for God, but because they had seen him healing, performing miracles, and feeding large groups of people. On the flip-side, like anyone who is a public figure, Jesus would have wanted people to know who he was because that meant that they his followers, and were entering into a right relationship with God. As we go through chapter seven, we are going to look at Jesus being incognito and his recognition.

Incognito Mode

Because of who Jesus is, people would flock to him, and this would be for various reasons. He was healing people; he was feeding people; and he was teaching. Honestly, I think there may have been a few people who were there because they wanted to watch the show with the Pharisees. This resulted is different reasons that Jesus chose to be incognito in chapter 7.

For one, he was fully aware that the Pharisees wanted to kill him, especially after the “healing on the Sabbath” incident in John 5. Jesus, knowing the hearts and minds of the religious leaders, was not going to put himself in the position to be attacked. As Jesus is known to say, “it is not yet [his] time” (John 7:6). This is a reference to him going to the cross – he was to go at an appointed time, and not before.

There was also some family stress going on. Jesus’ brothers didn’t believe that he was the Messiah, despite having grown up with him. Jesus’ refusal to go through certain areas was met with sarcasm. They thought that their eldest brother should be seeking recognition if he was going to claim to be the Son of God, instead of trying to suddenly keep a low profile.

Added to this, from the human perspective, there was a lot of conflict about who Jesus was, and that had to be affecting his family to some degree, which added to the family ansk. There were all these ongoing arguments about who he was: it was everything from “He’s a good guy,” to “this man is a deceiver” (John 7:12-13). Through it all, no one was opening having these conversations because of the fear of the religion leaders. I want to pause here momentarily to stress this point: the fear of the Jews. John uses “Jew” specifically to reference the religious elite. It is also important to note that a persons entire social network was tied to their relationship to the Temple (explained in Exodus), but as a result of the Babylonian captivity that same connection extended to the synagogues. If you were cut off from the local synagogue, you were effectively cut off from the community, from society, and from being able to conduct business. The people weren’t opening having these discussions because they were not prepared to deal with the consequences that would result from it.

Recognition

I think to some degree, everyone wants to be recognized for what they are capable of, and not for other factors. Having worked in academia, one of the things that students are told is that education is the great equalizer. I will argue that is wrong. Education lets you know how to do the job you have but it really is all about who you know – not what you know. My last two jobs were gotten because of my sister and my mother. They got both of their jobs because, my sister had done her student teaching at the school she is currently employed at, and my mother’s great-aunt was able to help her get hired. Fortunately, when it comes to Jesus – it is all about who he is that attention would go his way.

As we continue through chapter 7 beginning in verse 14, we see Jesus still traveling incognito, but now he is teaching in the temple. Jesus had prevented people from recognizing him, since the religious leaders were looking for him. However, when we was in the temple teaching, just like he always did, the people were amazed.

When the festival was already half over, Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach. Then the Jews were amazed and said, “How is this man so learned, since he hasn’t been trained?” – John 7:14-15 (CSB)

Without the bias of this man being Jesus of Nazareth, the people were open to hearing what he had to say and were impressed with his teaching. I’ve experienced this in the work place. If I present an idea as “Rachael,” the idea was labeled as negative – but if the idea was randomly presented without my name attached to it the merits were discussed positively. It was a whole thing – I’m no longer there, and happier in life. Jesus eventually responds in a very Jesus-ish way, and they realize who it is that they are speaking with. Once that happens, he begins to be questioned. Jesus responds with “you say you shouldn’t work on the sabbath, but to keep the law you would do the work of circumcision so the law would be kept. I healed a man, and you are up in arms about it” (paraphrased). All this right after, they praised him for his insight into the scriptures! And I’m sorry, but you really can’t convince me that there weren’t any priests who didn’t remember the young boy who was teaching in the temple twenty years ago (Luke 2:41-50). Jesus’ teaching ability was never hidden, and it wasn’t until his name became connected with his ability, that there were any issues.

Then to make matters worse, there was fear that he would go to the Gentiles (those who were not of Hebrew descent). It was a case of “I can make fun of my little brother, but woe to anyone else who does.” The religious leaders were obsessed with keeping their faith to themselves and avoiding anyone who wasn’t Hebrew from participating that they didn’t even want the possibility of a non-Jew being taught the things of God. That could be just how I’m reading it, but I think it jives with the times.

Final Thoughts

Jesus was always recognized for his who he was – God. He was not always accepted or believed, because of our sinful natures. He was moving according to plan, and sometimes that meant hiding who he was for the plan to continue on the appropriate timeline. But there was still conflict of his family members not recognizing who he was, of people responding to his teaching – until they realize it is Jesus of Nazareth teaching – and then having his teaching so closely guarded that the religious leaders were afraid of him teaching about God to the Gentiles. Basically, people reject who Jesus is because they want to reject him, not what he taught.