Between the Lines

Today's Gospel, Jn 7:1-2, 10, 25-30, sounds a little contradictory with the lines missing in-between:

Jesus moved about within Galilee;
he did not wish to travel in Judea,
because the Jews were trying to kill him.
But the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near.

But when his brothers had gone up to the feast,
he himself also went up, not openly but as it were in secret.

Some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem said,
"Is he not the one they are trying to kill?
And look, he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him..."

There's actually something of a build-up between when he sneaks into the city and when he starts speaking publicly. You find out that his brothers (i.e. kin) have been egging him on to do something public and prove himself, "For his brothers did not believe in him." You also find out that people have been murmuring about him:

Some said, "He is a good man," (while) others said, "No; on the contrary, he misleads the crowd."

Still, no one spoke openly about him because they were afraid of the Jews.

It is halfway through the feast when Jesus starts to publicly teach, and accuse people of plotting against his life...and the people tell him that's just crazy talk. Well, we saw who was crazy at the end of that story, didn't we...

Anyway, what most speaks to me about this passage is the fact that Jesus was trying to be prudent. He knew he had enemies and tried to avoid them. He even tried to conceal himself from them for a time.

This continues to be perhaps the biggest challenge I face given my career path...whether to stick my neck out or bide my time. I've pretty much been choosing the latter unless I'm directly pressed on an issue. I'm not going to deny something if asked pointblank (and I have been on occasion), but I haven't often felt that I've been in the position to actually affect any kind of change of hearts or minds by speaking up when people are riffing against things I value.

Two questions that crop up become why does he ultimately reveal himself and what does he do?

I'm not sure I'm equipped to answer the first question at the moment. It seems to me that he would have been recognizing how the rest of the community is searching for him, how some in the community recognize his goodness, but how they are afraid to speak of it. I think part of his revelation is to give them courage.

But I think there is also a difference between a courageous witness and just being obnoxious...and that leads to the second point.

Jesus reveals himself by teaching. We aren't provided with what he taught. We are only told that he amazed the crowd who question him, prompting a response that his knowledge comes from the Father. This suggests, then, that he what he taught them wasn't about his origins or authority...that what he was teaching them wasn't about him as an individual or a person, even though that is what they question him about.

The whole reading, really, becomes about Christ trying to avoid some kind of early cult of personality, foregoing the temptation by his relatives to seek public approval or recognition, and I suppose this ties in with the theme from yesterday. If anyone deserves to be the center of a cult of personality, it would be Jesus. But he tries to extinguish his "self" rather than advance it. If Jesus suppresses his "self" for the greater glory of God, then who the heck are we to become preoccupied with ourselves?