John 7: Go up to the feast yourselves; I am not going up to this feast, because My time has not yet fully arrived.” 9 Now having said these things to them, He stayed in Galilee.

10 But when His brothers had gone up to the feast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as though in secret.

It’s amazing that the holder and sustainer of the universe, including time, when He was pressed to go up to the feast said it’s not time for him to go. To understand the context, this is the time when Jesus Christ was under pressure in this end of life on earth. This feast it’s like the most important occasion apart from the crucifixion literally of His life. Because of the fact that right after this feast he will be accomplishing the greatest mission on earth, the one His father has sent him to this world. And that is to be crucified to redeem mankind on the cross.

 

And interestingly He  told his own brothers to go ahead to the feast, but he will go out later on. He actually sneaked out to the feast secretly thereafter . And in the middle of the feast he went up to the synagogue and preached. Remember everyone was looking for him, because literally he changed all of Israel. He completely rocked the world at that time in the most amazing way. Every living Jew at that time was stunned by this man. Jesus Christ brought a revolution. And while everyone was waiting for him, he preached the word, and because he spoke with authority,  the Jews were amazed that how did this man get his learning while he’s not educated. Jesus then replied “ My teaching is not from me but from he who sent me to this world.” Then he said “ I did not come to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me”. And then Jesus went on the provocative, challenging them “didn’t you get the law from Moses and yet none of you carried out what Moses said?” And then he went on to really this time exasperate them, provoke them saying “why do you try to kill me ? “

 

The rest of it will play out in his discourse as recorded in John chapter seven. However in this short article I’m just going to illustrate the fact that  the God man who sustains the whole universe as in the book of Hebrews says, actually now was under time pressure to go to Jerusalem to finish the task. Its most ironic or even scandalous  to see the God of creation put himself under the constraint of one of his creations in this case time. Remember time is created by God. And Jesus had complete authority and liberty and freedom to do the whatever he wanted to essentially. But he kept referencing back to God the Father  who sent him. He continually made reference to him,  because he and the Father are one. He subsumed himself completely under the Father while on earth, while in reality they are equal. As in the book of Hebrews, as the Son of God himself, he emptied himself of all glory to come into this world to incarnate  into the world, to become just like one of us. In order to save mankind by being like one of the mankind except without sin. To fulfill the righteous requirement of God, he incarnated as a human being, and lived an life  that was perfect that’s without sin, he fulfilled the righteous requirement of God as the headship and representative of human race. And then he went on to the cross and suffered for human race in order to become the redemption sacrifice for mankind. The act of love and mercy is beyond this world, considering he is not a mere man, but the divine. It’s divinity transcends into this material world. The transcendent God became a man to completely identify with mankind.

 

 I hope this article will provoke you to think the hoops that Jesus had to jump through,  the lowering,  humbling and emptying of himself to such an extent , that he not only became like one of us except sin, he also took up all our sins for those who believe in him. I want to qualify that Jesus died for the elect. What is the elect? Elect is the people whom God had predestined to be restored to himself even before the foundation of the world. There will be tons and tons of people rejecting the salvation offered by God in Jesus Christ in this world for sure, but it is the elect who will respond and they are the ones that God the Father had given to Jesus. Jesus said, those my father has given to me I will never lose them. I will bring them, I will enfold them into my family and my God. Glory to Jesus.

 

Amen.