John 7:20-31

²⁰"You are demon-possessed," the crowd answered. "Who is trying to kill You?" ²¹Jesus said to them, "I did one miracle, and you are all astonished. ²²Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a child on the Sabbath. ²³Now if a child can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with Me for healing the whole man on the Sabbath? ²⁴Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment." ²⁵At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, "Isn't this the Man they are trying to kill? ²⁶Here He is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to Him. Have the authorities really concluded that He is the Christ? ²⁷But we know where this Man is from; when the Christ comes, no one will know where He is from." ²⁸Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, "Yes, you know Me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on My own, but He who sent Me is true. You do not know Him, ²⁹but I know Him because I am from Him and He sent Me." ³⁰At this they tried to seize Him, but no one laid a hand on Him, because His time had not yet come. ³¹Still, many in the crowd put their faith in Him. They said, "When the Christ comes, will He do more miraculous signs than this Man?"

The Jews are appalled at Jesus’ assessment and even suggest that He is demon-possessed to speak so foolishly. But in order to prove His point that they are actually breaking Moses’ law, Jesus reminds them of the miracle that He had done the last time in Jerusalem (John 5), when He healed a man on the Sabbath – it was for this miracle and the teaching that followed it regarding His equality with God that the Jews were trying to kill Him. Those who saw Jesus perform this miracle were astonished, because they presumed that He broke the Sabbath.

Jesus then reminded His indignant audience that circumcision, which brought man into a covenant relationship with God, was allowed by the Pharisees on the Sabbath, despite Moses’ command that no work be done on the Sabbath. His point was that the work of restoring sinful man was clearly excluded from the law; it was proper to circumcise even on the Sabbath – circumcision, done on the eight day no matter when that fell, over-rode the Sabbath, so to speak. Since that was true, the Jews should not have been trying to kill Jesus; He simply restored a man from the devastating effects of the curse on the Sabbath day, essentially the same thing symbolized by circumcision. In fact, Jesus’ argument was not only to compare similar practices, but also to show that that which He performed was the greater of the two similar practices, since it was a complete healing and restoration of a man – body and soul. Jesus’ work represented the reality to which the sign of circumcision pointed. If the Jews allowed for a man to receive circumcision on the Sabbath, then they should have allowed Jesus to accomplish the very work of restoration and salvation to which circumcision pointed – without condemning Him. But they were not willing, because they were not righteous.

At this point the Jews, those living in Jerusalem and aware of the leadership’s very-real-plot to kill Jesus, wonder why, after these accusations, the leadership did not even speak to, or against, Him. The only explanation they can come up with is that they really did know that He was the Messiah. And yet, even granting this much, they were not willing to accept Him as the Messiah, because they “knew” where he was from (v27) – Galilee, from where the Messiah could not possibly come, so they thought. Micah 5:2 The road to faith is often difficult, bumpy, and even mountainous, but even if it was smooth and easy, humanity would make an excuse, as we see here.

But even in response to this unasked question, Jesus yells, “You know everything, yet you know nothing.” His answer was clear: “You should already know where I come from, if you know God – because He is the One who sent Me. I didn’t come from Galilee or anywhere else on earth – I came from God. And everyone who knows God will know Me.” Jesus said in v29, “I am from Him and He sent Me.” These two clauses are said to refer to the two natures in Christ – the first Divine (I am from Him) and the second human (He sent Me). Finally, Jesus’ assertion that those who refuse to believe in Him do not know God (v28) produced two basic responses: some of the Jews attempted to seize Him (presumably for blasphemy), and “many in the crowd put their faith in Him” as the Messiah.

(1) The ones who tried to seize Him failed, because it wasn’t His time to be seized. Calvin reckons this teaching to drive us to consider God’s providence, saying, “The time of every man’s death has been fixed by God. It is difficult to believe, while we are subject to so many accidents, exposed to so many open and concealed attacks both from men and beasts, and liable to so many diseases, that we are safe from all risk until God is pleased to call us away. But we ought to struggle against our own distrust; and we ought to attend first to the doctrine itself which is here taught, and next, to the object at which it aims, and the exhortation which is drawn from it, namely, that each of us, casting all his cares on God, (Psalm 55:22; 1 Peter 5:7) should follow his own calling, and not be led away from the performance of his duty by any fears. Yet let no man go beyond his own bounds; for confidence in the providence of God must not go farther than God Himself commands.” (2) The ones who put their faith in Him prove that the Gospel will not fail to produce fruit, even thought they did so with lack of good motive. They decided that Jesus had to be the Messiah, because, surely even the Christ – if it wasn’t Jesus – wouldn’t perform more miracles than Jesus had done. This is not the best reason to believe, but God takes faith the size of a mustard seed and grows it into a tree large enough to provide shade for a multitude.