Jesus' Brothers Urge Him to Go to Judea
After these events, Jesus continued traveling around Galilee. He deliberately avoided going into Judea because the Jewish leaders there were plotting to kill him. The time for the Jewish Festival of Shelters was approaching. Jesus' own brothers came to him with advice: "You should leave this place and go to Judea so your followers there can see the miraculous things you're doing. No one who wants to become famous hides what they're doing in secret. If you're really doing these amazing works, then show yourself to the whole world." The truth was that even his own brothers didn't believe in who he really was. Jesus responded to them, "The right time for you can be any time—it doesn't matter when you act. But the right time for me hasn't come yet. The world has no reason to hate you, but it hates me because I tell the truth about how evil people's actions are. You go ahead to the festival without me. I'm not going to this festival right now because my time hasn't come yet." After saying this to them, Jesus stayed in Galilee.
Jesus Goes to the Festival in Secret
After his brothers left for the festival, Jesus also decided to go. But he didn't travel openly where everyone could see him. Instead, he went quietly and kept out of sight. When the festival began, the Jewish leaders started searching for Jesus among the crowds. They kept asking people, "Where is he? Have you seen him anywhere?" Throughout the festival grounds, people gathered in small groups and spoke about Jesus in hushed voices. Some of the people said, "He's a good man who helps others." But others disagreed and said, "No, that's not true. He tricks people and leads them astray." Even though many people had strong opinions about Jesus, no one dared to talk about him out loud in public. They were all afraid of what the Jewish leaders might do to them if they heard.
Jesus Teaches at the Festival
When the festival was about half over, Jesus went into the temple courtyard and started teaching the people. The Jewish leaders were astonished by what they heard. "How does this man know so much?" they asked each other. "He never went to our schools or studied under our teachers." Jesus answered them directly. "What I teach doesn't come from me," he said. "It comes from the One who sent me here. Anyone who truly wants to follow God's will can tell whether my teaching comes from God or whether I'm just making it up myself. When someone teaches their own ideas, they're trying to make themselves look important. But when someone seeks to honor the One who sent them, that person tells the truth—there's nothing false in them." Then Jesus challenged them with a pointed question. "Didn't Moses give you God's law? Yet none of you actually follows that law. So why are you plotting to kill me?" The crowd erupted in protest. "You're crazy!" they shouted. "Who's trying to kill you?" Jesus responded calmly, "I performed one miracle, and all of you are shocked by it. But think about this: Moses gave you the practice of circumcision—though it actually came from your ancestors, not Moses himself. You circumcise a baby boy on the Sabbath day to keep Moses' law from being broken. If you can do that kind of work on the Sabbath to heal just one part of a person's body, why are you angry with me for making an entire person completely well on the Sabbath? Stop making judgments based only on what you see on the surface. Instead, make decisions that are truly fair and right."
Division Among the People About Jesus
Some people from Jerusalem started talking among themselves. "Wait a minute," they said. "Isn't this the man the authorities want to kill? But look at him — he's teaching right out in the open, and they're not doing anything to stop him. Do you think the religious leaders have actually figured out that he really is the promised Messiah? But that can't be right, because we know where this man comes from. When the real Messiah appears, nobody will know where he came from." Jesus was still teaching in the temple courtyard when he heard this. He raised his voice so everyone could hear him clearly. "Yes, you know me, and you know where I come from," he called out. "But I didn't come here on my own. The one who sent me is real and true, and you don't know him at all. But I do know him, because I come from him and he is the one who sent me here." When they heard this, some people in the crowd tried to grab Jesus and arrest him. But somehow no one could lay a hand on him, because it wasn't yet the right time for what was going to happen to him. Still, many people in the crowd began to believe in Jesus. They said to each other, "When the real Messiah comes, will he really do more miraculous signs than this man has already done?"
The Pharisees Send Officers to Arrest Jesus
When the Pharisees heard the crowds quietly talking among themselves about Jesus, they joined with the chief priests and sent temple guards to arrest him. Jesus responded to this by telling the people, "I will only be with you for a short time longer. Then I must return to the one who sent me here. You will search for me, but you won't be able to find me. And the place where I'm going is somewhere you cannot follow." The Jewish leaders turned to each other in confusion and asked, "Where could he possibly be planning to go that we won't be able to find him? Is he thinking of traveling to the Greek cities where our people have scattered and living among them? Will he start teaching the Greeks instead? What does he mean when he says we'll look for him but won't find him, and that we can't go where he's going?"
Jesus Promises Living Water
On the final and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and shouted out so everyone could hear him: "If anyone is thirsty, come to me and drink! Whoever puts their trust in me will have rivers of living water flowing out from deep inside them, just as the Scripture promised." Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit, which people who believed in him would receive later on. The Spirit had not been given yet because Jesus had not yet been raised to glory.
Further Division Among the People
After hearing Jesus speak these words, the people in the crowd began to argue among themselves about who he really was. Some of them said, "This man is truly the Prophet we've been waiting for." Others were convinced and declared, "This is the Christ, the Messiah." But another group challenged this, asking, "How could the Christ possibly come from Galilee? Don't the Scriptures clearly teach that the Christ will be born from King David's family line and come from Bethlehem, the same town where David once lived?" These different opinions about Jesus caused the crowd to split into opposing groups. The disagreement grew so heated that some people wanted to arrest Jesus and drag him away. Yet despite their anger and intentions, no one actually stepped forward to lay their hands on him.
The Officers Return Without Jesus
The temple guards returned to the chief priests and Pharisees empty-handed. The religious leaders immediately demanded to know why they had failed to arrest Jesus. "Why didn't you bring him back with you?" they asked. The officers looked at each other, still clearly affected by what they had witnessed. "No one has ever spoken the way this man speaks," they replied, their voices filled with wonder. The Pharisees were furious. "Has he fooled you too?" they snapped back. "Look around you—have any of the rulers believed in him? Has even one Pharisee followed him? Of course not! But this ignorant crowd that knows nothing about the law—they're all doomed." Then Nicodemus spoke up. He was the same man who had secretly visited Jesus at night, and he was one of their own council members. "Does our law judge a man before we even hear what he has to say? Shouldn't we find out what he's actually done before we condemn him?" The other Pharisees turned on Nicodemus with contempt. "Are you from Galilee too?" they shot back. "If you'd study the scriptures properly, you'd see that no prophet ever comes from Galilee." With that bitter exchange hanging in the air, the meeting broke up and everyone went home for the night.