Christ Alone
6 min read
2 But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, 3 Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. 4 No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him. 6 Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do.”
John 7:2-6
Jesus knew that He would be a public figure, but that is not why God sent Him, and that is not why Jesus did any of the things that He did. His brothers got it all wrong. They saw everything that He was doing. They heard all of the things that He was saying. But they assumed that His motivations were driven by the motivations that drive the human heart, not the heart of God.
This episode is really interesting to me, because some people might read that Jesus lied to His brothers. First, He said He would was not going to Jerusalem, but then He went after His brothers and the disciples left. But Jesus cannot lie. And so we need to read this episode with that understanding.
Jesus’s brothers did not fully believe in Him yet. After His resurrection, they would. James became the leader of the church in Jerusalem. One of the letters written by Jude became part of the biblical cannon. But at the time, they saw their Brother (they saw the promised Messiah) as a political figure. Everyone did. And that is part of what John is pointing out in this episode.
So Jesus did not go to the festival as a political figure seeking public notoriety, as any man would. He went alone according to God’s timing as the Son of God. Because it wasn’t a political movement that was going to save the world, but Christ alone—and Him crucified, resurrected, and returning.
Like Jesus’s brothers, every Christian I have ever met is on a journey of understanding who Jesus really is and what He has really done. Scripture gives us the evidence of the things He did and the things He said, and we have the whole Bible to help us understand what it all means.
And yet, us sinful and broken humans have a tendency to interpret all those things in the light of our own sinful and broken human perspective.
But the more we come to know our Lord, by God’s grace, the more we realize that Jesus alone is Lord, Jesus alone is Savior, Jesus alone is Redeemer. No one else is. And we ourselves certainly are not.
Truth is, our sinful and broken hearts lean us toward idolatry—to trust in skillful preachers, charismatic leaders, glossy programs, and organizations that run like clockwork—in human movements. Because the goal of sinful and broken hearts is to be a part of a movement and glorify ourselves.
The goal of God is simply to seek and to save the lost. But that is not the end goal in itself. The end goal of God is to fill the earth with His glory in Jesus’s name through God-fearing, God-honoring, God-worshiping, God-loving communities and families, the church—not some measly human movement.
God has me on the same journey that His brothers were on. By God’s grace, He has invited me into good company.
Father, Thank You for saving me. Forgive me for my own idolatries. Forgive me for seeing my Lord for anything that He is not. Forgive me for seeing His church for anything it is not. But show me Your ways, and lead me in Your paths, by the power of Your Spirit. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
