Coptic Orthodox Answers

In the Father and Son, the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.

Welcome to Coptic Orthodox Answers Deep Dive. We saw in John 5 how Christ healed the paralytic man on the Sabbath and that created many debates that were very heated. He also proclaimed He was the Son of God and He had a discussion around the Eucharist in John 6. So, all of these things led to the Jews wanting to crucify Him, and therefore, starting in John 7, He wants to avoid being in Jerusalem, because the time of the cross is not at hand. Let us jump right into it.

So, John 7 says:

'' 1 After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him. 2 Now the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. 3 His brothers therefore said to Him, ''Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that You are doing. 4 For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.'' 5 For even His brothers did not believe in Him.'' (John 7:1-5)

So, there were three main Jewish feasts where all the Jews around the world were required to go back to Jerusalem to worship:

1 The first one is the Passover, as we know, and that was symbolic for the Christian crucifixion of Jesus.

2 The second one is Pentecost, right?, which is the harvest of the wheat. And that was symbolic to the New Testament Pentecost, which is the descent of the Holy Spirit.

3 And the third feast was this one, the Feast of Tabernacles. And that was a commemoration of the Jews leaving Egypt, so the exodus out of Egypt, and them wandering for 40 years in the wilderness where God would give them food and drink.

So, they were in much need, right?, in comparison or in contrast to the time that they lived in Canaan, the promised land which is a land that is flowing with milk and honey, right?, where food and drink is abundant. So, that feast, that Tabernacle was a commemoration of these 40 years in the wilderness where they depended on God for their food and their drink. And that is why the people would go back and live in a booth to commemorate this time of poverty and dependence on God.

But going back to what His brothers did or, in other words, His cousins, right? They're not here literal brothers but His cousins. One option that we have here is that His cousins were mocking Him, telling Him: well, if you wanna be famous, you know, if you... if you're truly the Messiah, then go show yourself. You know, you're not gonna get anything done by staying here with us.

However, the other opinion is probably the correct one, which is that His cousins partially believed in Him or potentially believed that He was an earthly Messiah. And therefore, they needed to see, like the remainder of the Jews, before actually believing and dedicating their lives to Him. And often, again, it was based on their understanding of the Messiah that, potentially, this man, to them, was a political person, which was about to lead a revolution against Romans and so on and so forth, which is obviously not was Scripture was talking about.

So, because of this partial belief in Christ, you know, He would not listen to them and it says therefore, in verse 5:

'' 5 For even His brothers did not believe in Him.'' (John 7:5)

They did not understand that He was the Messiah that is to come from above to save the world.

Now, there's room for a spiritual message here, because we find that the people that were closest to Christ did not really believe in Him in the sense of that spiritual belief. But they were seeking, again, earthly things, potentially earthly honour, potentially materialism in a sense or another. And when we think about something like this and we look at our own lives, as Christians, right?, whether we're born into it or whether we believed in it afterwards, you know, we often think that we might be close to God.

Yet our mind is polluted, if I may say this, with all the earthly thoughts: my house, my car, you know, my money, my bank account, how people perceive me and all of these things. This is very scary. If I am to be close to God physically, then it needs to lead to my spiritual closeness to Him, this intimate relationship with Him where my heart and my mind, you know, know Him. He has become, again, you know, my spouse, my ultimate love, my best friend and all of these things.

And therefore, to be able to achieve this, we really ought to have our minds set on things above and not on things of the earth; set on Christ Himself, being the bridegroom to the bride who is the Church, right?, which is us. That is why in Matthew, Christ says:

'' 19 ''Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;

20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.'' '' (Matthew 6:19-21)

So, if my treasure's in heaven, my heart is in heaven, and therefore, I seek the things that are in heaven; who is the person of Jesus Christ first and foremost. A notice, here in these verses, that we always have a choice, whether we focus on heaven or we focus on earth. So, every minute, there's a decision that is being taken, right? Where is our heart?

And then, God would remind us and says, you know, what does it profit that man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? My soul is the priority and that union, that communion with God that lasts for eternity is the priority and this is the true meaning of life. This is when we find true joy, true purpose, true love. So, we ought to seek after these things. And that reminds me of a beautiful quote from a 19 th century author. He says the following:

''Jesus was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village, where He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a home. He didn't go to college. He never visited a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where He was born. He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. He was only thirty three when the tide of public opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies and went through the mockery of a trial.

''He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While He was dying, His executioners gambled for His garments, the only property He had on earth. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today He is the central figure of the human race. All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that one solitary life.'' (A 19 th century writer)

Obviously, what Christ did was unprecedented and nobody will ever be able to do the same, because He was God in the flesh. However, that one simple life changed the world and Christ asks me, as a Christian, that I also may be able to live simply to be able to change the world around me, change my street, my neighbourhood, my Sunday school class, my Bible school class, my hymns class, you know, whomever comes into contact with me, whether it may be at work, at school; just to enlighten the little world around me.

When we have our hearts set on God and on things above, and when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, wonders can happen, because God will work, but He will work through us. But

Christ's family had their mind set on things of the earth and they were looking for this political Messiah that is to lead that revolution in their understanding. And that's why it says, in verse 6:

'' 6 Then Jesus said to them, ''My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil. 8 You go up to this feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, for My time has not yet fully come.'' 9 When He had said these things to them, He remained in Galilee.'' (John 7:6-9)

In these verses, Christ contrasts Himself with His family. He says to them: My time has not yet come, right?, because I testify against the evil works that they do. Therefore, Christ is not from this world. But then, He says to them: Your time is always ready and the world cannot hate you, meaning that since your works are similar to theirs, you belong to the world as they do, and therefore, they do not hate you. They accept you, but it is not the case for Me. And that is very scary, because these people were very close to Christ. Yet what He says of them is that they don't know Him.

So, in verse 6, Christ uses the word time twice. And in Greek, there's two different words to describe time. The first one is χρόνος (hrónos), which comes from chronological or chronological comes from hronos, right? And this discusses the time here on earth.

And there's this other word for time called καιρóς (kairós). And kairos is how God sees time 1 . So, God is above time and He sees everything in an instant or in a point or in a page, whatever... however you wanna see it. So, this is the time according to God who is above time. This is how He perceives that time. And this word is kairos.

In verse 6 here, the Greek word that is used is kairos rather than hronos. Why is that? Because here, He wants to imply that the time appointed for the cross from the beginning of time, right?, from the time of salvation when it was in the mind of God, if you will, who is above time. So, from a kairos perspective, there is a time appointed for the cross and that time has not yet come. And therefore, God uses this play on words between hronos and kairos and uses kairos rather than hronos to explain this.

Now, this is what happens every liturgy for us. So, although we are in the hronos of time, when we step inside that liturgy inside that church, and this church becomes the intersection between heaven on earth, we end up participating in the kairos. So, although we are living in the hronos, we are participating in that kairos. We are touching God in that sense. We're experiencing heaven while on earth. We are ascending up to heaven through that mystery of liturgy.

1 χρόνος (hrónos) is the timing, the duration of something ─ καιρóς (kairós) is a period of time, an era, an age.

And this kairos is super important, because that's what makes us able to participate in the mystery of the Eucharist, being, you know, at the last supper with Christ and His disciples and eating His flesh and drinking His blood. And every time we celebrate a feast, whether may it be, you know, the cross or the resurrection or Pentecost, wherever it may be, we are participating in that event, because we are stepping from the hronos into that kairos. And this is the beauty of the apostolic and mystical Christianity.

Moving on to verse 10:

'' 10 But when His brothers had gone up, then He also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. 11 Then the Jews sought Him at the feast, and said, ''Where is He?'' 12 And there was much complaining among the people concerning Him. Some said, ''He is good''; others said, ''No, on the contrary, He deceives the people.'' 13 However, no one spoke openly of Him for fear of the Jews.'' (John 7:10-13)

So, we saw how Christ said earlier that He's not going to the feast yet. And therefore, now He goes, but He goes later. The second point is that rather than going openly to the feast and performing His miracles, He ends up going silently. And as we will see in verse 14 next week, what He does is teaching. So, to Him, it was more important to teach rather than to do miracles.

Remember: Know your faith, live your faith, and teach your faith. And glory be to God forever and ever. Amen.

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Remember: Know your faith, live your faith, and teach your faith.