John 7:28-31 28So Jesus cried out, as he taught in the temple and saying, “You know me, and you know from where I am. But I have not come of my own accord. The one who sent me is true, whom you do not know. 29I know him, because I come from him, and he sent me.” 30So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. 31But many of the crowd believed in him and they were saying, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”
Jesus next corrects with a shout the faulty rumors floating around among some of the people. In John’s Gospel, Jesus speaks plainly and openly about his identity, which fits John’s purpose of showing Jesus to be the Messiah and Son of God. The blame is cast with his opening statement: You know me. The people knew enough to lead them to faith. The evidence was right before them in the true words and one-of-a-kind miracles. No one in all of human history was like Jesus. Thousands of people had been following Jesus, not just in far away Galilee but also in the capital city of Jerusalem. They knew his background enough to know that he fulfilled Old Testament prophecy about where the Messiah would come from.
Jesus makes the same essential connection to God the Father as he made in Galilee and other places. Everything he did and said was according to God’s will. Verse 28 gives the real problem in the whole situation in Jerusalem: you do not know him. The people were highly religious because they had come for the Feast of Booths. They were in the center of religious activity in the temple precincts. Yet, they did not really know God. Their religion was all action and no deep, life-transforming faith. They were far from God, like their ancestors had been. They had the trappings of faith but lacked the genuine power of faith. Jesus was the opposite. He had the faith and put people first, not religious practices and traditions. He still celebrated the various feasts but like all of his life, he transformed these feasts into objects of faith as they were designed to be. Verse 29 summarizes once again the key theme of John’s Gospel: Jesus was sent by God and fully represented God because he knew God in complete trust and perfect obedience. Jesus does not identify who the “he” or “him” is in this passage, but it should not have been hard for the crowd to make the connection. In order to truly know God, one must know Jesus.
Jesus stirred up a hornet’s nest when he went into Jerusalem and preached in the temple. He was right in the lion’s lair where the authorities could arrest him. In the Synoptic Gospels (Mark 14:1-2), they did not arrest him for fear of the crowds. In John’s Gospel, Jesus was not arrested because his hour had not come. Hour has the connotation of a special event and here likely refers to Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross (see 2:4). It was not yet time for him to go to the cross because he had other ministry to do and people to heal. His death on the cross was at the perfect time in history (Galatians 4:4).
John next records and summarizes the two responses the people gave Jesus. On the one hand, many believed in him. They saw power and authority and trusted that God was at work through Jesus. John does not describe the extent of their faith. On the other hand, others, or perhaps some of the first group with weak or misdirected faith, had a condition that the Messiah would do even more signs than Jesus. What were they expecting? No one in all of history had done what Jesus was doing, yet these people would not accept him as the Messiah. People still give these two responses today. They are curious about Jesus and know he was a great man in history, but they cannot come to the point of a full faith that accepts his authority in their lives. Believing in Jesus requires more than an intellectual curiosity or fascination; it requires life commitment in following Jesus in the obedience of love.
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