New Testament in a Year

Jesus and His Brothers

7 After this, Jesus traveled around the country of Galilee. He did not want to travel in Judea, because the Jewish leaders there wanted to kill him. ² It was time for the Jewish Festival of Shelters. ³ So his brothers said to him, “You should leave here and go to the festival in Judea. Then your followers there can see the miracles you do. ⁴ If you want to be well known, you must not hide what you do. So, if you can do such amazing things, let the whole world see you do them.” ⁵ Jesus’ brothers said this because even they did not believe in him.

⁶ Jesus said to them, “The right time for me has not yet come, but any time is right for you to go. ⁷ The world cannot hate you. But the world hates me, because I tell the people in the world that they do evil things. ⁸ So you go to the festival. I will not go now, because the right time for me has not yet come.” ⁹ After Jesus said this, he stayed in Galilee.

¹⁰ So his brothers left to go to the festival. After they left, Jesus went too, but he did not let people see him. ¹¹ At the festival the Jewish leaders were looking for him. They said, “Where is that man?”

¹² There was a large group of people there. Many of them were talking secretly to each other about Jesus. Some people said, “He is a good man.” But others said, “No, he fools the people.” ¹³ But no one was brave enough to talk about him openly. They were afraid of the Jewish leaders.

Jesus Teaches in Jerusalem

¹⁴ When the festival was about half finished, Jesus went to the Temple area and began to teach. ¹⁵ The Jewish leaders were amazed and said, “How did this man learn so much? He never had the kind of teaching we had!”

¹⁶ Jesus answered, “What I teach is not my own. My teaching comes from the one who sent me. ¹⁷ People who really want to do what God wants will know that my teaching comes from God. They will know that this teaching is not my own. ¹⁸ If I taught my own ideas, I would just be trying to get honor for myself. But if I am trying to bring honor to the one who sent me, I can be trusted. Anyone doing that is not going to lie. ¹⁹ Moses gave you the law, right? But you don’t obey that law. If you do, then why are you trying to kill me?”

²⁰ The people answered, “A demon is making you crazy! We are not trying to kill you.”

²¹ Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle on a Sabbath day, and you were all surprised. ²² But you obey the law Moses gave you about circumcision—and sometimes you do it on a Sabbath day. (Really, Moses is not the one who gave you circumcision. It came from our ancestors who lived before Moses.) Yes, you often circumcise baby boys on a Sabbath day. ²³ This shows that someone can be circumcised on a Sabbath day to obey the Law of Moses. So why are you angry with me for healing a person’s whole body on the Sabbath day? ²⁴ Stop judging by the way things look. Be fair and judge by what is really right.”

People Wonder if Jesus Is the Messiah

²⁵ Then some of the people who lived in Jerusalem said, “This is the man they are trying to kill. ²⁶ But he is teaching where everyone can see and hear him. And no one is trying to stop him from teaching. Maybe the leaders have decided that he really is the Messiah. ²⁷ But when the real Messiah comes, no one will know where he comes from. And we know where this man’s home is.”