John 7:1-9…
It can be hard dealing with loved ones who won’t listen to you when you talk about Jesus. When you truly want to do His will, you may discover that some people in your own family don’t understand. They’ll talk about most anything else, but not your faith. They have no sense of God’s will or work. They may even oppose and oppress you. The knowledge that personal relationships may and will suffer is the one place where most “disciples” put down their cross and walk away from Jesus (Matthew 10:37 / Luke 14:26).
It was the same with Jesus’ own family (Psalm 69:8). They had no real sense of God’s will or timing in the work He was doing. They wanted Jesus to make a show, but it showed that they didn’t yet believe He was who He claimed to be (cf. Mark 3:21). Here we have unbelievers giving advice. Perhaps His siblings were being sarcastic. In any event, why should the spiritual take spiritual advice from the unspiritual?
Applying this to today, we are often trying to win the world using the world’s ways and wisdom. Personally, we want Jesus to make some grand entrance into the scenes of our public lives so that we may feel justified, but all it really does is make a parade of our unbelief. Let’s be like Jesus, and not take this same bad advice.
People want God to hurry up and do something, and something big, but God knows the future and the consequences of doing things too soon and too spectacular. Jesus may be going to the place we want Him to go, and willing to do what we hope He will do, but not necessarily on our timetable or suitable to our taste for the dramatic.
Two of Jesus’ brothers, James and Jude, became biblical writers, so we shouldn’t write loved ones off. However we should be doing God’s will while we are waiting.
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