DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS

St. John 7:1-13   (5/20)   CHRIST IS RISEN!   Gospel, Tuesday of the Week of the Paralytic

 

Opposition to Christ I ~ Truth or Fraud: St. John 7:1-13, especially vs. 12: “And there was much complaining among the people concerning Him....”  In Chapter Six of St. John’s Gospel, one finds hints of growing resistance to the Lord Jesus: many who had been drawn to Him “went back and walked with Him no more” (Jn. 6:66).  Chapter Seven opens on the chilling note that “the Jews sought to kill Him” (vs. 7:1).  The details of this emerging hatred are windows by which we may examine what leads people to oppose the Lord, His Church, and our Holy Faith.  The present passage reveals three of the common reasons for opposition: 1) refusal to accept Jesus as God, 2) moral hostility to Him, and 3) the belief that He and His Church are frauds.

First, notice that even the Lord’s relatives did not believe He was a Prophet, much less God Incarnate.  “For even His brothers did not believe in Him” (vs. 5).  Similar doubt is reported by St. Matthew on the occasion when the Lord Jesus preached in his home synagogue at Nazareth.  In responding to such doubt, our Lord made His famous statement, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and in his own house” (Mt. 13:57).  Familiarity can indeed influence some people to dismiss truths that otherwise might evoke faith in them.

St. John portrays these “brothers” - relatives of Jesus’ extended family - as chiding and taunting Him and His works.  Their argument followed a simple logic: obviously you want to influence the world.  So, why remain in the ‘backwaters’ of Galilee.  Go up to the Capital.  See how you do there (cf. vss. 3,4).  They were having trouble accepting “Cousin” Jesus even as a Prophet, much less One sent from God.  Of course, their doubt preceded His Crucifixion and Resurrection.  Afterward at least two of them, James and Jude, would become leaders of the Church after Christ Jesus arose from the dead (Acts 15:13ff., Gal. 1:18,19, 1 Cor. 15:7; Jude 1).

Resistance to accepting Jesus as God Incarnate, as the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, has a long-standing history.  Early Gnostic heretics claimed that Simon of Cyrene was actually the person crucified while Christ returned to Heaven (believing God never could become a creature in material form).  Since then there have been many famous efforts to deny Christ’s Divinity: Arius, Mohammed, the Unitarians, the secular humanists of this century, and others.

A second type of opposition may be identified readily when the Lord says, “The world... hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil” (Jn. 7:7).  The resistance to which the Lord Jesus refers is moral opposition to His demands for ethical purity.  Both by His teaching and His life, Christ serves as a thorn in sinful flesh, condemning those who oppose God’s life-giving ethical demands.  Moral opposition may be either spoken or unspoken and it may take one of two forms: some individuals know they are doing wrong, enjoy the way they live, and therefore resist changing.  Others have intellectually rejected the reality of sin and embraced an “adjustable,” relative morality as more suitable to their lives, believing that it is all right to do as one wishes as long as others are not hurt, the laws of the land are not broken, or no social gaffe is committed.

Finally, the reading discloses a third form of opposition to Christ: “He deceives the people” (vs. 12).  A few see Christian Faith as a total fraud.  Others view it as a socially useful myth that creates a degree of necessary ethical restraint.  Such opponents view the Church as a moral educator, a social club, or a cultural opiate.  If pressed, some of these may admit that greater claims concerning the Lord Jesus are “useful” myths to manage the unthinking and uncritical.  To the contrary, we affirm that, since “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (Jn. 1:17), we are to repent of all intellectual, moral, and spiritual opposition, and seek Him in purity.

Remove from us all delusion and fill us with that faith, hope, and love which are in Thee.

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