Jesus As He Is - John 7:14-24

If you remember from last week, Jesus told his brothers that he wasn’t going to go to the Feast of Booths (or sometimes called the Feast of Tabernacles) in Jerusalem with them. Rather, he was going to go separately at a different time.

Jesus eventually made his way to Jerusalem and ended up at the Feast of Booths but incognito. While he was there, the people in Jerusalem didn’t notice or recognize him. But as the gospel of John records for us, everyone there was talking about Jesus!

And as verse 14 tells us, Jesus is now making a public appearance by teaching in the Temple.

In case you haven’t noticed, Jesus gets into a lot of arguments doesn’t he? In fact, a big chunk of the gospels consist of Jesus debating people, typically the religious leaders like the Scribes or Pharisees, and each argument centers around theology. And as things progress, these arguments only increase in intensity.

A storm is forming around Jesus Christ. After all, he directly tells the Jewish leaders that they want to kill him.

But sometimes arguments and debates can be hard to follow. Have you ever been in, we’ll call it a friendly exchange of ideas, and at some point in the back and forth you forget what originally started it?

And I think the same is true for this particular passage. A lot of things are being thrown around: we’re talking about Jesus’ lack of education, his source of authority, the Mosaic law, Sabbath keeping and Sabbath breaking… but what’s the point?

It’s easy to lose the central thing in all the back and forth.

Here’s what I think is important for us to see: In order to be a Christian, you have to accept Jesus exactly the way that He is.

Because Jesus is easy to dismiss if he doesn’t fit into your box and meet your expectations. That’s what we see in our passage. We see how Jesus is an unqualified Messiah in the eyes of the Jews: First, he was uneducated (vv. 14-18), second, they thought he misunderstood Scripture (vv. 19-23), and lastly, he wasn’t what they expected (v. 24).

He’s Uneducated (vv. 14-18)

The first way in our passage that the Jews disqualify Jesus is because he’s uneducated. Here’s Jesus sitting in the Temple teaching. If you remember from last week, Jesus told his brothers that he wouldn’t go with them to the Feast because the Jews sought his life.

But here he is now publicly teaching in the temple! It seems to be quite the swing, doesn’t it? He’s covert one minute only to start teaching in the temple the next. Why was he teaching if he was so worried about his life? Because the gospel was always more important than his own life. He’s not afraid of the Jews, he’s more concerned with perfectly fulfilling the will of God.

But what happens when he taught? People gather and marvel at his teaching. They're blown away, but there’s a problem - not with his teaching but with his background. Jesus is uneducated.

There’s a great scene from my favorite show, “The Office” where the office manager, Michael Scott, is looking for someone to replace him. He thought he was a shoe-in for a big new promotion so he began looking among the people in the office for his replacement. He turns it into this big to-do at the lake, and while they’re all there auditioning for his job, the Secretary Pam pipes up and says something that really impresses him, and he says, “Wow, that was really good Pam, but I’m still looking for someone with a sales background.”

What’s happening in this passage is very similar. Look at verses 14 and 15. “About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?””

Just like Pam, Jesus is met with skepticism and doubt not because he’s incompetent, he demonstrates quite the opposite, but because he doesn’t meet their made up qualifications.

It was a given the Messiah would know the Mosaic law. And Jesus certainly knew the Old Testament Scriptures, in fact, he is the ultimate expositor of Scripture. Undoubtedly, he knew the Scriptures better than anyone there in the Temple. But he didn’t gain his knowledge in the approved manner. It was Jewish custom for religious leaders to sit under well respected Rabbis in order to gain sufficient knowledge of Scripture. But Jesus didn’t do that!

He didn’t study under a Rabbi, but Jesus demonstrates competency without the degree. Which is the issue at hand in verse 15. Jesus had performed incredible signs and wonders, his teaching was unparalleled, but in the eyes of the Jews he lacked validation and credibility. He has never-before-seen command of the Scriptures but he lacked formal training.

“How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” In other words, how can this man appear so educated when he has no formal training? He doesn’t have a PhD! He doesn’t even have a bachelor’s degree!

I had a professor in college once ask the class if a PhD means you're smart?

He wasn’t fishing for compliments, he wasn’t asking us to tell him he was a genius. Rather he was illustrating what we all know to be true. A degree isn’t necessarily a sign of competence or intelligence.

Formal education isn’t a sign of intelligence as much as it is a sign of validation or credibility. It’s why all our Supreme Court Justices have to have an Ivy League education. It doesn’t necessarily mean he or she is smart but it is validation and credibility.

For the record, there are many well-educated people that are very intelligent, but it’s not always the case, but we often conflate the two. We tend to think that lots of formal education means you're smart.

We all value formal education in general, but we really value it in our leaders.

Because a leader’s formal education not only gives him credibility but gives his followers credibility. After all, who wants to follow an ignorant leader?

And here’s this basic Galilean man with no training, teaching in an extraordinary way!

The issue is a leader’s inadequacies are often imputed to their followers. An unintelligent leader has unintelligent followers.

But a leader’s credibility is his follower’s credibility.

Isn’t this something that people struggle with still today? Often the faith is mischaracterized as unintelligent, goofy, or ignorant. And people don’t want the world to dismiss them into irrelevance. We’re desperate to be taken seriously!

Wasn’t that part of the Scopes Monkey Trial? To dismiss or discredit the Christian faith. It was an attempt to delegitimize it.

The Scopes Trial was a highly publicized trial that took place in Dayton, Tennessee and involved a high school teacher John T. Scopes who was accused of violating state law by teaching Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.

Tennessee had deemed it unlawful to teach anything other than the Biblical creation story. One of the main objectives of the defense was to demonstrate the silliness, ignorance, and the unscientific nature of Christianity.

But what’s the problem? Discrediting Christianity inevitably discredits Christians. This is an assault on our pride! We want a seat at the table. We want the world to listen to us! We want to feel validated.

But what if that validation never comes? Are you willing to be cast into the corner of society because you follow this ignorant, uneducated, Galilean man?

Are you willing to follow Christ even if no one takes you seriously?

That’s why the Jewish leaders were upset! HIs teaching was unparalleled and authoritative but he lacked the pedigree. To follow Jesus was to give up social standing and respectability.

But even more than credibility, formal education gives you recognized authority. And Jesus as an “uneducated man” even though he taught with authority, he lacked recognized authority. Because a Rabbi’s authority came from who taught him. So Jesus addresses this issue directly in verses 16-18:

“My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. 17 If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. 18 The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.”

But here’s the deal with Jesus: His authority doesn’t come from his education, his authority comes directly from God the Father Almighty.

But not only does his authority come directly from God, but those that love the Lord with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength will recognize his teaching as authoritative. Because as one commentator put it, “If there be no true desire to obey the will of God as expressed in his Word, true knowledge (both intellectual and experiential) will not be found.”

A desire to live for the Lord demonstrates a love for the Lord. If there is no desire to live for the Lord then there is no love for the Lord.

But notice Jesus’ comments about teaching authority in verse 18. “The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.”

Jesus knew that the Jewish leaders thought because he had no formal training he was making everything up. Even though his teaching was amazing, he was on an island all by himself just making stuff up. After all, you need to appeal to an authority outside of yourself in order to validate your point. It’s an appeal to history that validates your point.

2+2=4 isn’t true because I’m standing up here telling you. It’s true because it’s demonstratively true, but also everyone for all of time has said it’s true.

Jesus told them that a person who speaks out of his own authority seeks his own glory. But Jesus wasn’t doing that, rather he sought the glory of God. Jesus' motivation wasn’t selfish at all, rather it was to glorify God, which is the most unselfish motive possible.

He Misunderstood Scripture (vv. 19-23)

And one of the ways you can tell Jesus was focused on doing the will of the Father is by the fact, he taught the truth of Scripture.

As I said earlier, Jesus was the ultimate expositor of Scripture because he was intimately involved in it’s being put together. But ironically, the Jews believed that Jesus didn’t understand Scripture.

We see that in verses 19-23. In these four verses several theological arguments are being made. First, Jesus accuses the Jewish religious leaders of failing to keep the law. Jesus then brings up one of his miracles, which leads to him making a point from circumcision to the Sabbath.

But knowing and following the law is what the Jewish people hang their hat on. They thought they could keep the law. But Jesus reveals the secret things of their hearts.

You see, they violated the law because they harbored murderous thoughts in their hearts. Remember how Jesus summarized the law? “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” And Jesus even takes it one step further: In Matthew 5, Jesus says if you harbor hatred you’ve committed murder in your heart!

Their self-righteousness was nauseating. They claimed to follow the law, but hated Jesus. By harboring the murderous thoughts in their hearts they were violating the very law they claimed to follow.

But they deny the accusation and mock Jesus instead.

But Jesus wasn’t finished exposing their hypocrisy. They could deny his accusation and mock him, but they couldn’t deny hypocritical Jewish practice. Jesus makes an argument from the lesser to the greater in verses 21-23.

Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. 22 Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. 23 If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's whole body well?

If the Jewish practice required them to circumcise little boys on the eighth day inevitably, a circumcision would fall on the Sabbath. So which law took priority? Would they circumcise the baby boy or would they wait because that would be “working” on the Sabbath? The answer is, they would circumcise the baby boy even if his circumcision fell on the Sabbath.

Circumcision represented in part a spiritual restoration and healing. Just as the flesh would be removed, so is the heart of stone removed. It was a spiritual practice, but hopefully this isn’t too graphic, but they considered it to be a bodily improvement as well.

But if you remember in John 5 Jesus healed the paralyzed man at the pool in Bethsaida on the Sabbath and everyone freaked out. And they didn’t freak out because Jesus had healed a paralyzed man, rather, they freaked out because Jesus performed a “work” on the Sabbath, thus “breaking” the Sabbath.

So now, you can hopefully see Jesus’ point: if the restorative spiritual act of circumcision is permissible on the Sabbath, why is healing a man’s body impermissible on the Sabbath? Because he didn’t just heal one part of the man’s body, he made his whole body well.

His miraculous work was far more significant than any circumcision.

The great irony of all of this is that they accused him of violating Scripture, because they thought he broke the Sabbath. But the very thing they accused him of they did! They harbored murder in their hearts.

They twisted and abused Scripture and when Jesus corrected them, they told him that he didn’t understand the Word! It’s the height of hypocrisy to accuse someone of the very wrongdoing you commit!

He Wasn’t What They Expected (v. 24)

And this is exactly why Jesus said in verse 24, “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”

In other words, Jesus is exhorting them to judge him not according to their preconceived notions, but rather judge him righteously. To judge him with the right judgment because they were judging him based on their expectations.

But everything the Pharisees and Jewish religious leaders did was about looking the part. It was all about getting the attention of the people. Blowing a trumpet or praying loudly in public in order to impress others. And Jesus says in Matthew 6 that they gained their reward which was the praise and attention of men.

But Jesus was different because he wasn’t seeking to impress the people around him. The bottom line is Jesus made grand Messianic claims, he claimed to be one with the Father, but the problem was he wasn’t what they expected the Messiah to be like. They expected the Messiah to be just like them!

Most of you know that I wrestled in high school and I’m not talking about WWE wrestling either. I’m talking about Olympic or college wrestling. But wrestling is one of the few sports where you could size up your competition strictly based upon physical appearances. I mean you can do it in other sports too, but the wrestling singlets leave little to the imagination.

If your opponent was fit, had a good warm up routine, and just generally looked like he knew what he was doing, you knew you probably had a tough opponent.

But every now and again, someone would surprise you. Ben Askren is a two-time National Champion from Missouri. If you’re a two time College National Champion, you’re an amazing athlete, but the thing about Ben Askren is - he doesn’t really look like it. He’s frumpy, and has what you might call a “dad bod.” He did Mixed Martial Arts too and that was something that consistently came up whenever folks talked about him. He just didn’t look as good as he actually was.

But this is what comes so naturally to people. We base everything upon what we see. Is this person meeting or failing to meet my expectations? This is what the Jews did when they sized up Jesus. He didn’t meet their expectations, therefore, they could reject his claims.

They failed to take Jesus exactly the way he was. They wanted him to conform to their expectations in order to be taken seriously as the Savior of the World.

Because isn’t there a temptation for all of us to make Jesus be who we want him to be? The American version of Jesus is this inoffensive guy, who never hurt anyone’s feelings because he was always meek and mild. He’s just a nice guy that waits hand and foot for you.

There’s that sort of broad American Jesus, but also there’s the individual Jesus that we mold into what we want him to be. Maybe your Jesus is super accepting, friendly, and open minded. Or maybe your version of Jesus emphasizes his combativeness and ability to stand up for truth. But the problem arises when there’s a massive disconnect between the Jesus we’ve created in our minds and the Jesus of the Bible.

And I bring all of this up because what we often still do, is exactly what the Jews did! The Jewish leaders had a preconceived version of the Messiah that Jesus needed to fit into.

Accepting Jesus for who he is means you accept both the aspects of Christ’s character that you appreciate and the parts that are more difficult for you to swallow.

If you want Jesus to be kind and gracious (which he was!) you must also accept that his kindness and grace never compromised the truth. And on the other hand, if you want Jesus to be a combative warrior (which he was!) you must also accept his tenderness, mercy, and grace.

But Jesus isn’t a buffet! You don’t get to pick and choose the aspects of his character you enjoy. You have to embrace all of who he is just the way he is.

And if you’re trusting in Christ, you don’t get to mold him into your image, rather, he molds you into his image. Jesus shouldn’t become more like you, rather, you should become more like him.

The more you trust in Christ, the deeper you grow in faith and reliance upon him, the more you realize that you don’t just need an aspect of who he is, you need all of who he is.

Because the Jesus of your liking isn’t the Jesus that can save you from your sins. Only the Jesus of the Bible is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!

Don’t be like the Jews who rejected Christ because he didn’t meet their expectations, instead we should celebrate and embrace Jesus because he doesn’t meet our expectations. If our salvation rested in our hands, we’d all be doomed!

And after all, isn’t that the point? You cannot save yourself and that’s why you need Jesus, exactly the way that he is. Let’s pray together.