Therefore
some of them of Jerusalem said, “Isn’t this he whom they seek to kill? Behold, he speaks openly, and they say nothing to him. Can it be that the rulers indeed know that this is truly the Christ? However we know where this man comes from, but when the Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from.” Jesus therefore cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, “You both know me, and know where I am from. I have not come of myself, but he who sent me is true, whom you don’t know. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.” They sought therefore to take him; but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. But of the multitude, many believed in him. They said, “When the Christ comes, he won’t do more signs than those which this man has done, will he?” The Pharisees heard the multitude murmuring these things concerning him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.
John 7:25-32
John 7 [21.] Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel because of it. Moses has given you circumcision (not that it is of Moses, but of the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a boy. If a boy receives circumcision on the Sabbath, that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me, because I made a man completely healthy on the Sabbath? Don’t judge according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”
John 7 [25.] Therefore some of them of Jerusalem said, “Isn’t this he whom they seek to kill? Behold, he speaks openly, and they say nothing to him. Can it be that the rulers indeed know that this is truly the Christ? However we know where this man comes from, but when the Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from.”
John 7 [28.] Jesus therefore cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, “You both know me, and know where I am from. I have not come of myself, but he who sent me is true, whom you don’t know. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”
John 7 [30.] They sought therefore to take him; but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. But of the multitude, many believed in him. They said, “When the Christ comes, he won’t do more signs than those which this man has done, will he?” The Pharisees heard the multitude murmuring these things concerning him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.
John 7 [33.] Then Jesus said, “I will be with you a little while longer, then I go to him who sent me. You will seek me, and won’t find me; and where I am, you can’t come.”
Meaning:
Jesus was teaching openly in the temple during the Feast of Booths. The pilgrims had denied that anyone wanted to kill him (John 7:20), but the people of Jerusalem knew better. These verses record their questions, Jesus’ bold reply, and the mixed reaction that followed.
- “Isn’t this he whom they seek to kill? Behold, he speaks openly”
The residents of the city knew the leaders’ plans. They were puzzled to see Jesus teaching freely in the temple courts while the rulers said nothing. They even wondered, “Can it be that the rulers indeed know that this is truly the Christ?”
- “When the Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from”
Some people believed that the Messiah would appear suddenly from obscurity. Malachi had said that the Lord “will suddenly come to his temple” (Malachi 3:1), and Micah spoke of a ruler “whose goings out are from of old, from ancient times” (Micah 5:2). But everyone knew that Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and they knew his family. In Galilee people had said, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?” (John 6:42). To them, a man with a known home town could not be the Christ.
- “You both know me, and know where I am from”
Jesus “cried out”, raising his voice so that all could hear. There is irony in his words. Yes, they knew his town and his family, but they did not know his true origin. “I have not come of myself, but he who sent me is true, whom you don’t know.” Jesus came from the Father. John’s Gospel begins by saying that the Word “was with God” before the world began (John 1:1).
- “I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me”
Jesus claims a unique knowledge of God. Matthew records him saying, “No one knows the Son, except the Father; neither does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and he to whom the Son desires to reveal him” (Matthew 11:27).
- “No one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come”
This bold claim provoked an attempt to seize him, but it failed. John explains why: his hour had not yet come. No human plot could touch Jesus before the time the Father had set. At Nazareth too, an angry crowd could not hold him: “But he, passing through the middle of them, went his way” (Luke 4:30). When his hour did come, he laid down his life of his own accord (John 10:18).
- “When the Christ comes, he won’t do more signs than those which this man has done, will he?”
Many in the crowd believed. They reasoned from the signs they had seen. Signs were meant to lead to faith; John says he recorded them “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (John 20:31).
- “The chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him”
Hearing the crowd, the Pharisees and chief priests acted together and sent the temple officers. Their mission would end in failure, as the officers later admitted, “No man ever spoke like this man!” (John 7:46).
The Significance of John 7:25-32
- Knowing about Jesus is not knowing him
The people of Jerusalem knew facts about Jesus but did not know the Father who sent him. Information about Jesus is not the same as faith in him.
- God is in control
Plots against Jesus could not succeed until the Father’s hour. Believers can take comfort that their lives too are in God’s hands.
- Responding to the evidence
The same signs led some to faith and others to hostility. Each of us must decide what to do with the evidence of who Jesus is.
Cross-References:
Micah 5:2: "out of you one will come out to me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings out are from of old, from ancient times." The ruler from Bethlehem.
Matthew 11:27: "No one knows the Son, except the Father; neither does anyone know the Father, except the Son," Jesus alone truly knows the Father.
Luke 4:30: "But he, passing through the middle of them, went his way." Jesus kept safe until his hour.
Conclusion: The people of Jerusalem were surprised that Jesus taught openly, and doubted that he could be the Christ because they knew where he came from. Jesus replied that he came from the Father, whom they did not know. Attempts to seize him failed because his hour had not yet come, while many believed because of his signs. The passage calls us to move from knowing about Jesus to knowing him, and to trust that God controls every hour.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible