Jesus Refused To Be Used

What Did Jesus Do?

His brothers said, “Leave here and go to Judea,
that your disciples may see the works you are doing”...Jesus said to them,
“You go up to the feast. I am not going to this feast, for my time has not yet come.”
John 7.3, 8

It is hard for people not to become commodities to those who have an agenda. When someone has an agenda they tend to look at other people in terms of their utility, how they can be useful to the forwarding of one's own interests. Even the brothers of Jesus urged him to go to the Feast of Booths in Jerusalem, though it was known that authorities there would kill him if he fell into their hands. Why would they have so counseled their brother? We might not be able to answer this question with certainty, but it is obvious that they had their own agendas, and not their brother's interest, at heart. But Jesus would not go up to Jerusalem with them; he refused to be used.

Though they could not be considered believers at that time, the brothers of Jesus encouraged Christ to “come out of the closet,” so to speak, and show himself plainly and publicly (John 7.3-4). Whatever their motives, the Lord did not respond to the entreaties of his brothers, but sent them on to the feast by themselves, while he himself stayed behind in Galilee (John 6.9). Jesus refused to be used.

For his part, Jesus had good reason not to go the the feast. After all, his testimony was enough to elicit the world's hatred, for Christ declared that the ways and works of the world are evil (John 7.7). Besides that, the time simply had not arrived for Jesus to permit the world to lay hands on him (John 7.8). So, in Galilee he remained. The world, and just about everyone in it, has an agenda. Whatever it takes to move the agenda forward, even to the extent of using others for our own purposes, well, that is the way of the world. But Jesus refused to be used—by the world or by people, even his brothers.

For Jesus, the Son, had come into the world for a very definite purpose, which would be fulfilled at a very particular time, and according to no other agenda than the sovereign will of the Father. The works Jesus had performed, and which his brothers urged him to go to Jerusalem and do openly, were not at all intended to make disciples of people who were impressed by miracles. Rather the works glorified the Father, and revealed where, and from whom, Jesus had come. Glorifying the Father was not on the minds of the Lord's unbelieving brothers when they encouraged him to go to the Feast of Booths. So Jesus refused to be used.

None of this is to suggest that we be anything but bold and confident when we pray, or undertake the work of ministry. It was not the case that Jesus avoided going to Jerusalem, but he would only do so on the day and at the hour appointed for him to go. Neither should we seek to be anywhere but in the Kairos (the “fullness of time” moment) of God. Christ was quite clear when he taught his followers to pray that the Father's will, and not theirs, be done (Matthew 6.10). Anyone who today is a disciple of Jesus does well to examine his or her motives. If we approach the Lord in any way seeking to forward our own agenda, we should not be at all surprised when he does not comply to our exhortations. Jesus still refuses to be used.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4