Friday, December 4

¹After this Jesus traveled throughout Galilee. He stayed out of Judea because the Jewish leaders wanted to kill him. ²Now the Jewish Feast of Shelters was near. ³So Jesus’ brothers advised him, “Leave here and go to Judea so your disciples may see your miracles that you are performing. ⁴For no one who seeks to make a reputation for himself does anything in secret. If you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” ⁵(For not even his own brothers believed in him.)

⁶So Jesus replied, “My time has not yet arrived, but you are ready at any opportunity! ⁷The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I am testifying about it that its deeds are evil. ⁸You go up to the feast yourselves. I am not going up to this feast because my time has not yet fully arrived.” ⁹When he had said this, he remained in Galilee.

¹⁰But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then Jesus himself also went up, not openly but in secret. ¹¹So the Jewish leaders were looking for him at the feast, asking, “Where is he?” ¹²There was a lot of grumbling about him among the crowds. Some were saying, “He is a good man,” but others, “He deceives the common people.” ¹³However, no one spoke openly about him for fear of the Jewish leaders.

¹⁴When the feast was half over, Jesus went up to the temple courts and began to teach. ¹⁵Then the Jewish leaders were astonished and said, “How does this man know so much when he has never had formal instruction?” ¹⁶So Jesus replied, “My teaching is not from me, but from the one who sent me. ¹⁷If anyone wants to do God’s will, he will know about my teaching, whether it is from God or whether I speak from my own authority. ¹⁸The person who speaks on his own authority desires to receive honor for himself; the one who desires the honor of the one who sent him is a man of integrity, and there is no unrighteousness in him. ¹⁹Hasn’t Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law! Why do you want to kill me?”

²⁰The crowd answered, “You’re possessed by a demon! Who is trying to kill you?” ²¹Jesus replied, “I performed one miracle and you are all amazed. ²²However, because Moses gave you the practice of circumcision (not that it came from Moses, but from the forefathers), you circumcise a male child on the Sabbath. ²³But if a male child is circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses is not broken, why are you angry with me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath? ²⁴Do not judge according to external appearance, but judge with proper judgment.”