John 7:3
His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judæa, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judæa, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest.
His unbelieving brothers challenged Him to leave Galilee for Judea and display His works publicly before His disciples and rulers to prove He was the Messiah. They urged this from ambition for public recognition and a temporal kingdom that would win the religious leaders and exalt Israel, judging His reserve as weakness because they could not fathom His divine mission from their human point of view. Their contemptuous and sarcastic words grieved His kind and loving nature and cast a shadow over His home life, yet He pitied their ignorance and blindness and longed for them to see without prejudice and understand. Demanding a public miraculous display as a condition for belief is seeking an excuse to reject the light of heaven, which puts speakers in the spirit of His taunters and opens them to be confirmed in deception by false miracles, while He refused every solicitation to concede to their ideas and remained faithful.
Setting of the Appeal
The appeal to leave for Judea and let the disciples see the works being done belongs to the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. That feast was the closing religious gathering of the year in Jerusalem, a seven-day celebration attended by people from Palestine and other lands. Those who came brought gifts as tokens of thanksgiving for God's goodness, for His care and for the harvest, so that His goodness and mercy would be called to mind and the people would have occasion to thank Him.
Jesus was then in Galilee because hostility in Judea and Jerusalem threatened His life, with people seeking to kill Him. Going openly with His family risked making Him recognizable and exposing Him to those who would seek to deprive Him of His liberty or take His life. He knew He must wait for the appointed time and therefore did not go at the time His brothers suggested. Instead He went elsewhere privately, after already giving instruction and warning, to prevent an outbreak among enemies and friends from producing a mob spirit that would disrupt His work before its appointed time to end.
At that point, when many of His disciples had deserted Him, His brothers urged Him to go to Jerusalem for the feast. That desertion had deeply affected them. Their urging was that He should publicly present His claims before the rulers and assert His rights if He was the Messiah, making His claims known so His disciples could see His works.
Even then He was already making Himself known through public teaching and healing. Those deeds were part of the work He came to do, but His brothers did not recognize that He was doing so in a way they failed to perceive.
Brothers' Unbelief and Motives
His own brothers did not believe in Him when they told Him to leave Galilee and go to Judea so that His disciples could see His works openly. Their urging was a doubting challenge to display Himself publicly and assert His rights before disciples and rulers if He really was the Messiah. They were deeply affected by the desertion of many of His disciples when they pressed Him to go to Jerusalem for the feast and present His claims. Their demand for public miraculous display refused clear evidence and insisted on seeing before believing.
Their appeal came from ambition and desire for public recognition rather than faith. They thought He should display His power in Jerusalem, win the support of the Pharisees and religious leaders, and establish a temporal kingdom that would exalt Israel. They treated His reserve as weakness and assumed His works should serve public recognition. They were disappointed in Him because He did not seek such recognition and a throne, and in that disappointment they rejected Him and His mission.
They judged Him from a human point of view with a short measuring line that could not fathom His divine mission, so they misunderstood what He came to do and could not sympathize with His trials. They looked upon Him as needing their counsel and wanted Him to concede to their ideas and speak only what would be acceptable to the scribes and Pharisees in order to avoid disagreeable controversy, a course utterly out of harmony with His divine mission. They thought Him beside Himself for claiming divine authority and placing Himself before the rabbis as a reprover of their sins, and knowing accusers and Pharisees were seeking occasion against Him, they felt He had already given them sufficient occasion. They were annoyed that His teaching and miracles brought opposition from priests and rulers. They often brought forward the threadbare, age-hoary philosophy of the Pharisees as if they could teach Him who understands all truth and comprehends all mysteries, freely condemning what they could not understand while avowing faith in God and thinking they vindicated God.
Their contemptuous, sarcastic, coarse and unappreciative words showed they had no true perception of His character and did not discern that the divine was blended with the human, though God was with them in the flesh. They grieved and pained Him, wounded His sensitive, kind and loving nature that prized family tenderness, left His work uncomprehended, cast a shadow over His earthly life in His own home as part of the bitter cup of woe He drained, and with reproaches probed Him to the quick until His soul was wearied and distressed, wounding instead of comforting Him though they often saw Him full of grief and misunderstood His motives. Yet He pitied their ignorance and blindness and longed for them to listen and see without prejudice and to understand His mission. They were offended that He declared Himself the Bread of Life rather than seeking a temporal throne, and they turned away rather than accept the evidence that He was sent by God.
Warning and Faithfulness
The appeal to leave Galilee for Judea so the disciples could see the works openly was a demand for public miraculous display as a condition for belief rather than acceptance of clear evidence already given. It means seeking pegs on which to hang doubts and excuses for rejecting the light of heaven, saying show a miracle and we will believe, as when messengers of truth are required to heal the sick in order to prove themselves. It stands as an example of rejecting a message while asking for proof.
Speaking such words places speakers in the same spirit as the taunters and murderers of the Lord, not led by God but deceived, with evil angels exulting around them. Closing the eyes to the light of truth in this way prepares the way for Satan to answer the demand with false miracles that confirm them in deception, making their situation terrible. The account warns against imperiling the cause of God and one's own influence by perverted ideas. It teaches that the Lord God of heaven works with a person just as long as he follows Him and heeds His counsel.
Even within His own family He was misunderstood and unappreciated, criticized and pressed to act as they acted. He refused every solicitation to do wrong and remained faithful to Scripture rather than concede to their ideas.