John 7:25-31, What time is it?

Why did Jesus maintain His silence?  Because He was committed to the will of His Father.  He had settled this in the Garden of Gethsemane.  He had “assumed” this from before the foundation of the world (Psalm 2:6-9).  His life goal was to fully do the will of His Father.  He knew that His hour had come, and while Gethsemane makes it clear that this was not something He embraced without understanding the difficulty of the cross, He nevertheless embraced the cross! 

John Calvin said it like this: “It is certain that Christ was silent when false witnesses pressed hard upon him, not only because they did not deserve a reply, but because he did not seek to be now acquitted, knowing that his hour was come.”  Jesus didn’t even try to correct the false witnesses by explaining what He had meant about “rebuilding the temple in three days.”  He confidently embraced the cross!

It is not a sin for a servant of the Lord to seek to preserve his life when under attack.  David ran from King Saul for seven years.  I heard a “teacher” criticize David for going over to the Philistines because he feared for his life.  The argument was that David knew God’s promise, that he would be king, and that he should have just trusted God.  The Bible does not paint the situation like that. 

On the other hand, why was David convinced he should stand up to Goliath.  He didn’t have to.  He was taking a potentially fatal approach.  Except that David was convinced that the glory of God required someone to do it and no one else seemed willing.  What’s the difference between these two events in David’s life?

Paul, fled Damascus in a basket.  He fled from Antioch to Iconium to Lystra to Derbe.  Paul let local believer talk him out of going before the riotous mob at Ephesus.  Yet, there came a day when he took a legal step to keep himself in prison so he could stand before the emperor.

In Jesus’ case, His life was in danger long before the cross.  “Therefore they sought again to seize Him, but He escaped out of their hand” (Jn. 10:39).  Later, “Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews” but fled to Ephraim for safety (Jn. 11:53-54). Jesus did not intentionally put Himself in a situation where the Father had to bail Him out so to speak: “Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God” (Mt. 4:7).  But now, before Caiaphas and Pilate He was unwilling to flee, even though there might have been a way of escape.  Previously “they sought to take Him; but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not come” (Jn. 7:30).  Something about an encounter with certain Greeks told Him, through the Spirit, that “the hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified” (Jn. 12:23).  It was Passover (Jn. 13:1), He was in Jerusalem (Lk. 13:32f), and there would be no escape!  He knew His Bible.  He was filled with the Spirit.  So He embraced the cross!  That is how we will know what hour it is in which we are living!