As you are reading through this gospel do you sense the tension rising between Jesus and his followers and the religious leaders who oppose him and what he says and does? What seem to be their disagreements and arguements about Jesus here and what do you think? Notice the crowd seems divided. There were no straw polls back then and the gospels are not unbiased reporters, they are supporters so their focus would be positive towards Jesus, so it is interesting to see so much oppostition being written here.
It begins with "Jesus' brothers". Notice the comment in verse 5! What do you make of this? Was it sibling rivalry, jealousy, or were they too close to Jesus to see him for whom he really is?
When he does get to Jerusalem the leaders oppose and criticize him. He is not one of them and has not been taught in their schools. Do you suppose they criticized him for being a backwards hick from Galilee?
So here is the question for this week - where has all of your wisdom come from? How much came from books and school? What came from family and life growing up? What have you discovered on your own? How much has come from God?
There seems to be an issue of where he has come from and a bias against his being from Galilee. Where do you come from? What difference do you think that makes? Does it matter more to you, where you are from or where you are going?
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