The Jews from Jerusalem who were at the Feast of the Tabernacles kept looking for Jesus. They asked,
“Where is he?”
There was a lot of murmuring and rumors among the multitudes about Jesus.
Some said,
“He is a good man.”
Others said,
“No, he leads the people astray.”
But no one spoke openly about Jesus for fear of the Jews of Jerusalem.
During the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught. The Jews from Jerusalem were amazed,
“How is this man so learned and wise since he has had no formal education?”
Jesus told them,
“The teaching is not mine; it comes from the one who sent me. The person who speaks for himself is looking for his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him, is a man of truth and no unrighteousness is in him.
Didn’t Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keep the law? Why do you want to kill me?”
The multitude answered,
“You have a demon. Who is trying to kill you?”
Jesus answered,
“I did one work and you all marvel because of it. Moses gave you circumcision, and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.
If a man is circumcised on the Sabbath, so the law of Moses is not broken, then why are you infuriated with me for making a man completely whole on the Sabbath?
Stop judging things by their appearance, but judge by what is right.”
Some of the people in Jerusalem said,
“Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? Look, he speaks openly, and they don’t say anything to him. Could it be that the rulers know that he is the Christ?
How is it that we know where this man comes from? But when the Christ comes, no one will know where he came from.”
Jesus, in the temple, said,
“You know me and you know where I came from. I have not come of myself. But the one who sent me is true, and you do not know him because I am from him, and he sent me.
They tried to capture Jesus, but no one could lay a hand on him, because his time had not yet come.”
Many in the multitude believed in Jesus, and they said,
“When the Christ comes will he do more signs than this man has done?”
The Pharisees heard what the crowds were saying about Jesus, and they sent the officers to capture Him.
