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Please judge with right judgment

Jesus answered them, … “Do not judge by sight, but judge with right judgment.” (John’s first century eyewitness biography of Jesus: Chapter 7: 24-31)
 
In this incident, in AD 30 Jerusalem, Jesus was attending a feast which recalled the Israelites living in tents in the wilderness for 40 years. This originally took place around BC 1400. But their God had accompanied them, being present with them – unseen - in the movable “Tent of Meeting”.

Jesus had gone to this feast incognito – unseen – and, unannounced, he was teaching in the Temple. Centuries earlier, the Temple had replaced the “Tent of Meeting” as God’s the house of God.  His teaching was wonderful.

Then he asked the crowd not to judge by what they were seeing.

Some from among the Jerusalemites therefore were stating, “Is this not the man whom they are seeking to kill? And look! He is openly speaking and to him they state nothing. Perhaps truly the authorities know that this man is the Christ. But we know where this man is from. In fact, when the Christ appears, no one knows where he is from.”

“Some” of them were indeed passing judgment – see above. What do you think? Was their judgment “by sight” alone? “Is this not the man whom they are seeking to kill?” Correct. “He is openly speaking and to him they state nothing.” Correct. “Perhaps truly the authorities know that this man is the Christ [the Messiah]. Do They? "But we know where this man is from.” Do they? 
 
“In fact, when the Christ [the Messiah] appears, no one knows where he is from.” False. The Jerusalem contemporaries of John the biographer would immediately have realized that this statement, by “some” of them, was totally incorrect. A great deal was known about the Messiah from their Scriptures – including his birthplace in Bethlehem.

And including the fact that he would be despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows who would bear their iniquities and carry their sins.
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Therefore, Jesus cried out, teaching in the temple and stating, “You have seen me myself, and you have seen where I am and I have not come from myself but the one who sent me is true, and that one you yourselves have not seen. I myself see him because I am from him, and he himself sent me out.” 

The crowd had seen him. They also had seen exactly where he was - in the temple, but unidentified. What had they not seen? “I have not come from myself but the one who sent me is true.”

“That one you yourselves have not seen. I myself see him because I am from him, and he himself sent me out.” 

What do you think? How can I discipline myself to start to think “with right judgment”?

Therefore, they were seeking to arrest him and no one laid a hand upon him, because his hour had not yet come. 

This is only the seventh out of twenty-two short chapters in John’s biography of Jesus. The clouds are gathering. But they are not indicators of utter disaster. “His hour” would be the hour when “the man whom they are seeking to kill” would indeed be killed. By them. That was why he came and why he was sent: to bear our sins and carry our iniquities.
 
In fact, many from the crowd believed in him and they were stating, “Whenever the Christ may come, he will not do greater signs than this one himself does.” 
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Jesus had said to both groups (see above), … “Do not judge by sight, but judge with right judgment.” Some reached one conclusion; others reached the opposite conclusion. Both groups were eye and ear witnesses at the time.

However, there were to be “greater signs” for both groups to see. He would be put to death as the worst of criminals. He would rise again after three days.
 
Sinner Syvret
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