The Holy Priest-Martyr Simeon, Relative of the Lord; Our Venerable Father Stephen, Bishop of Volodymyr in Volhynia (1094)
Acts 10:21-33; John 7:1-13
Read John 7:1-13
Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen!
While some were saying, “He is a good man,” others were saying, “No, he is deceiving the crowd.” Yet no one would speak openly about him for fear of the Jews.
There have always been mixed opinions about Jesus. Some people evidently liked Him. We know He had disciples Who followed Him, learned from Him, and witnessed Him perform countless miracles. Today’s reading notes that some in the crowd were saying, “He is a good man.” However, it additionally mentions that some people disagreed saying, “He is deceiving the crowd,” and that Jesus “did not wish to go about in Judea because the Jews were looking for an opportunity to kill Him” (John 7:1).
Jesus understood that the world hates Him because He testifies against it that its works are evil (John 7:7). Unfortunately, the world continues to hate Jesus for this reason today. People do not like to be told that what they are doing or thinking is wrong or evil. Now we live in such a world where we could be accused of being a “hater” if we call evil for what it is.
So many of us fear the social repercussions of getting labeled as a “hater” or speaking out against the evil we see in the world. We would rather allow evil to happen and trust that things will eventually work themselves out than stand up and speak out against it. Christ in His prudence knew that going to Judea and speaking publicly during the Festival of Booths would be a sort of death sentence for Him, and so He chose to go to the festival in secret. We should learn from His example: we need to be prudent as He was, but we also should relentlessly stand up for and speak the truth.