The Feast of Tabernacles, also called the Festival of Booths or Sukkot, is a major festival commemorating how the Israelites lived in booths in the wilderness for forty years after God brought them out of Egypt. On the first and eighth days of the Feast, a holy assembly was held, during which no work for livelihood was permitted. Throughout the festival, the temple offered daily designated burnt offerings and grain offerings to God. Since this festival came at the end of the harvest season, it was also a time to express gratitude for the bounty God had provided throughout the year. On the first day, people would bring fruit from good trees and carry palm branches, leafy branches, and willows of the brook, rejoicing before God. Such was the nature of the Feast of Tabernacles.
Along with Passover and the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Tabernacles was one of Israel’s three major festivals. During this week, many Jews made pilgrimages to Jerusalem. I myself came up to Jerusalem with my younger brothers. Originally, I had invited my older brother to come with us, but he declined, so I became the eldest among the family members who came here. Since my older brother left home, I have effectively been the head of the family, so this situation was nothing new.
I have much to say about my older brother. When I was young, he was a model in every respect. He never hesitated to do hard work with our father and never once showed signs of hardship. He was always kind and took good care of the family. He was so intelligent that it seemed there was nothing he didn’t know. As a child, I often wished to be like him. But everything changed after our father passed away. Father had relied heavily on my older brother and treated him not as a mere child, but as an equal, with great respect. Especially concerning religious matters, Father always followed my brother’s guidance without question. When Father died, my brother said rather easily that he would meet Father again in heaven. Looking back, I realize he was right, but at the time, his words made me very angry.
After that, my older brother began to travel to work and support the family, and since I also had to learn to work, we spent less time together, and our relationship gradually grew distant. To be precise, my brother continued to treat me well as always, but the bitterness in my heart never went away. In any case, our former relationship was never restored. Many years passed, and when even the younger brothers grew up and could work, my brother suddenly went to John the Baptist to be baptized. He said he would begin his mission, quit all his work, and leave home. I understood that he had worked hard for the family, but suddenly all the burdens fell on me, and it was very difficult at that time. Of course, we had no trouble making a living as before, so compared to the burden my brother must have felt in the past, it was nothing.
After that, my brother gathered disciples and began teaching in synagogues in various villages. News even spread throughout Galilee that he healed the sick. But in our hometown of Nazareth, he rebuked the people, and relations became extremely bad. On the Sabbath, when the synagogue leader and others conspired to throw him off a cliff to kill him, the situation was so serious that even my brothers and I could not stop them. After that incident, the synagogue leader resigned, and another took his place. Later, my brother came again with his disciples, but the hearts of the people, which had already grown cold, never returned. Because of this, my brothers and I suffered many subtle discriminations that my brother would never know about.
Although we suffered because of my brother, we tried not to hate him, since he was family. But when rumors spread that he was insane and possessed by demons, we felt we couldn’t just leave things as they were, so we had no choice but to go as a family to bring him back. Our mother came with us, but rather than trying to seize him, she seemed more intent on stopping us. Mother had always trusted my brother, just as Father had, and no matter what he said or what bad rumors circulated about him, she was never shaken. What worried her more than my brother was us—she was always anxious that we might hate him.
Anyway, we went to find him with great difficulty, but he would not meet us. What did he say then? I was so angry that I tried to forget, but as far as I recall, he asked, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.” It was an utterly outrageous statement. We wanted to confront him, but there were too many people, and we could not approach him. Since Mother strongly urged us to stop, I took the family and returned home together. After that, we just forgot about it, and strangely enough, our relationship improved a little. When we met occasionally, we would talk about various things.
Recently, I told my brother to make himself known. He seemed to want to be known, but at the same time, he wanted to hide. If he had done something great, it would have been good for him to stay there and receive some honor, but he didn’t do that and kept avoiding it. That is why people who followed him grew tired. Before we came up this time, we said to him:
“Depart from here and go into Judea, that your disciples also may see your works which you do. For no one does anything in secret while he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, reveal yourself to the world.”
He replied:
“My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. The world can’t hate you, but it hates me, because I testify about it, that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, because my time is not yet fulfilled.”
So he refused my suggestion and did not come up to the festival. But looking back now, I think it was fortunate that he didn’t come. Although no one openly sought him, I witnessed many people in the lodging asking, “Where is that man?” Some spoke well of him, but others said he was a deceiver of the people. Although my brother caused some problems, he was not a deceiver of the people. It is much better for him not to come than to be misunderstood like that.
* * *
“Shall I tell you an amazing story?”
“An amazing story?”
During the festival, after staying in the same lodging for more than half the time, someone I had grown close to suddenly brought up a story in the middle of a meal. He was a Diaspora Jew born far away in Greece, and this was his first time coming to Jerusalem as a pilgrim.
“I went to the temple yesterday. I was amazed by the beauty and splendor of the temple, which I had never seen before in my life, and I was wandering around looking here and there. Suddenly, a man appeared and began teaching people.”
“What kind of man?”
“Well, I don’t really know who he was. This is my first time in Jerusalem, so how would I know him? Anyway, he was giving teachings, and they were so astonishing. I thought I knew the Scriptures fairly well, but his words made me realize how little I actually knew.”
I wondered just how great his teaching must have been for this man to be so amazed. If my older brother had come, he could have taught far more profoundly than that man.
“But then, you know what happened? The people listening suddenly said, ‘How does this man know letters, having never been educated?’ It seemed everyone around knew him.”
Not formally educated?
“Then he replied, ‘My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone desires to do his will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is from God, or if I am speaking from myself. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. Didn’t Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill me?’ I don’t know what happened, but it seemed that he was under threat of death. I was very disappointed, because I had thought all who truly believed in God were good and holy. But if people want to kill someone in the temple, doesn’t that mean that goodness and holiness are just lies?”
Surely… that can’t be. My brother said he wouldn’t come this time, didn’t he?
“Anyway, when people reacted to his words and asked who would want to kill him, he said again, ‘I did one work, and you all marvel because of it. Moses has given you circumcision, and on the Sabbath you circumcise a boy. If a boy receives circumcision on the Sabbath, that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because I made a man completely healthy on the Sabbath? Don’t judge according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment.’ It was clear he did something on the Sabbath, and because of that, people hated him.”
“What did the people say after hearing that?”
“They said, ‘Isn’t this he whom they seek to kill? Behold, he speaks openly, and they say nothing to him. Can it be that the rulers indeed know that this is truly the Christ? However, we know where this man comes from, but when the Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from.’ Then he said again, ‘You both know me, and know where I am from. I have not come of myself, but he who sent me is true, whom you don’t know. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.’”
My brother has come.
“As I listened to the people and what he said, I suddenly wanted to be on his side. To me, he seemed like a truly good man, and I didn’t understand why they were so desperate to catch him. Anyway, there were quite a few who thought like me and defended him, saying, ‘When the Christ comes, he won’t do more signs than those which this man has done, will he?’ But then, around that time, temple guards suddenly appeared.”
“Temple guards?”
“Yes, they came with stern faces, as if they were up to something.”
“And then?”
“He said, ‘I will be with you a little while longer, then I go to him who sent me. You will seek me and won’t find me. You can’t come where I am.’ Someone heard that and said, ‘Where will this man go that we won’t find him? Will he go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What is this word that he said, You will seek me, and won’t find me; and Where I am, you can’t come?’”
So this was exactly the situation my brother feared. But why did he come up here anyway?
“Hearing people talk like that, I even wished he had come to Greece where I live. If such a great man taught there, many would be grateful and listen. There, at least, he wouldn’t have to hear such things. Anyway, he left the temple like that. When I return to Greece, I will definitely tell my close friends about him. Whether Jew or not, I will tell everyone. Then, some of them will come to Judea to meet him, and his teaching will spread even further.”
* * *
After hearing what that man said, I immediately tried to find my older brother, but I had no idea where he had disappeared to. I even wondered if he had been taken by the temple guards, but that didn’t seem to be the case either. I was told the guards had not laid a hand on him. So where on earth was my brother?
Several more days passed, and it became the most important last day of the Feast of Tabernacles. To attend the holy assembly, I took my family to the temple. The temple was packed tightly with crowds from all over, and we barely managed to find a spot to sit. Then, from afar, I saw someone suddenly stand up.
“Look, isn’t that Jesus over there?”
James was startled by his younger brother Jude’s words and looked in the direction Jude was pointing. Standing tall there was none other than his own brother, Jesus. As all eyes turned to him, Jesus shouted loudly:
“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink! He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, from within him will flow rivers of living water.”
Upon hearing this, people began to speak among themselves here and there:
“This is truly the prophet.”
“This is the Christ.”
“What, does the Christ come out of Galilee? Hasn’t the Scripture said that the Christ comes of the offspring of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?”
At first, everyone voiced their own thoughts, but soon they began loudly arguing with those who disagreed. In an instant, the entire temple became noisy. The holy assembly, which was supposed to be sacred, had turned into a marketplace.
James thought to himself that his brother claimed to work for the people, but if the result of his actions was only division and fighting among them, how could it truly be for their good? Now was a time when unity was needed, not conflict. What on earth was going on? The troublemaker from Nazareth was causing the same problems here. This was not right. Absolutely not.
Disappointment and anger toward his brother welled up once again in James’s heart. Witnessing such a situation unfold once more was unbearably painful for him. Determined never to seek out his brother again, James led his younger brothers away from the temple.
Jesus watched silently as his flesh-and-blood brothers departed. They did not yet understand his actions. But one day, they would come to comprehend why he had to do what he did. And when that day came, even James and Judas—who now did not believe in him—would become great workers for the kingdom of God. That was the plan of the Father in heaven, and it would surely be fulfilled in due time.
Among the crowd, there were some who sought to seize Jesus, but no one dared lay a hand on him. The temple guards sent again by the Sadducee high priests and Pharisees, members of the Sanhedrin council, also returned empty-handed.
* The Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) is the festival that later became known as Pentecost in the Christian tradition.
The passages from Matthew 12:48-50, John 7:3-8, 15-42 quoted in this narrative are taken directly from the World English Bible (WEB) translation.
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