The Divine Secret and the Public Squabble Text: John 7:10-13
Introduction: The Politics of a Pilgrimage
We are in the middle of a high-stakes drama. The setting is the Feast of Booths, one of the great pilgrimage festivals of Israel, and the central character, Jesus, appears to be absent. His own brothers, still wallowing in unbelief, have already taunted Him, telling Him to go make a big splash in Jerusalem if He is really who He says He is. "No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret," they said. They were thinking in terms of worldly power, of political maneuvering, of building a movement. They wanted Him to play the game. But Jesus does not operate on their timetable or according to their playbook. His time, He said, had not yet come.
So the stage is set in Jerusalem. The city is buzzing. The festival is underway, and the main attraction is missing. This creates a vacuum, and as we see in our text, that vacuum is filled with whispers, rumors, debates, and fear. The air is thick with expectation and controversy. This is not a placid religious gathering. It is a tinderbox. The religious authorities are hunting for Jesus, the crowds are divided over Him, and no one feels safe enough to say what they really think out loud. This is what happens when the Word becomes flesh and dwells among us. He forces a crisis. He demands a verdict. Neutrality is not an option, and the pressure is building.
In these few verses, John gives us a masterful snapshot of the human condition in the face of divine revelation. We see the Lord's sovereign timing, the fickle nature of public opinion, and the chilling effect of tyrannical leadership. It is a lesson in how the world reacts to the truth, and it is a lesson that is as relevant in our day as it was in His.
The Text
But when His brothers had gone up to the feast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as in secret. So the Jews were seeking Him at the feast and saying, "Where is He?" And there was much grumbling among the crowds concerning Him; some were saying, "He is a good man"; others were saying, "No, on the contrary, He leads the crowd astray." Yet no one was speaking openly about Him for fear of the Jews.
(John 7:10-13 LSB)
Sovereign Secrecy (v. 10)
We begin with the Lord's own action, which seems, on the surface, to be a contradiction.
"But when His brothers had gone up to the feast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as in secret." (John 7:10)
Just a few verses earlier, Jesus told His brothers, "I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come." And yet, here He goes. Is this a deception? Not at all. We must learn to read with precision. He did not say He would not go at all; He said He was not going up yet, and He was not going up with them in their grandstanding, showboating way. He refused to go on their terms, according to their worldly wisdom. He goes, but He goes on His Father's timetable, and according to His Father's strategy.
He went up, "not publicly, but as in secret." This was not an act of cowardice. The one who set His face like flint toward Jerusalem and the cross was afraid of no man. Rather, this was an act of profound wisdom and sovereign control. The authorities in Jerusalem wanted to kill Him, but they could not touch Him until His "hour" had come. Jesus is not sneaking around to save His skin; He is managing the entire situation to ensure that everything unfolds according to the divine script. He is the author and the main character, and He will not allow the bit-players to rush the final act.
His brothers wanted Him to force the issue, to ride the wave of popular opinion and stage a political coup. Jesus rejects this entirely. He is not a politician seeking a platform; He is a King establishing a kingdom, and He will do it through His death and resurrection, not through a parade. By going "in secret," He sidesteps the worldly expectations of both His family and His followers, and He walks right into the hornet's nest on His own terms. He is in complete command.
The Anxious Authorities and the Grumbling Crowds (v. 11-12)
While Jesus moves with divine purpose, the world He enters is a mess of confusion and conflict.
"So the Jews were seeking Him at the feast and saying, 'Where is He?' And there was much grumbling among the crowds concerning Him; some were saying, 'He is a good man'; others were saying, 'No, on the contrary, He leads the crowd astray.'" (John 7:11-12 LSB)
First, notice who is seeking Him. "The Jews." Now, in John's gospel, this phrase is often used as a kind of shorthand, not for the entire Jewish population, but for the hostile religious establishment in Judea, the ruling council. These are the men who have already decided He must be stopped. Their question, "Where is He?" is not the question of eager disciples. It is the question of the secret police. They are hunting Him.
Meanwhile, among the ordinary people, "there was much grumbling." The word here suggests a low, buzzing murmur, a widespread muttering and debating. The people are agitated. Jesus has become the sole topic of conversation, and public opinion is sharply divided. This is what Christ always does: He divides. He is the great fault line that runs through all of human history and every human heart. You must come down on one side or the other.
The division is stark. Some said, "He is a good man." This is a commendation, but a weak one. It is the kind of thing you might say about a pleasant neighbor. It acknowledges His morality but falls far short of recognizing His identity. It is a step in the right direction, but it is still standing in the middle of the road. Others were far more hostile: "No, on the contrary, He leads the crowd astray." This was the official party line of the Pharisees. They could not deny His power, so they attributed it to a demonic source and accused Him of being a deceiver, a false prophet leading the common people into error. This is not an honest disagreement; it is slander.
The Reign of Fear (v. 13)
John concludes this snapshot with a chilling diagnosis of the spiritual climate.
"Yet no one was speaking openly about Him for fear of the Jews." (John 7:13 LSB)
Here we see the intended effect of the leadership's hostility. They have created a climate of fear. The grumbling was all done in whispers. The debates were held in hushed tones. No one, on either side of the issue, felt free to stand up and state their case publicly. Why? "For fear of the Jews." Again, this means fear of the Sanhedrin, the authorities who had the power to excommunicate, to ruin a man's business, to make his life miserable.
This is the signature of all tyrannical systems, whether they are religious or secular. They cannot win the argument, so they shut the argument down. They rule by intimidation. They make it costly to speak the truth, and even costly to speak your opinion if it deviates from their narrative. The people who thought He was a good man were afraid to say so, lest they be targeted. And even those who sided with the authorities were likely just parroting the official line, afraid to be suspected of dissent.
Fear is the currency of the devil's kingdom. The leadership in Jerusalem was trafficking in it. They had fostered a culture where public discourse was impossible, and private conviction was driven underground. This is a picture of a society under judgment, where the truth is suppressed, and men are enslaved not by foreign armies, but by their fear of one another.
Conclusion: Whose Opinion Matters?
So what do we take from this? We see a world of swirling opinions, all of them wrong or inadequate. His brothers' opinion was wrong, they wanted a political Messiah. The crowd's "good man" opinion was wrong, it was too small. The authorities' "deceiver" opinion was wrong, it was a malicious lie. And all of it was governed by fear.
Into this chaos walks Jesus, acting in secret, but in perfect sovereign control. He is not swayed by the crowd's grumbling. He is not intimidated by the authorities' threats. He is not pressured by His family's ambitions. He is moving according to a timeline that was fixed in eternity, to accomplish a purpose that none of them could even begin to fathom.
The central lesson for us is this: we must be delivered from the fear of man. The fear of the Jews paralyzed an entire city. The fear of what others think, the fear of being on the wrong side of public opinion, the fear of the modern-day Sanhedrin in our media, our universities, and our government, is one of the greatest idols of our age. It causes Christians to whisper when they should be shouting, to compromise when they should be contending, and to grumble in private instead of speaking openly.
Jesus Christ did not commit Himself to the crowds, because He knew what was in man. He did not fear the authorities, because He knew what was in the Father's plan. Our task is to have the mind of Christ. We are not to be driven by polls or public sentiment. We are to be governed by the Word of God. The world will always be divided over Christ. There will always be grumbling. There will always be authorities who want to know "Where is He?" so they can shut Him down. And there will always be the temptation to keep quiet for fear of them.
But we serve a Lord who did not stay in secret for long. In the very next passage, He stands up in the middle of the temple and begins to teach openly. His secrecy was temporary and strategic. Our confession must be public and bold. We must fear God, not men. For if we fear God, we will have nothing else to fear.