Why did Jesus withhold the truth here?

[MH84]

I noticed in the AAA forum that someone asked a question that Ive wondered about previously. It was a good question. Its in relation to John 7.

I’ll post the question, and I’ll add the link if you want to see the apologist’s answer:

I was reading in John 7:8 today where Jesus’ brothers tell him to go to the festival in Jerusalem and he tells them he is not going. Two verses later (John 7:10) it says Jesus went to the festival secretly.

How do we deal with this from the perspective of lying? I suppose you could say Jesus changed his mind, but that seems odd, especially when it says he went up secretly, as if he’d been planning that all along.

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=220549

I don’t really agree with the response from the apologist, because Jesus wasnt talking about promoting Himself, He said that He wasnt going to the festival full stop.

What are your thoughts on it?

 

[kell0618]

I noticed in the AAA forum that someone asked a question that Ive wondered about previously. It was a good question. Its in relation to John 7.

I’ll post the question, and I’ll add the link if you want to see the apologist’s answer:

I don’t really agree with the response from the apologist, because Jesus wasnt talking about promoting Himself, He said that He wasnt going to the festival full stop.

What are your thoughts on it?

Jesus did not lie. He felt that His time had not yet come.

From my Navarre Bible:

When the Jews who lived far away went up to Jerusalem to celebrate the main religious festivals, they usually went in caravans. Jesus had joined such caravans on other occasions (Lk 2:41); but this time he does not want to go up to the Holy City with the crowd. He knows that the time is not ripe for him to show himself publicly in Jerusalem, for the teachers of the Law, whom he had severely taken to task (John 5:42) wanted to discredit him before the people and get rid of him (7:1).

Our Lord does not want to advance the time fixed by his Father, whose will he has come to do (4:34; 12:33; 13:1). However, his adherents could go up to Jerusalem because they had nothing to fear.

Because he had not arrived in advance of the feast, the first caravans would have reported that Jesus was not coming up, and therefore the members of the Sanhedrin would have stopped planning anything against him. By going up later, the religious authorities would not dare make any move against him for fear of hostile public reaction (Matt 26:5).

Jesus could very well have been in the company of his disciples on the trip.

 

[COPLAND_3]

As St. Thomas Aquinas points out, these “brethren” were not the ones who loved him, Thomas explains,

Although some of the relatives of the Blessed Virgin were apostles, such as the sons of Zebedee, and James of Alpheus, and some others, we should not think that these were among those who were urging Christ; this was done by other relatives who did not love him.

This is important in order to understand what is meant by “in secret.”

St. Thomas Aquinas says,

The way he went was not publicly, but as it were in secret. There are three reasons for this. The first, given by Chrys ostom, is so that he would not call more attention to his divinity, and so perhaps make his incarnation less certain, as was said above; and so that those who are virtuous would not be ashamed to hid from those who are persecuting them when they cannot openly restrain them. Thus he says, in secret, to show that this was done according to plan: “Truly, you are a hidden God” (Is 45:15). Augustine gives us another reason: to teach us that Christ was hidden in the figures of the Old Testament: “I will wait for the Lord, who has hidden his fact (i.e., clear knowledge) from the house of Jacob” (Is 8:17); so, “Even to this day … a veil is over their hearts” (2 Cor 3:15). Thus everything that was said to this ancient people was a shadow of the good things to come, as we see from Hebrews (10:1). So our Lord went up in secret to show that even this feast was a figure. Scenopegia, as we saw, was the feast of Tabernacles; and the one who celebrates this feast is the one who understands that he is a pilgrim in this world. Another reason why our Lord went up in secret was to teach us that we should conceal the good things we do, not looking for human approval or desiring the applause of the crowd: “Take care not to perform your good actions in the sight of men, in order to be seen by them” (Mt 6:1).

 

[porthos11]

I noticed in the AAA forum that someone asked a question that Ive wondered about previously. It was a good question. Its in relation to John 7.

I’ll post the question, and I’ll add the link if you want to see the apologist’s answer:

I don’t really agree with the response from the apologist, because Jesus wasnt talking about promoting Himself, He said that He wasnt going to the festival full stop.

What are your thoughts on it?

Well, I’d put it simply. Jesus was fully man.

He merely changed his mind.

 

[jcrichton]

I noticed in the AAA forum that someone asked a question that Ive wondered about previously. It was a good question. Its in relation to John 7.

I’ll post the question, and I’ll add the link if you want to see the apologist’s answer:

I don’t really agree with the response from the apologist, because Jesus wasnt talking about promoting Himself, He said that He wasnt going to the festival full stop.

What are your thoughts on it?

Hi, MH!

…there are several passages which seem to point to an error in Jesus… but we must understand what truly is transpiring:

• It is near the time of His arrest and Crucifixion.
• The people encouraging Him to go to the feast are not true disciples.
• Jesus, in the eyes of the religious elite, is “dead man walking,” so He must be careful that things take place according to His own Will not man’s.
• Jesus may be thwarting Satan’s plan (compare with the temptation in the desert).

Jesus did not change His mind–He simply did not want the wrong attention before the Hour would come upon Him. He uses misdirection in order to maintain the course (remember that several times various crowds intimated an attack on Him–Jesus simply walked away from the incidents). Compare this passage to the one about His arrest; when they asked for Jesus He boldly directed the attention to Himself; He even spoke for His disciples so that they not be harmed or arrested: the Hour had come!

Maran atha!

Angel

 

[LilyM]

For Jesus to say he isn’t going could simply mean that he isn’t going with those particular people or not going on that day.

Such is similar to a concept known to moral theologians as ‘mental reservation’. If my understanding is correct ‘mental reservation’ refers to cases in which, whilst not lying (as He assuredly wasn’t), we’re not obliged to spill every last detail about everything we’re thinking, if to do so would, for example, endanger life.

One commonly trotted out example is one where you’re hiding some Jews in your house, Nazis knock on the door and say ‘are you hiding any Jews?’. While to say ‘no’ outright would be a lie, there’s nothing preventing you, for example, from saying something slightly tricksier, like ‘well, you won’t find any Jews here’. Which is true, since they’re hidden

 

[ziapueblo]

“Go up,” in a play on words, refers not only to going up to Jerusalem but also to exaltation at the cross, resurrection, and ascension.

John 3:14
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

John 6:62
What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?

John 20:17
Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”