144. The Lord in the Temple at the Midst of the Feast of Tabernacles. Jn. 7:11–36

The Jews were seeking Him at the feast and said: Where is He? And there was much discussion about Him among the people. Some said: He is good. Others said: No, he leads the people astray. However, no one spoke openly about Him, for fear of the Jews.

But when the feast was now half over, Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach. And the Jews marveled, saying: How does he know the scriptures without having been taught? Jesus answered them and said: My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone is willing to do his will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I speak on my own. The one who speaks from his own behalf seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him, he is true, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

Did not Moses give you the Law? And yet none of you keeps the Law. Why do you seek to kill me?

The crowd answered: You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?

Jesus answered and said to them: I did one work (healed on the Sabbath), and you all marvel. Moses gave you circumcision, though it is not from Moses but from the fathers. And on the Sabbath you circumcise a man. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because I healed a whole man on the Sabbath? Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.

So some of the people of Jerusalem were saying: Is he not the one they seek to kill? And here he is speaking openly, and they say nothing to him. Could it be that the rulers really know that this is the Messiah? But we know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.

Then Jesus cried out in the temple, teaching and saying: You know me and you know where I am from, yet I have not come of myself. But the one who sent me is true, whom you do not know. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.

And they sought to seize him, but no one laid hands on him because his hour had not yet come. Yet many of the people believed in him, saying: When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs than these that this man has done?

The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to seize him.

Then Jesus said to them: I am with you a little longer, and then I go to him who sent me. You will seek me and will not find me, and where I am you cannot come.

The Jews then said to one another: Where does he intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and will not find me, and where I am you cannot come’?