John 7:6-8

“ Jesus therefore says to them: My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. 7. The world cannot hate you; but it hates me, because I bear testimony concerning it that its works are evil. 8. Go ye up to the feast, I go not up to this feast, because my time is not yet fulfilled. ”

The meaning of the demand of the brethren of Jesus was that He should present Himself at last at Jerusalem as the Messiah, and obtain there the recognition of that dignity, which could not be refused Him, if He was really what He claimed to be. Jesus could not explain to His brethren the reasons which prevented Him from deferring to their wish. If He had wished to answer altogether openly, He would have said to them: “What you ask of me would be the signal of my death; but it is not yet time for me to leave the earth.” Of this explanation, into which Jesus does not wish to enter, He gives a hint. The words: The world hates me, sufficiently express the prudence which is required of Him. The term καιρός, favorable moment, must be understood in a manner sufficiently broad to make it possible to apply it both to Jesus (John 7:6 a) and to His brethren (John 7:6 b). It denotes therefore the moment of showing oneself publicly as one is: for the brethren, as faithful Jews, by going up to this feast; for Jesus, as Messiah, by manifesting Himself as such at one of the great feasts of His people, at Jerusalem.

The seventh verse explains this contrast between His position and theirs. There is a certain irony in the reason alleged by Jesus: “Your works and your words are not sufficiently out of harmony with those of the world to make it possible for you to provoke its hatred.” It is otherwise in His case, who by His words and His life does not cease to unveil its deep depravity concealed under the outward show of Pharisaic right-eousness (John 7:42; John 7:44; John 7:47).