John 7: 2-5
” But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, Jesus’ brothers said to him, ‘Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.’ For even his own brothers did not believe in him.”
Being the oldest sibling in the family carries with it certain burdens that are unique. I know. I am one. For one thing, the oldest is the child that parents make most of their mistakes on. The oldest also seems to be the recipient of a lot of expectations. Then there is the role of helping to raise the younger siblings. Sometimes that means lots of responsibility without any authority to go with it.
Younger siblings seem to sense this and for whatever reason like to pick on the oldest. (Yes, I know. This goes both ways. Sometimes the older sibling is the one picking on the younger.) Here, in this passage, we see a brief glimpse of what life was like inside the human family that Jesus was raised in: “For even his own brothers did not believe in him.” Later, of course, they would believe and probably would have kicked themselves for not believing. But for now, we see them treating Jesus with a little bit of brotherly snark.
Q: Occasionally I hear people speculate about what Jesus was like as a child. What can you discern from this passage about Jesus as he was growing up with siblings?
Mom always did like you best…but seriously it had to be difficult for his brothers to develop in their sin nature while Jesus did not.
I agree with Robster. Clearly there was some animosity with His brothers. Matthew 13: 55 lets us know there were four brothers and there were also “sisters.” The passage for today in John shows the hostility. But there was also significant change after experiencing the resurrected Jesus – Acts 1: 14. They all would have grown up without Joseph present who appears to have died between the time Jesus was 12 and when He was about 30. I can only imagine the dynamics in the family – but that they came to faith tells us a lot. They knew Jesus like few did. They would know if He were sinless and if His claims had any validity from a moral perspective. The resurrection clinched the deal.