Therefore the officers went back to the Chief Priests and the Pharisees, and they said to them: ‘Why did you not bring him?’ 

The officers replied ‘ No man has ever spoken like him.’ 

So the Pharisees answered ‘You have not been deceived too, have you?’ Has one of the authorities or any of the Pharisees believed in him?  But this crowd, which does not know the Law, is cursed.’

Nicodemus, who came to him before and  who was one of them, said to them, ‘Our Law does not judge a man unless first it has heard from him, and knows what he has been doing, does it?’ 

They responded :’ You are not from Galilee too, are you?  Search and you will see that that (the) prophet does not rise from Galilee.’ 

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, union;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy,
For your mercy and for your truth’s sake. Amen

Some of the crowd, hearing this, began to say ‘This man is really the Prophet.’ Others were saying ‘This man is the Christ.’ but still others said ‘No. The Christ does not come from Galilee, does he? Did not Scripture say that the Christ has David as an ancestor, and comes from the village of Bethlehem, where David was.’ So a split happened in the crowd because of him. 

Some of them wanted  to arrest him, but nobody laid their hands on him.

O Lord Jesus Christ,
stay beside me to defend me,
within me to guide me,
before me to lead me,
and above me to bless me,
that with you and in you,
I may live, and move and have my being,
for ever and ever.
Amen.

On the last day of the feast , the most important,  Jesus was standing and cried out:

 ‘If anyone is thirsty let them come to me
and let whoever believes in me, drink.
As the  Scripture says, rivers of living water will flow from his core. ‘

(He said this about the Spirit, which he was about to give to those who believed in him. For the Spirit was not yet present, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.)

God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

The Pharisees heard of the crowd murmuring these things about him and the Chief Priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. 

Then Jesus said ‘I am with you for only a short time and then I will go to the one who sent me. You will seek me and you will not find me, and where I am you cannot come. ‘

So the Jewish leaders said to one another: ‘Where is this man about to go that we will not find him?  He is not about to go to where our people live among Greeks, and teach the Greeks, is he?’ What is this saying:  “You will seek me and you will not find me, and where I am you cannot come?”’

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that thou art –
Thou my best thought, by day or by night;
Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

Some of the people who lived in Jerusalem were saying ‘Isn’t this the man they are seeking to kill?’ and ‘Look he speaks out publicly and they say nothing to him. Can it possibly be that the authorities have actually realised that this man is the Christ? But we know where this man comes from. But when the Christ comes, no-one will know where he comes from.’

Then Jesus cried out in the temple courts, teaching: ‘You know me, and where I come from. I have not come on my own authority but it is true about the one who sent me, whom you do not know. I know him, because I am from him; that one sent me.

So they sought to arrest him, and yet no-one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. In fact many of the crowd believed in him and they said ‘When the Christ comes, he won’t do more signs than this man has done, will he?’

Lord, you have given me so much,
I ask for one more thing –
a grateful heart.

George Herbert

The crowd replied ‘You have a demon. Who is seeking to kill you?’

Jesus replied : ‘ I did one thing, and you all are amazed because of it.

Moses gave you circumcision – not that it came from Moses, but the Patriarchs
– and you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath.
If a boy receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me because I made a whole man healthy on the Sabbath?

Do not judge by first impressions, but judge with right judgement.’

Be thou a bright flame before me,
Be thou a guiding star above me
Be thou a smooth path below me
Be thou a kindly shepherd behind me
Today – tonight -forever
Amen.

St Columba

For the next six months Jesus was walking about in Galilee. For he chose not to walk about in Judea, because the Jewish leaders were looking for a chance to kill him.

The Jewish Festival of Sukkot was near. So his brothers said to him ‘You should leave here, and go to Judea, so that your disciples will see the works you do. For nobody does anything in secret and yet seeks to be well known. If you do these things, show yourself to the world. (For not even his brothers believed in him.)

Jesus said to them ‘My time has not yet arrived.But your time is always ‘now’. The world cannot hate you, it hates me because I bear witness that its works are evil. You go up to the festival, I am not going up to this Festival because my time has not yet come.

After he said these things he stayed in Galilee.

When however his brothers went up to the festival, then he also went up; not openly but in secret.

So the Jewish leaders sought him in the festival and said ‘Where is that man?’ And there was murmuring about him among the crowds. Some said ‘He is a good man’, but others said ‘No he deceives the crowd.’ However nobody spoke openly about him for fear of the Jewish leaders.

Teach us, good Lord,
to serve thee as thou deservest;
to give and not to count the cost;
to fight and not to heed the wounds;
to toil and not to seek for rest;
to labour and not to ask for any reward,
save that of knowing that we do thy will,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen

St Ignatius