Jesus’ brothers started a consulting firm. Their first client was their big brother.

“You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles 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.”

They focused on promotion, on helping clients get noticed. Their advice was impeccable. They clearly identified what Jesus was doing (miracles). They identified where his potential followers were (the greater Jerusalem area). They gave a strong research basis for their recommendation (public people have to be public).

But, John says, “even his own brothers did not believe in him.”

It’s hard to sort out exactly how John reaches this conclusion from their recommendation. It could be, for example, that they are being sarcastic. John, hearing their tone of voice, would be able to tell this. But I don’t think that’s it.

Jesus had no trouble attracting attention. But at this point in his plans, attention wasn’t helpful. In fact, the reason that he was in Galilee was because people wanted to kill him. It wasn’t that he was afraid as much as it was too early. He knew exactly what he was doing. But for promoters, for people wanting to help someone else build a following, for people who didn’t understand the capacity of Jesus to plan, his behavior looked like a missed opportunity.

I think the reason for John’s assessment of their disbelief is that they were telling Jesus what to do rather than asking him what he was doing.

I think that Jesus still has lots of clueless brothers.

We tell him what to do, how to handle situations, how he should behave if he is to be believed.

It still doesn’t work.