Jesus keeps doing his thing all around Galilee. He's a bit leery about going down to Judea because he's worried that the religious authorities there will want to kill him. That's probably because they do want to kill him. It's fall now, around the time when the Jewish people will celebrate the festival of Sukkot. Sukkot is a weeklong Jewish holiday that is around the end of September. Sukkot celebrates the gathering of the harvest and commemorates the miraculous protection God provided, for the children of Israel when they left Egypt. Jesus's brothers tell him that he should take a trip back to Judea so that everyone can see all the things he can do. After all, if he wants to be known, he can't go around doing miracles and healing people in secret. If Jesus can do everything he claims, they tell him, he should go out and show the people. Jesus knows that his brothers don't really believe in him. So Jesus tells them it's not the right time for him to go to Judea. Then he suggests that maybe his brothers should try going down there. Jesus stays in Galilee until his brothers leave for the festival. Then he secretly follows after them. At the festival, the religious authorities keep an eye out for Jesus. The people in Judea keep talking about him, too. Some of them think he's all right; others think he's a liar who's just conning people. But no one wants to speak openly about him because they're afraid of what the religious authorities might do.
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