Jesus was back in Jerusalem for another Passover. According to John’s gospel, this was the third time Jesus and the disciples attended the Passover festival and each time they were there they got in trouble. The first two times they somehow got out of town and made it back up north to Galilee to continue their ministry. It would be much more difficult to accomplish that this time. Everywhere Jesus went he drew a big crowd. People had heard about this teacher from Galilee, and the things he was saying. More importantly, they had heard about some of the miracles Jesus had performed, and people have always been more impressed with miracles and magic than with teaching, so anytime he was around they wanted to be there to see what he might do next.

For this visit, Jesus was staying with his fr…