When his brothers encourage him to go up to Jerusalem, Jesus initially refuses their request because “his time has not yet come.” However, he does eventually go to Jerusalem in secret. His apparent refusal leads to some textual variation, since it is clear that Jesus says one thing and does another. One way to explain this is that Jesus said that he would not go now, but he would go later, separate from the family.
D. A. Carson, for example, tries to explain that when Jesus says “my time has not yet come,” he means that his time for leaving for the Feast has not yet come. Carson thinks that the next line (you can go anytime but I cannot) means that Jesus is simply thinking about when he was leaving for the Feast. This is possible, since the point of the rest of the chapter is to argue that Jesus does not act unless the Father directs him. Perhaps this simply means that the Father directed Jesus to leave a few days later than his brothers.
It is also likely this is another example of Jesus initially refusing a request but eventually granting the request. In John 2, Jesus appears to refuse Mary’s request to “do something” about the wine. Just as Mary’s request was on an earthly level and Jesus’ answer was on the higher, messianic level, so too here with his brothers. They are thinking solely of Jesus’ status as a religious leader (“Go to Jerusalem where those sorts of people hang out”), Jesus is thinking about his real mission to die on the cross at the next Passover. (Nicodemus and the woman at the well also mix up the earthly and the spiritual, except in those cases Jesus says something spiritual and they take it as earthly.)
The timing of Jesus’ death is to be at the Passover, not the Feast of Tabernacles. If he appears there at the beginning of the Feast, there may be a unintentional “triumphal entry.” His actions would therefore be seen as messianic and probably develop into a riot!
Jesus “time” is therefore the time of the crucifixion, resurrection, and glorification.
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