When I add the discourses in John's Gospel to the other words of Jesus in the other three Gospels, Jesus emerges as a very strange person. He says some things that are either very hard to understand or don't make a lot of sense to a modern reader. But a lot of what He says is just hard for me to swallow easily. In John 7, Jesus is at one of the feasts in Jerusalem, and arguing with the people (not the Pharisees or scribes at this point). And He seems upset that they "marvel" at His teaching. I have wished a thousand times to be the "fly on the wall" at Jesus' teaching, because I "marvel" at it from two-thousand years away. What would it be like up close?
So, it is the reason they marvel. These people marvel at him because He is "uneducated", yet teaches. They question His credentials. This is clearly one of those places where John makes great use of irony. I imagine questioning the teaching credentials of the Master of the entire Universe, and it just seems ridiculous. "Um, excuse me, but I know You've made stars and galaxies, all the sub-atomic particles making up matter, and created all human beings including me and my family, but are You really qualified to teach my children since You haven't attended one of our schools?" Yes, ludicrous is demonstrated by such an idea.
I would imagine Jesus has a bit of a smile on His face as He addresses their "marveling". He even asks them, "Why are you trying to kill me?" which really confuses them. But He also makes an interesting statement that tells them how to know whether His teaching is right or not. He says, "If anyone wishes to do His (God's) will, he will understand whether the teaching is from God or if I speak from Myself." Which I interpret as a "reverse litmus test" meaning that if I don't understand that He teaches from God, I do not really want to do the will of God. It's not really, because Jesus leaves two options to know, but I interpret His intent that way.
The test gets at something at my core. I hear teaching all the time. I hear it on Sunday's, throughout the week on the radio, it's in music, commercials, and radio announcers comments between songs. Teaching is all around me, but not all is from my Master. If I really want to do the will of my Master, then I will understand which ones are and which are not from Him. It's not if want to know the will of my Master, but rather if I want to do the will of my Master. That is a vital difference.
If I want to do rather than know, I want to act, I want a job, I want marching orders and tools of the trade. If my desire is to know, I can do that from the easy chair with popcorn and the TV remote. This saying of my Master is clear, when I am at the point of readiness to act (out of the chair, no popcorn or remote, dressed with my shoes/boots on) that I will be able to discern the correct teaching of my Master. The point of application for me is when I sit and wonder at all the "buzzing" options in the noise around me trying to pick out which one is the will of my Master, and I feel overwhelmed by the prospect, just convinced I will get it wrong somehow. How do I know? Well, Jesus says, "get dressed, put your shoes on, get ready to act on the will you discover, and you will understand the will of God."
This takes a lot of trust. I have to trust that my Master will communicate clearly with me. I also have to be willing, once ready to act, to wait. In the army, we called that "hurry up and wait" and it was one of the frustrating elements of barracks life when I was in. It takes trust, and courage. I know that some of what I hear in that buzz really bothers me because it's uncomfortable. And I also know my Master is not that interested in my comfort, at least now here and now. So, to really understand takes courage and trust, not study and education. Dang, I spent all that time on education too; ok, let me grab my boots and work gloves.
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