Where I Go You Cannot Come

Last week we discussed the Confusion people had over Christ.   Today our focus will be in John 7:32-36.

³² The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. ³³ Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. ³⁴ You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.” ³⁵ The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? ³⁶ What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”

So there was all this confusion, people muttering so the Pharisees and chief priests decided it was time to have Jesus arrested. Made sense right? You need to keep the people calm, you need to settle nerves, you need to resolve the mutterings you hear all around you, therefore an arrest seemed in order. Jesus’ reaction wasn’t one of fear. Do you note that?

All he did was say ““I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. 34 You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.”

I read that and thought “their confusion won’t be any lessened by that statement!” 🙂 And I was right. The people SO did not know what Jesus was talking about. They thought maybe Jesus was going to pack up and live among the Greeks.

I finished reading these few verses and wondered… what would I have done with that confusion?   I wonder if I would have been among the mutterers?  Or if I had been among the leadership would arresting Jesus be a priority?   I just wonder sometimes what I would have done in that same situation.

Would I have tried to understand what Jesus meant when he said that soon he’ll be going to the one who sent him?   Would I have gotten confusion with the dispersion among Greeks?  

There were people in the crowds who believed him, so I’ve got to think that some of them knew to look deeper. That just one or two thought oh….Jesus is going to leave us, he won’t be with us much longer, Jesus will let the Jews take him sometime. We won’t be able to go with him.  Or thoughts to that effect.  Of course we don’t know for sure as scriptures don’t tell us.   But we do it now don’t we?

Jesus came to do the will of God and he’ll return to him.   This has happened already eh?   Jesus died, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven.  We know this today.   So we can understand what he meant, and wonder that more people didn’t understand it at the time.  Jesus knew his time would short doing his earthly ministry, he made sure people knew it, though they never really understood it, not until after, when he showed all these truths to them.  

I don’t know where I am going with this, these are just the thoughts I have on this muggy Monday afternoon.  Time tells us much. It’s part of what bible study an interesting thing eh?   To read in the now, and trying to understand the “then” as well.  Both can tell us much eh?