When the Feast of Tabernacles, 29 AD, was approaching, the Jewish authorities were keen on the idea of seeking Jesus and arresting him while he traveled with the other pilgrims from Galilee. However, when the time came that Jesus was seen in the Temple, the multitude who listened to him didn’t believe his claims. Instead, they sided with and even showed moral support for the leaders of the nation. Apparently, the chief priests and Pharisees thought the tide had turned in their favor. Perhaps, Jesus’ fame was ready to fade away, but, if not, the Romans would hear of him and do to him what they always had done to the enemies of Rome. If this occurred, the Jewish authorities wouldn’t have to arrest Jesus. What harm could anyone do, if he had no real support for his claims and was ignored by those to whom he looked for support?
Well, if this was the logic of their then current strategy, it failed, because, eventually, Jesus was able to turn even a hostile crowd to his favor (John 7:31). Therefore, when the Pharisees understood that the people had changed their position and began believing Jesus, they sent out the Temple police to arrest him (John 7:32).[1]
After the people began listening more closely to what Jesus told them and began to believe him (John 7:31), he said:
“I am with you yet a little while, and then I go to Him Who sent Me. You shall seek Me, but shall not find Me; and where I am going, you are not able to come” (John 7:33-34).
But, to whom did Jesus direct his words… to those who began to believe (verse-31), or to those who still doubted (John 7:27) and stood with the ones who steadfastly rejected him (John 7:32)?
Obviously, Jesus had been speaking of his coming death by crucifixion (John 17:11, 13). When he spoke to his disciples saying he was going away, and they would be sad, but their tears would turn to joy (John 16:16-20). However, there doesn’t seem to be a happy outcome from Jesus’ words in John 7:33-34. Therefore, these words must have a different context than those spoken to his disciples the night before he was crucified. Moreover, even after he was crucified, those who rejected him were granted repentance, if they sought him through the Gospel preached unto them. Therefore, Jesus couldn’t have had this in mind either.
What Jesus seems to be saying is that he is with the doubters and Christ-rejecters only for a little while longer, and their repentance, while he is with them, is imperative, if they should escape judgment. This refers to national judgment, not personal judgment. The individuals who sinned could repent and be saved later, after Jesus’ crucifixion. However, once the nation rejected Christ and crucified him, the nation would be destined to be destroyed. There would be no repentance for it, and no prayer could be uttered that would save it (cp. Proverbs 1:24-31).
The blindness of the Jewish authorities continued. How could it not, since they believed they, by themselves, could determine who Christ was, using their own ability to acquire knowledge of him in the scriptures (cp. John 9:40-41)? Time after time Jesus told them no one could come to him, vis-à-vis no one could come to the Messiah, unless the Father drew that one to Jesus (John 6:44-45, 65; cp. Matthew 11:25-27). The Kingdom of God isn’t a physical kingdom (John 3:3; Romans 14:17). Rather, it is a spiritual state that arises out of one’s heart. So, when the spiritually blind chief priests and Pharisees heard Jesus say he was going away, and they wouldn’t be able to find him, they naturally looked to a physical place to find a context for his words, thinking he meant he would teach the Diaspora, called the Greeks (G1672; hellen) or the Hellenes (John 7:35-36).
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[1] It seems to me that Jesus was teaching in the Temple at Jerusalem for at least three or four days before he cried out on the Last Great Day, or the eighth day of the feast (John 7:14; cp. 7:37). Therefore, the officers must also have been sent out on the last day of the feast, otherwise their return on the eighth day makes no sense (John 7:37, 45). If this is logical and true, then everything from John 7:32 to 7:52 occurred on the last day of the feast.
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4 responses to “I Go to Him Who Sent Me!”
What an interesting take on this scripture. …and it makes total sense given the old covenant focused on a nation or people rather than the individual. Best Regards
Thanks, Dave. It’s good to hear from you again. Lord bless!
Nicodemus is one of the members of the Assembly and it is interesting to note that Jesus describes him as being a teacher of Israel, if not the teacher of Israel back in John 3:1-21 when they met under the cover of darkness. Here in chapter 7: 51, it is Nicodemus who says “Does a law convict a man without hearing from him to determine what he has done? Then those who have scoffed at the rabble saying they do not even know the law…insinuating that they are cursed and couldn’t possibly correctly identify and believe in the messiah (John 7:49)–agree to give Jesus a hearing. But not before implying that Nicodemus was from Galilee and emphasizing that no prophet comes out of Galilee and then they all go to their homes and Jesus goes to the Mount of Olives. It is the next day that the Woman caught in the act of adultery is brought in. As the scene unfolds, Jesus is teaching in the outer court called the Court of the Gentiles and may have been what the temple guards meant by their statement no prophet comes out of Galilee. Here Jesus bends down and writes on the ground. What Jesus wrote puts the affair with the Woman into perspective. The witnesses having caught and trapped the Woman in adultery are not without sin and cannot condemn the Woman and so Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?”“No one, Lord,” she answered. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Now go and sin no more.” (John 8:11) Once again, Jesus spoke to the people and said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12) What I find interesting here immediately following the “Now go and sin no more” verse are the words “once again” as if Jesus is reminding the disciples just how the light came into the world…on the first day resting on a conceptual framework of 7 days and nights. On this first day it was the Spirit who hovered over the dark watery abyss and refused to let the dark swallow and condemn her to the dark abyss. She stood steadfast and sure and then out of the darkness came the light and a voice thundered forth saying let there be light and there was. So perhaps Jesus is preparing the disciples for the ascension 40 days and nights following Easter when Jesus disappears into the cloud and 10 days later at Pentecost the Holy Spirit gives birth to the church.
Greetings Linda, and thank you for your comment.