John 7:32-36 - Where's He going?

7:32

These developments were worrying the Pharisees and Chief Priests: Jesus was a threat to the established religious leaders. Human religion puts men in charge, in true religion we all humble ourselves before the Lord. Notice also how the Pharisees and Chief Priests are not in control, but are responding to events. They are acting not because they have planned to do so but because the mutterings in the crowd are forcing them to act. The same is true of all power structures. They can seem for a time to be “in control” to be the dominant force, but in reality they are at the mercy of events. So they sent guards to arrest Jesus.

7:33,34

In these verses Jesus makes an oblique reference to His death. The Greek has “therefore” at the start of this verse, which is omitted by NIV. So He said these words in response to the Jewish leaders’ decision to send the guards. His being with them for only a short time can be taken in two ways. He would only make two other visits to Jerusalem, once at the feast of dedication, and then the final Passover visit. It is also a reference to the fact that He would soon, after His death, return to the Father. The Jewish leaders thought they could control the situation, just as political and cultural leaders today think they can silence the word of God. Men cannot control God! The Jewish leaders certainly could not go chasing after Jesus in heaven!

7:35,36

Not surprisingly the people did not understand these words. We should not be surprised at this, nor should we look down on them. In the same circumstances we would not have understood them either! We know what Jesus meant only because we know and believe about the cross and resurrection. We should also recognise that some of the things that we take for granted will not make sense to people who do not yet know Christ.

So they wondered if Jesus meant He was going to go among the Greeks. Because of the many invasions and exiles that the Jewish people had suffered there were Jews scattered throughout the Greek world, ie the diaspora. These Jews were sometimes referred to as Hellenistic Jews. This is why in Acts, and Paul’s letters we frequently encounter Jews wherever Paul went.

Of course, in a sense Jesus was actually going to go to the Greek Jews for after the resurrection the gospel did spread to these parts of the world.