John 7:35-37 - Where I am you cannot come

7:35,36

As usual the crowds did not understand what Jesus was saying. This is actually quite understandable. The disciples did not understand Jesus a lot of the time. They interpreted His words in purely human terms, thinking He was going to go and preach to the diaspora Jews (those dispersed among the nations). They had no idea what He meant by saying they would seek Him but not be able to find Him.

7:37

Having dealt with arguments about who Jesus is, we now move to a more positive declaration from Jesus. The water metaphor is used in Jesus’ teaching here. The Feast of Tabernacles involved a water pouring rite, so this was a natural metaphor for Jesus to use. The Feast was also associated with looking forward to the pouring out of the Spirit. Jesus is claiming to be the source of living water, and invites us to come to Him and drink. There are echoes here of Isaiah 55:1. So this is another audacious claim from Jesus.