Gospel of John, chapter 7: Jesus is in the middle of the escalation. And it is having its desired effect. The crowd is divided: some on His side, some against Him. He can no longer be ignored. And the Pharisees are alarmed. The status quo is in danger of being shattered.

John 7:32 The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things concerning him, and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers that they might take him.

A chapter that started with Jesus declaring that he lives His life on God’s Kairos time, brings us now to the test of that assertion. Several times some in the crowd have been irked enough to want to seize Him, and silence Him, then and there. But repeatedly we have been told that they could not because it was not His time. Now it is not just some in the crowd and it is not just ordinary people. These are the religious leaders: They have authority and the means to enforce it.

John 7:33-34 Jesus therefore said, Yet a little while I am with you, and I go to him that has sent me. Ye shall seek me and shall not find [me], and where I am ye cannot come.

Jesus knows they are coming. And instead of stopping them, He tells them the consequences of the path they have chosen to take. It is a little bit like what he told His relatives. (Let me expand it, the way I hear it:) “Go ahead and do what you think you need to do with your time. I am going to go on and use my time to live my mission as it was planned by the Father. He is in control of all Time. He owns the Schedule.

“But you need to know something: Right now you have the time, the opportunity, to listen to Me. So, are you going to use it? Because, someday soon, time is going to run out. Someday I won’t be around here anymore… and then it will be too late.”

Ye shall seek me and shall not find [me], and where I am ye cannot come.

That should be a scary thought.

Yes, in the context, in the moment, to those people, Jesus was telling them that He was heading to the cross, to die, rise again, and return to the Father. Objectively it makes sense that after that they would no longer be able to see Him with their eyes or reach out to Him to ask Him any questions. They would still be in this world, and He in His Kingdom.

But there is a deeper meaning to that statement that applies to all of us even today. We do not control Time. And sooner or later we are going to run out of Kairos time, run out of opportunities to stop and really listen to His Voice… and choose to follow Him. If that happens, if we run out of time never having made that choice, on that day it will be terrifyingly true that we will not be able to go where He is.

John 7:35-36 The Jews therefore said to one another, Where is he about to go that we shall not find him? Is he about to go to the dispersion among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? What word is this which he said, Ye shall seek me and shall not find [me]; and where I am ye cannot come?

They are puzzled. But Jesus will not say anything more to them. He has given them fair warning. He has so many others to reach… So, He continues teaching through the feast.

Spirit words: the world may not understand them, but it cannot deny them

John 7:37-39 In the last, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

But this he said concerning the Spirit, which they that believed on him were about to receive; for [the] Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Again, Jesus speaks Spirit words, on purpose, just as He did during the discourse on chapter 6 on the bread of life. The point is, that those who cared, those who wanted to understand every word He said, would simply go up to Him and ask Him to explain. His disciples did that all the time and were commended for it. But we don’t know how many, if any, did in that crowd.

I wish someone had done it in this instance, so we could pinpoint the Scripture He had in mind. I have always thought it was an allusion to Jeremiah, where God reacts with what sounds like astonishment at the faithlessness of His people.

Jeremiah 2:11-13 Hath a nation changed [its] gods? And they are no gods!  But my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. Be astonished, ye heavens, at this, and shudder; be amazed very much, saith Jehovah. For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, to hew them out cisterns, broken cisterns that hold no water.

Two sins that exemplify the foolishness of the human heart: (1) We turn away from God saying we don’t need Him and then (2) we go on to make our own “gods” to satisfy the very emptiness that was left within us by forsaking Him, in a vain attempt at trying to fill the hole that only He could have filled.

That foolishness is intensified by the fact that the waters we have turned away from are not ordinary waters but rather waters that satisfy forever… water that bring Life. It is the same thing Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well.

But what Scripture is Jesus alluding to? And what is the significance of the last day of the feast?

Barnes’ Notes on the Bible are always useful. He says:  

“On the last day of the feast it was customary to perform a solemn ceremony in this manner: The priest filled a golden vial with water from the fount of Siloam, which was borne with great solemnity, attended with the clangor of trumpets, through the gate of the temple, and being mixed with wine, was poured on the sacrifice on the altar. What was the origin of this custom is unknown. Some suppose, and not improbably, that it arose from an improper understanding of the passage in Isaiah 12:3; “With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.” It is certain that no such ceremony is commanded by Moses. It is supposed to be probable that Jesus stood and cried while they were performing this ceremony, that he might:

1. illustrate the nature of his doctrine by this; and, 2. call off their attention from a rite that was uncommanded, and that could not confer eternal life.

Jesus stood – In the temple, in the midst of thousands of the people: If any man thirst – Spiritually. If any man feels his need of salvation. (See John 4:13-14; Matthew 5:6; Revelation 22:17. The invitation is full and free to all.) Let him come unto me … – Instead of depending on this ceremony of drawing water let him come to me, the Messiah, and he shall find an ever-abundant supply for all the wants of his soul.”

Barnes then points out that maybe it wasn’t one particular Scripture that Jesus had in mind but Scripture in general; including passages like: Isaiah 58:11 and Jehovah will guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and strengthen thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a water-spring, whose waters deceive not.

And also:

Isaiah 44:2-4 And now hear, Jacob, my servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen: thus saith Jehovah, that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, who helpeth thee, Fear not, Jacob, my servant, and thou, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring. And they shall spring up among the grass, as willows by the water-courses.

Whatever the Scripture was, the point is that many in that crowd heard this cry and were moved in their heart:

John 7:40-44 [Some] out of the crowd therefore, having heard this word, said, This is truly the prophet. Others said, This is the Christ.

But then there were those that were still not ready to commit, ready to seize on any excuse:

Others said, Does then the Christ come out of Galilee? Has not the scripture said that the Christ comes of the seed of David, and from the village of Bethlehem, where David was? There was a division therefore in the crowd on account of him. But some of them desired to take him, but no one laid hands upon him.

And throughout this, the soldiers, the officers sent by the Pharisees have been listening… and they return to their masters, emptyhanded.

John 7:45-46 The officers therefore came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, Why have ye not brought him? The officers answered, Never man spoke thus, as this man [speaks].

Just as the crowd was divided, here the officers are divided in their hearts. They had a mission, a duty they were ordered to carry out. And yet, the Voice of God got through to their hearts. They were not necessarily ready to believe but they knew there was something here, someone here, that was above and beyond the power of the kingdom of the world to explain or control.

How many are there around us like this today? People who will admit they don’t know about Jesus, they don’t know what to think of Him… But when they hear His words, and listen to His story, something moves them in their heart… Because, they realize, no one ever spoke like He did.

I hope, that as believers, when we find ourselves in the presence of these people, that we do our very best not to get in the way of the Spirit; that we remember that we are but bondservants, and that God is the one doing the work… I hope that we can just stand there next to them, ready to help, ready to welcome them and walk with them along the Way.