John 7:25–36 – That You May Believe
3rd Sunday in Epiphany  – January 26, 2025 (am)     

Sometimes, when you’re listening to a dialogue—like an interview or, even better, a debate—you hear a statement that grabs your attention and you just lock in on it such that you barely hear anything that follows. We’re listening in on such a dialogue here in Joh.7. Having spoken about His sending from the Father as being like bread from heaven that gives life to the world and nurtures eternal life (6:50-51, 58), then the notable reduction in the size of His following after [that] (6:66), we’ve now been listening to Jesus’ discussion with his brothers about showing [himself] to the world at the Feast of Booths in Jerusalem (1-9), followed by His discussion with mixed group of Jews at that festival (10-24) who disagreed with one another on Who they thought Jesus was or whether anyone should believe in Him (12; cf. 6:29). We then paused mid-conversation last week as Jesus finished His point about His [healing] and the Sabbath (21-24) to ponder the implications of the compelling statement He made along the way: 17 If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether [Jesus’] teaching is from God….

Now, this week we’ll pause mid-conversation once again (just before the start of the most dramatic teaching from Jesus that John has record so far [37ff.]) to marvel at (cf. 21) the confusion of the Jews over Who He is and what to believe about Him. Pausing here can be very clarifying for us today even as it shows us just how close we can be to entirely right about Jesus even while we remain completely wrong. The unifying theme in this passage is that confusion about Jesus—thus our title today—but the insight that flows from two different groups wrestling with that confusion is at once both convicting and instructive: it exposes our self-important confidence in our perspectives, and thus at the same time it clarifies our great need for Jesus’ saving work. We’ll take those two groups one at a time.

The Jewish Crowds Wrestle to Understand Jesus – 25-31

Right on the heels of insightful instruction from Jesus on a richer understanding of the true meaning of Sabbath (21-23), anticipating all the blessings of eternal healing and rest in the Kingdom of God, along with a rather direct challenge to think more clearly about such things (24): 25 Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? Remember, some others had just charged Him with being demonized for even suggesting this possibility (20). Confusion continued over whether Jesus’ life was in danger or not, some groups being aware of the leaders’ developing plot (5:18), others not. 26 [Yet] here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! The natural next question is: Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? If they thought He wasn’t, surely they wouldn’t be letting Him get away with this! 27 But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.” Here’s a new category or confusion, the people’s understanding of where Jesus is from. We heard a bit of it back in Capernaum: Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? (6:42) It’s the same sort of question here. The idea isn’t that these folk were unaware of the prophecy that [Messiah] would be born in Bethlehem (Mic.5:2), the City of David. The problem here, and what they mean, is that they thought when [Messiah] came, He’d be hidden up until the moment He appeared and announced Himself as the Deliverer God’s people. There won’t be any of this back-and-forth wondering, this uncertainty about Him, whether this is or isn’t the Christ (Carson 1991 317-8).

That’s what led Jesus to expose their confusion a bit further. And here’s where we start to see how close one can be to right even while he remains fully wrong. 28 So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. What’s He saying? You think you know where I’m from but, if I am the Christ, you think you shouldn’t know. When all along you actually don’t know where I’m from, yet it’s the only place where the Christ can come from. I’m on mission from my Father, and I don’t mean Joseph. You know Joseph (6:42), but you don’t know my Father in heaven (28). 6:38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 29 I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.” Implication: I know Him. You don’t. I know where I’m from. You don’t. If I were not sent from God, I wouldn’t be the Christ. But I am sent from God. Meanwhile, You think you know where I’m from, and that suggests to you that I’m not the Christ. If I were only from there—if that’s the most that could be said about where I’m from—truly I couldn’t be the Christ. But in no genuine sense is the place you think I’m from, actually any sort of good description of where I actually am from. Yet, you’re right, I am from there! Thus, they were basically quite right, yet they were fully wrong!

30 So, bottom line, [the officials] were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, and here’s one of those displays of the sovereign hand of God that appears quietly without fanfare, without announcement, here without even being explicitly identified by the Gospel writer. It’s just one of those places where something that should’ve happened didn’t (cf. Luk.4:28-30) because God’s time for that thing hadn’t arrived. 30 … no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. 31 Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?” We’ve seen this isn’t a good test (2:23-25), but here they were.

The Jewish Leaders Wrestle to Understand Jesus – 32-36

And regardless, such statements didn’t sit well with their leaders. 32 The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest [Jesus]. But nothing further is said here about this initiative and it didn’t seem to have any discernible impact on this exchange. 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.” They moved to arrest him and the next thing John records is Him giving them His travel plans. That’s bold! Now, of course we know that these were not His travel plans so much as His statement about how the fulfilling of His mission would unfold. But think about what this sounded like to His hearers. He tells them where He’s going, then He tells them not only that [they] won’t find Him there, but that they’re not even able to go there. There’s no way that could make sense to them! But let’s borrow just a bit from next week’s passage to appreciate a bit more fully what happened here. 43 … there was a division among the people over [Jesus]. 44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. Fill it in: 30 … because his hour had not yet come. 45 The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” 46 The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!” They listened to Jesus and they just couldn’t do it! They couldn’t arrest Him. They were more willing to go back and face the leaders they’d disobeyed than they were to carry out their command—again, the invisible hand of God behind the details and timing of all that Jesus was doing. Do you think He’s any less involved today? 47 The Pharisees answered [the officers], “Have you also been deceived?”

Back here in our text: 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’?” Here again we’re seeing how close they can be to right even while remaining fully wrong. First, why isn’t their thought that Jesus was just speaking of returning to Galilee, to Capernaum, to His family? No, their thought in this situation—revealing a dynamic that John didn’t describe except by his including these closing questions—is that Jesus is going to take His teaching to the world, to the Jews of the [Diaspora] and the Greeks! Their instinctive reaction was that His message and mission were going to expand from this present exchange, confusing though it may be, and go to the world! They were right, of course, but they had no idea in this moment how or why. In fact, even though what they said was technically correct in some notable and strategic ways, they, in this moment, meaning what they meant, were entirely wrong. Jesus wasn’t going to go out into the Greek world to carry His message, He was going to send His trained disciples to do that (Act.1:8), to the Jews first but also to the Greek (Rom.1:16), the Gentiles, the non-Jews. That’s exactly where this was headed. But Jesus would return to the Father before all that happened—surely a place where these unbelieving, scoffing leaders of Israel could not come.

Conclusion

So, what do we learn from this? Surely this tendency is still alive and well in our world today to make statements about God that are actually quite right even while they’re fully wrong. Just one example: people delight to say that God is love. And that’s surely true (1Jo.4:19). But often what they mean by it is something entirely wrong. We can hear God is love as saying that God is equally gentle and kind with all, that He doesn’t disapprove of anyone’s actions or involvements or decisions, that He doesn’t set a standard by which all are measured and dispense consequences on any who don’t measure up.

Many in our day have never caught the connection between what’s happening here and what eventually happened to Jesus on the cross, not to mention all the rich instruction in that same direction He’s about to begin right here in this scene—37 … If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” 8:22 … I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Many have missed the fact that what happened to Jesus at the cross is a depiction of the wrath of God falling on sin, and that it will fall upon all who’ve not believed in [Him], who’ve not [drunk] from His living water, not followed His light, not trusted in Him with Spirit-empowered faith such that it’s describable as eating [His] flesh and drinking [His] blood (6:53-54).

We need to take this with us as we carry the light of the gospel into this world. It’s a helpful category as we talk to people who speak rather confidently about God, their God as opposed to ours, and how He operates in this world. We need to have sense of confidence to say with compassion and understanding, with mercy and grace, that it’s possible to make statements about God that may in some ways be quite right even while in the most important ways are completely wrong. That’s an important insight to gain from John’s Gospel—for our own lives and for our gospel witness in these very confusing days—and, in my estimation, it’s well worthy of pausing to note before digging into Jesus’ powerful and profound teaching on the last and great day of the feast (37).

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Resources

Arnold, Clinton E., gen. ed. 2002. Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary. Vol. 2, John, Acts. John, by Andreas J. Köstenberger, 2-196. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Barclay, William. 1975. The Daily Study Bible Series. The Gospel of John, Revised Edition. Louisville: Westminster John Knox.

Beale, G. K., & D. A. Carson, eds. 2007. Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. John, by Andreas J. Köstenberger, 415-512. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.

Bruce, F. F. 1983. The Gospel of John. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

                  , Gordon D. Fee, & Ned B. Stonehouse, gen. eds. 1995. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. The Gospel According to John, Revised Edition, by Leon Morris. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Calvin, John. 1553. Commentary on the Gospel According to John, trans. by, William Pringle. Logos.

Carson, D. A., gen. ed. 1991. The Pillar New Testament Commentary. The Gospel According to John, by D. A. Carson. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

                  , R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, & G. J. Wenham, eds. 1994. New Bible Commentary 21st Century Edition. John, by Donald Guthrie, 1021-1065. Leicester, Eng.: InterVarsity.

Clendenen, Ray E., gen. ed. 1996. The New American Commentary. Vol. 25, John, by Gerald L. Borchert. Nashville: Broadman & Holman.

Dever, Mark. 2005. The Message of the New Testament. Ch. 4, The Message of John: Jesus, the Son of God, 101-122. Wheaton: Crossway.

Grudem, Wayne, ed. 2008. ESV Study Bible. Study notes on John, 2015-2072, by Andreas J. Köstenberger. Wheaton: Crossway.

Longman III, Tremper, & David E. Garland, eds. 2007. Revised Expositor’s Bible Commentary. Vol. 10, Luke-Acts. John, by Robert H. Mounce, 357-661. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Martin, Ralph P., & Lynn Allan Losie, NT eds. 1999. Word Biblical Commentary. Vol. 36, John, Second Edition, by George R. Beasley-Murray. Dallas: Word.

Morris, Leon, gen. ed. 2003. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Vol. 4, John, by Colin G. Kruse. Downers Grove: InterVarsity.

Osborne, Grant, ed. 1993. Life Application Bible Commentary. John, by Bruce B. Barton, Philip W. Comfort, David R. Veerman, & Neil Wilson. Wheaton: Tyndale.

Tasker, R. V. G. 2000. Tyndale New Testament Commentary. Vol. 4, John. Leicester, Eng.: InterVarsity.

Tenney, Merrill C. 1976. John: The Gospel of Belief. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

NEXT SUNDAY: Are You Thirsty? John 7:37–52, Dave Newton