John 7:35-36 35Then the Jews said to one another, “Where is this man about to go that we ourselves will not find him? Is he about to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? 36What is this word which he speaks, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you are not able to come’?”
The news of Jesus’ soon departure from the previous verses elicited a response from the crowd of Jews listening to him. They were confused again about what Jesus said. Jesus’ teachings can be confusing to those who do not believe. Faith opens the door to understanding. Even his closest disciples did not always understand the significance of what he taught. Only later, after his resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit did they begin to put the pieces of the puzzle together. The naïveté of the people because evident in these verses. They were thinking on the earthly level, which is the first and natural human response. Jesus was very popular with crowds following him around. He could not easily hide. So, the people thought they could easily find him and follow him. He was a public figure who was out in the open.
Someone came up with the wild theory that he would travel around to the Dispersion or Diaspora. By that point in history, Jews who had fled the Babylonian invasion and other foreign domination lived all over the Roman Empire. Jesus could have had a “worldwide” ministry and global impact if he wanted, but he would save that for his followers, who would learn to trust him for their journey of witnessing. One question about verse 35 is who were the Greeks? Likely, the people were thinking about Greek-speaking Jews, but Jesus had a greater goal of Greek-speaking Gentiles. God the Father sent him for the whole world, both Jews and Gentiles.
The crowd’s repeat of Jesus’ statement in verse 36 only adds to the conclusion that they were slow to understand and, thus, to believe. They were missing the essential link between Jesus and God. They had not come to believe that Jesus was the incarnated Son of God. These words coming from their own lips are the sad statement of unbelievers. They look for truth and what Jesus offers but cannot find it because they do not first find him. The implied sequence in this verse is: find Jesus, find eternal life.
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