Back then in AD 30 Jerusalem at the feast of Tents, “many from the crowd” were becoming convinced that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, so great were the signs that he was actually doing among them. The reaction of the religious political Pharisee party? “Arrest him!”
Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I depart to him who sent me. You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.” 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? What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”
Jesus confirms that he will be with them only “a little longer” and then he will go to where they, although seeking him, “will not find” him. They will seek and not find him. Moreover, ‘Where I am you cannot come.” At a future time, no contact with him will ever be possible.
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On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
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But he has not yet gone from them. He cries out to “anyone who thirsts”, “Come to me and drink!”, to have “living water in [your] hearts”.
When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” So there was a division among the people over him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.
The people are divided. Each person is convinced in his/her own heart.
The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!”
What about the religious political Pharisee party and its arrest warrant? They have joined forces with “the chief priests” – the untarnished religious. What a blow to their (joint) authority. Their officers haven’t obeyed their orders. They’re endorsing the man they were instructed to arrest….
The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.”
The officers are interrogated for culpable gullibility. And for failure to follow - in their hearts – the beliefs of “the authorities or the Pharisees”. Even in our democracy-endorsing world, the authorities believe in themselves.
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Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”
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“Nicodemus” had indeed met Jesus earlier (Info for Islanders 28 November 2024). He raised a valid legal point. Straightaway he is accused (if not condemned) for two things.
First, was he then, also, “from Galilee”? Galileans were all corrupted, from centuries earlier. Second, they said that the Bible’s Old Testament confirmed that “no prophet arises from Galilee”. In fact, the OT prophet Jonah was a Galilean. And Jesus wasn’t from Galilee anyway.
“No one ever spoke like this man!” Who, on earth, is he?
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