John 7:33

‘Jesus therefore said, “Yet a little while I am with you, and I am going to him who sent me. You will seek me and you will not find me, and where I am you cannot come.” '

Aware of the growing situation Jesus said to those who were around Him, which included a number of Judaisers, ‘I will be with you a short while. Then I will go to Him Who sent me'. Jesus knew now that His time was short. He was in no doubt about their intentions, and He was ready for it. But He knew that then He would return to His Father Who had sent Him.

‘You will look for me and will not find me, and where I am you cannot come'. Compare ‘They will seek me diligently, but they shall not find me, because they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord' (Proverbs 1:28), spoken of the wisdom of God, and ‘they will go to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, but they will not find it' (Amos 8:12) spoken of the word of God. There is here, for those who will hear, a reminder that He has brought the wisdom and word of God. But the main thought is twofold. Firstly that they would look for Him at the feast of the Passover and be unable to find Him because He would have gone to His death, whilst it would take time for the news of His death to spread around because it would have been done surreptitiously. Then they would not be able to follow Him where He was going because He was going to His Father. His disappearance would be a triumph and not a tragedy.

But the thought is also contained that, having rejected Jesus, they would continue looking for the Messiah, but would never find Him, for because of the hardness of their hearts He would have gone where they could not come. They would have lost their opportunity. And it was somewhere that they would never go unless they believed and were saved.

He was still trying to make them think about things, but all it did was puzzle them. They could not believe that such Scriptures applied to them.