Lecture 4 — Prophecy of Christ’s death

^7:33^ Jesus therefore said to them: Yet a little while I am with you, and then I am going to him who sent me. [n. 1073]

^7:34^ You will seek me and will not find me; and where I am, you are not able to come. [n. 1076]

^7:35^ The Jews therefore said among themselves: where will he go that we will not find him? Will he go to the dispersed among the gentiles and teach the gentiles? [n. 1079]

^7:36^ What is this saying that he has said: you will seek me and will not find me; and where I am, you are not able to come? [n. 1082]

1072. After our Lord told the principle of his origin, he then mentions his end, i.e., where he would go by dying.

First, the end of Christ’s life is given;

second, we see that the people are puzzled by what he says, at the Jews therefore said among themselves: where will he go that we will not find him?

As to the first he does three things.

First, the end of his life is mentioned;

second, he predicts what they will desire in the future, at you will seek me and will not find me; and

third, he mentions one of their deficiencies, at and where I am, you are not able to come.

He does two things about the first.

First, he predicts the delay of his death until later; and

second, he states where he will go by dying, at I go to the Father, and you shall see me no more (John 16:5). And so, in the first, he shows his power; and in the second, his will to suffer.

1073. Our Lord shows his power by the delaying of his death until later; because, although the Jews wanted to seize him, they could not do this until Christ willed. No man takes it away from me, but I lay it down of myself (John 10:18). And so Jesus said: yet a little while I am with you. As if to say: you want to kill me; but this does not depend on your will, but on my will. And I have decided that yet a little while I am with you; so wait a while. You will do what you want to do, for yet a little while I am with you. These words of our Lord first of all satisfied those people who honored him, and made them more eager to listen to him because there was only a short time left to receive his teaching, as Chrysostom says. While you have the light, believe in the light (John 12:36). Second, he satisfied those who were persecuting him. As if to say: your desire for my death will not be delayed long; so be patient, because it is a little while. For I must accomplish my mission: to preach, to perform miracles, and then to come to my passion. Go and tell that fox that I will work today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will finish my course (Luke 13:32).

1074. There are three reasons why Christ wished to preach for only a short time. First, to show his power, by transforming the entire world in such a brief time: one day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere (Ps 83:11).

Second, to arouse the desire of his disciples, i.e., to desire him more, him whose physical presence they would have for only a short time: the days will come when you will desire to see one day of the Son of man (Luke 17:22).

Third, to accelerate the spiritual progress of his disciples. For since the humanity of Christ is our way to God, as it says below, I am the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14:6), we should not rest in it as a goal, but through it tend to God. And so that the hearts of his disciples, which were moved by the physical presence of Christ, would not rest in him as man, he quickly took his physical presence from them; thus he said: **it is expedient to you that I go **(John 16:7); if we knew Christ according to the flesh i.e., when he was physically present to us now we no longer know him in this way (2 Cor 5:16).

1075. He shows his desire for his passion when he says, then I am going to him who sent me (John 16:5), that is, willingly, by my passion: he was offered because it was his own will (Isa 53:7); he gave himself for us, an offering to God (Eph 5:2). Now I go, I say, to the Father, **to him who sent me **(John 16:5). And this is appropriate, for everything naturally returns to its principle: rivers return to the place from which they come (Eccl 1:7); knowing . . . that he came from God, and was going to God (John 13:3). And again: I am going to him who sent me (John 16:5).

1076. When he says, you will seek me and will not find me, he is predicting what the Jews will desire in the times to come. As if to say: you can enjoy my teaching for a short time; but this brief time, which you are now rejecting, you will look for later, and you will not find it: search for the Lord while he can be found (Isa 55:6); and seek the Lord at the present time*, and your soul will live* (Ps 68:33).

1077. This statement, you will seek me and will not find me, can be understood either as a physical search for Christ or as a spiritual search.

If we understand it as a physical search, then, according to Chrysostom, this is the way he was sought by the daughters of Jerusalem, i.e., the women who cried for him (Luke 23:27); and no doubt many others were affected at the same time. It is not unreasonable to think that when trouble was near, especially when their city was being captured, the Jews remembered Christ and his miracles and wished that he were there to free them. And in this way, you will seek me, i.e., for me to be physically present, and will not find me.

If we understand this as a spiritual search for Christ, then we should say, as Augustine does, that although they refused to recognize Christ while he was among them, they later looked for him, after they had seen the people believe and had themselves been stung by the crime of his death; and they said to Peter: brothers, what shall we do? (Acts 2:37). In this way, they were looking for Christ whom they saw die as a result of their crime when they believed in him who forgave them.

1078. Then when he says, and where I am, you are not able to come, he points out one of their deficiencies. He does not say, and where I am going, which would be more in keeping with the earlier thought, I am going, to the Father, to him who sent me (John 16:5). He says rather, where I am, to show that he is both God and man. He is man insofar as he is going: I am going to him who sent me (John 16:5). But insofar as Christ had always been where he was about to return, he shows that he is God: and no man has ascended into heaven, except he who descended from heaven (John 3:13). And so, as Augustine says, just as Christ returned in such a way as not to leave us, so he came down to us, when he assumed visible flesh, but in such a way as still to be in heaven according to his invisible greatness.

He does not say, you will not find, because some were about to go; but he does say, you are not able to come, i.e., as long as you keep your present attitude; for no one can obtain the eternal inheritance, unless he is God’s heir. And one becomes an heir of God by faith in Christ: he gave them power to be made the sons of God, to those who believe in his name (John 1:12). But the Jews did not yet believe in him; and so he says, you will not be able to come. In the Psalm it is asked: who will ascend the mountain of the Lord? And the answer given is: those whose hands are innocent and whose hearts are clean (Ps 23:3). But the hearts of the Jews were not clean, nor were their hands innocent, because they wanted to kill Christ. And so he says: you are not able to ascend the mountain of the Lord.

1079. Then, at the Jews therefore said among themselves, we see that this was bewildering to the Jews, who, although they thought of Christ in a worldly way, still did believe to a certain extent.

And three things happen here.

First, they are astonished;

second, they form an opinion, and

third, they argue against their own opinion.

1080. They are perplexed when they say to each other: where will he go that we will not find him? For, as was said, they understood this in a physical way: the sensual man does not perceive those things that pertain to the Spirit of God (1 Cor 2:14).

1081. And so they came to the opinion that Christ was going to go in a physical way, not by dying, to some place where they would not be permitted to go. Thus they say: will he go to the dispersed among the gentiles and teach the gentiles? For the gentiles were separated from the way of life of the Jews: separated from Israel’s way of life, strangers to the covenants, without hope in the promise, and without God in this world (Eph 2:12). And so they said, in a way reproaching him, to those dispersed among the gentiles, who had settled in many different places: these are the families of Noah . . . and they settled among the nations on the earth after the flood (Gen 10:32). But the Jewish people were united by place, by their worship of the one God, and by the observance of the law: the Lord builds up Jerusalem, and he will gather the dispersed of Israel (Ps 146:2).

They did not say that he would go to the gentiles to become a gentile himself, but to bring them back; and so they said, and teach the gentiles. They probably took this from Isaiah: I have given you to be a light to the gentiles, to be my salvation to the ends of the earth (Isa 49:6). However, even though they did not understand what they were saying just as Caiphas did not understand his own words: it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people and that the whole nation should not perish (John 11:50), what they said was true, and they were predicting the salvation of the gentiles, as Augustine says, for Christ would go to the gentiles, not in his own body, but by his feet, i.e., his apostles. For he sent his own members to us to make us his members. And other sheep I have that are not of this fold: those also I must bring, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one fold and one shepherd (John 10:16). And so Isaiah says, speaking for the gentiles: he will teach us his ways (Isa 2:3).

1082. Finally, they saw an objection to their own opinion when they said: what is this saying that he has said: you will seek me? As if to say: if he had said only, you will look for me, and you will not find me, we could think that he was going to the gentiles. But he seems to exclude this when he adds, where I am, you are not be able to come, for we can go to the gentiles.