Where Is Jesus Going?
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jeremy_2_08-07-2025_123013: Well, this is the 30th [00:01:00] episode of Rebuilding Faith, going through the Gospel of John.
Now I just wanna say thanks for being a part of it. It has been such a fun journey to dive into this gospel, to work our way through it. We're only in chapter seven, and I have loved hearing feedback from you guys each and every week on how you're using this.
Some of you are using this to supplement your weekend experience what you're doing in your own faith. C. Others, this has become what you do. And maybe because you had nothing else or you couldn't find something else as though this is what you're using each week. Either way, I'm so grateful that you're using this, that it's helpful and I love making it.
So with that, let's dive in to episode 30. Today we're talking about Jesus. He's at the temple still. We've been looking at this story in John seven, and I love the exchange we see beginning in verse 25. Some of the people who lived in Jerusalem started to ask each other, isn't this the man they're trying to kill?
But here he is speaking in public and they say nothing [00:02:00] to him. Could our leaders possibly believe that he is the Messiah? But how could he be for we know where this man comes from and when the Messiah comes, he'll simply appear. No one will know where he comes from. Now we've talked about earlier in the last few episodes, they didn't know this was Jesus.
They didn't recognize him. Now they've figured it out. Now they're putting two and two together going, oh, this guy claiming all these things. And everybody's talking about is this Messiah or not? This is Jesus who we've heard about. And precisely because they've heard about him, they don't think he can be the Messiah.
'cause as they say, they thought the Messiah would just appear. Would just show up on the scene. No one would know who it was, and that would be one of the indicators that this was the Messiah. But they're thinking, no, we've, we've heard about Jesus. We've heard these stories. We've heard about some of these things.
This can't be. The Messiah. In fact, [00:03:00] in the Babylonian Talmud, rabbi Zara was remembered to have said it like this. Three come Unawares Messiah, a found article, and a scorpion. I love that. Three things we're gonna shock you when the Messiah comes, when you found, you have found that last, you know, the lost sock that you've been looking for.
And a scorpion, and I can attest as someone who lives in Arizona, scorpion Zoo gets you unaware. And that was just the way they envisioned it. So now that they know who this is, now, they're discrediting Jesus for a totally different reason. Precisely because he's not an unknown. They have heard of him.
Verse 28, while Jesus was teaching in the temple, he called out. Yes, you know me and you know where I come from, but I'm not here on my own. The one who sent me is true, and you don't know him, but I know him because I come from him, and he sent me [00:04:00] to you. Then the leaders tried to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him because his time had not yet come.
Many among the crowds at the temple believed in him. After all, they said, would you expect the Messiah to do more miraculous signs than this man has done? When the Pharisees heard that the crowds were whispering such things, they and the leading priests sent temple guards to arrest Jesus. Now, we're not sure how Jesus gets away, but he has some trick to avoid them.
These aren't the droids you're looking for.
jeremy_2_08-07-2025_123013: Again, here we see John stressing the timing of Jesus. His time has not yet come. This is a theme we have seen throughout the gospel already. First it was his mom in John chapter two who was suggesting, Hey Jesus, show everybody what you can do, and he is like, whoa, whoa. My time has not yet come. Then his brothers earlier in chapter seven are like, Jesus, [00:05:00] go to the festival, show everybody who you are.
He's like, my time has not yet come. Now here you have the crowd. Like, let's go. Let's determine are you the Messiah or not? She's like, no, no, no. My time has not yet come. The tension is building in this story. Everyone's trying to figure out is this the Messiah, verse 33, but Jesus told them, I will be with you only a little longer and then I'll return to the one who sent me.
You'll search for me but not find me, and you cannot go where I am going. The Jewish leaders were puzzled by this statement. Where is he planning to go? They asked, is he thinking of leaving the country and going to the Jews in another land? Maybe he'll even teach the Greeks. What does he mean when he says, you will search for me but not find me and you cannot go where I am going?
There's great [00:06:00] foreshadowing here. They are using sarcasm. Oh, maybe he'll go teach the Greeks. And what we know is that this message will indeed go far beyond the juice, go far beyond this region of the world. In fact, it will infiltrate the entire world. This message will be known far and wide. It's something that they had not yet realized.
But John is beginning to tease this out that maybe this message is way bigger than anyone realizes. Now John is going to further this detail later in the story in a way that only his gospel does, and if we get to John chapter 19, we have the crucifixion of Jesus. John adds this detail that the other gospel writers don't include, says The place where Jesus was crucified was near the city and the sign was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek so that many [00:07:00] people could read it.
John points out specifically that all these languages have it so that all these people can experience what's going on. They can see for themselves who this Jesus is, and what we learn from this interaction is that nobody owns Jesus. Now, the Jews in this moment are kind of acting like they owned him, right?
He's one of theirs. He's one of their rabbis, one of their prophets. They can decide what to do with them or dismiss him, like where else is he gonna go to the Greeks? But what they didn't realize is that the Jews didn't own Jesus. They might go, yeah, yeah, they should have known that. But let me give you something that might be a little unsettling for you today.
Christians don't own Jesus either. Now that may be a little hard for you to hear 'cause we think, no, this is the religion all about Jesus. And I would say that its purest form. Yeah, it's about the person of Jesus, [00:08:00] but a lot of Christianity doesn't look like Jesus. And so just because we call something Christian or we name a Christian or in the umbrella of Christianity, doesn't mean we own Jesus exclusively.
You can find Jesus all over the place because Jesus is not contained within any structure we would contain him in. In fact, one of my favorite ways of thinking about this, and I came across this idea a while ago, I don't know where I first came across it, but not all roads lead to Jesus, but Jesus can be found walking.
On all roads, so it's not all roads lead to the same place. Doesn't matter what you believe. No, no, no. They don't all go to the same place. The gospel is different. But the shocking reality is even the roads that don't go to the same place, Jesus is also walking on those roads like I have met people and all world religions who have had profound experiences with Jesus, because Jesus can be found walking on [00:09:00] all roads.
That doesn't mean Jesus endorses all their beliefs anymore than Jesus endorses all my beliefs. But Jesus can be found walking on all roads, and so often we limit Jesus either just to the Bible, like that's, that's all that Jesus can do, whatever he did in the Bible and nothing else, or just within Christian thought.
And we fail to realize nobody owns Jesus. Friends, this has been bothering people for 2000 years. It bothered them. In this story, it continues to bother people. Today we want to own Jesus, but this is an invitation for you and I to realize Jesus doing something bigger and for us to join in. With that, I'll see you next week on Rebuilding Faith.
