He said to them again, “I am going away and you will look for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going you cannot come.” 22 So the Jews said, “He is not going to kill himself, is he, because he said, ‘Where I am going you cannot come’?” 23 He said to them, “You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above. You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world. 24 That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.” 25 So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning. 26 I have much to say about you in condemnation. But the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world.” 27 They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father. 28 So Jesus said [to them], “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. 29 The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him.” 30 Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.
Jesus repeated what he said in John 7:34 and he will also say the same thing at the last supper (Jn. 13:33). He said that he was returning to the Father and they will die in their sin but they did not understand (v. 21). The Jews will seek the Messiah but in their stubborn unbelief, they rejected him. For John, unbelief was a personal sin so Jesus was telling the Jews that they will die in their sins. The crowd mockingly asked amongst themselves, “He is not going to kill himself, is he (v. 22)?” In their ignorance they spoke the truth but did not realize it as Jesus would not commit suicide but would sacrifice his life for the salvation of the world. The crowd could not go where Jesus was going because he came from his Father in heaven, but they were of an earthly origin. They belonged to different realms, and they could not grasp spiritual things that can only be known by faith (v. 23).
Jesus repeated that they will die in their sins because they did not accept that he was the revelation of God (v. 24, 28; Jn. 13:19). They asked Jesus, “Who are you (v. 25)? Jesus said that he told them who he was from the beginning and that he could condemn them for many things. The one who sent him is true and he speaks only what he hears from him. They did not realize he was speaking about the Father so Jesus told them that when they crucify him, they will realize that he came from God, that he is the light of the world, and that he always does what is pleasing to his Father. Many were converted by his words.
Almighty God, you sent your son to bring light into the darkness of this world and to lead all those who believe in him along the path of everlasting life. In your mercy, increase our faith and help our unbelief. This we pray through Chris our Lord. Amen.
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
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