NOTES for Joh 7:1-36

This must be one of the strangest dialogues in the Gospel. It seems that the Jews simply do not understand what Jesus is talking about, while He Himself does not answer their words but says things that seem unrelated. Yet if the statements of the people and of Jesus are considered separately, their logical coherence immediately becomes apparent. They are simply carrying on the conversation, if it can be called a conversation at all, in different directions. The Lord speaks of His mission: to bring people the word about the Father, for He Himself is the Father’s Word; the crowd’s replies reveal their complete failure to understand it. At times it seems that this situation is repeated again and again: Christ speaks to us through the Gospel, and we answer Him about something entirely different. To some extent this is natural, for we belong to different worlds—He is “from above,” while we are “from below.” He speaks of what we have not seen but He has seen. This is not a lecture; it is testimony. It can be grasped only through the love and faithfulness of the disciples who, although they do not yet fully understand or believe perfectly, feel that Jesus speaks the words of eternal life and do not wish to leave Him.