21 Again he said to them, “I go away, and you will seek me and die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.”
Jesus is still speaking to the Pharisees who co-occupied the leading head of the Old Covenant people. He has just been establishing, although to the Pharisees confusion, that God is both his father and his witness to his mission and works here on earth.
Jesus is now talking about future events, referring to his death at the hands of the Jews but more specifically where he will go after his resurrection and ascension. He does so without explicitly stating the location in these readings and instead describes aspects of it. This place he is going to is away from earth, the Pharisees and others like them will seek him but they will die in their sin. The circumstances that the Pharisees are in which isn’t the Old Covenant per se but their limited understanding of the Old Covenant mean they will not be redeemed, they will die in their sin, separated from God. This circumstance prevents them from going to where Jesus is going, Heaven. Basically he is saying that they are damned if they remain this way, they cannot go to Heaven how they are. Whether Jesus is predicting their future or is explaining the concreteness of their current mode of existence unless they change is up for interpretation.
22 Then said the Jews, “Will he kill himself, since he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?”
Since the eternal beatitude of Heaven is somewhat of a revelation to the Old Covenant people and the Pharisees presume themselves to receive whatever possible positive reward after death, they can only interpret Jesus’ words as a declaration of suicide and therefore damnation upon himself. In their minds, the only place that Jesus could go that they couldn’t go to is the dark, suffering side of Sheol. They couldn’t possibly go there because they are so holy, according to themselves. Jesus is talking about his own death but they can’t quite get the angling right.
23 He said to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.
Although Adam was a son of God, he was also made from dust. That from above component of his being that made him a son of God was severed following his fall along with his wife and all their descendants. So all people are “from below” from the perspective of divine beings, not in the context of space but in the context of divine hierarchy. Jesus although having a human nature also has a divine nature, this makes him “from above”. The supernatural can contain the natural but the natural cannot contain the supernatural. This is why Jesus can be in the world but not be of it, people however are of the world but cannot be apart of the heavenly unless their nature fundamentally changes. This is why transubstantiation is so important in the Eucharist, its not something invented by medieval Catholics, a coherent Eucharistology goes hand in hand with a coherent coventology.
The separation that Jesus is describing here between himself and the Jews is the wound that his covenant fixes.
24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he.”
Now Jesus is explaining that the division is mendable but it is dependant on the Jews recognising who he is. Although most translations render the phrase as “that I am he.” it is important to note that the Church has always seen this as “that I am.” It is one of Jesus’ divine admissions. Referring to himself as Yahweh.
25 They said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Even what I have told you from the beginning.
This verse is widely debated and because the original Greek has no punctuation Jesus’ response can be translated many different ways, even in this translation we see here the phrase doesn’t flow very nicely at all. The Pharisees clearly ask Jesus “Who are you?” this question follows Jesus’ repeated explanations of him being from above, his father being God, his father being with him.
Typically the phrasing is considered to mean “I am what I have been telling you from the beginning.” But its possible that since this is the basically the end of multiple explanations that the Pharisees fail to comprehend, Jesus is actually saying
“‘I am the Beginning—what I have been declaring to you all along.’”
This would correspond with John’s other writings in Revelation where Jesus tells him that he is “the Beginning and the End” and Paul’s letter to the Colossians “He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.”
26 I have much to say about you and much to judge; but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.”
27 They did not understand that he spoke to them of the Father.
Jesus now circles back to his original point, everything he is saying is true, the qualifier is the fact that his father has sent him to do it and his father cannot be wrong because he is God. He himself is with the father and by being his son shares that nature and is therefore God also. This is all falls on deaf ears as the Pharisees cannot understand what he means, John as a little editorial informing the reader that Jesus’ listeners do not understand.
28 So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority but speak thus as the Father taught me.
29 And he who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him.”
30 As he spoke thus, many believed in him.
Now Jesus is most likely referring to his crucifixion as the ones doing the lifting are his audience, not God who raises Jesus from the dead and is the cause of his ascension. At this point his listeners who do not understand or believe, will know that Jesus is “I am”, another divine identification statement. Everything that Jesus does is a part of his relationship with the father who sent him. John then concludes the interaction by tells us that many did believe him after these statements but it is likely not those previously described as not understanding but onlookers who observed the conversation.
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