“You will seek Me, and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.”
In that great Christmas movie, The Santa Clause, one of the elves makes an insightful statement about the possibility that Scott Calvin might actually be Santa Claus. He says, “Believing is seeing.”
In a different, and much more profound and important way, we find Jesus saying the exact same thing. However, He is not talking about Santa. He is talking about Himself, and His words are directed to the Pharisees, the chief priests, and the Jews (vv. 32-36).
As I thought about it, it dawned on me that Jesus’ words must have been both confusing and troubling for those who heard them. I don’t see how they could have listened to Jesus and not thought of Jeremiah 29:13, which says, “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” I would imagine the Jews of the day believed God to be seekable and find-able. And if they did, they were right.
Which means something else is going on. Jesus is pointing out, not God’s lack of findability, but the Jew’s lack of faith in the fact that He is the Messiah and that He is God. (And He has said that those who rejected Him reject the One who sent Him (Luke 10:16)). The people to whom Jesus is speaking are not seeking the LORD with all their heart because they are refusing to believe the testimony and works of Jesus. Because they are not believing, they are not seeing, and this means they will not find Jesus, or be able to join Him in heaven (John 8:21).
For Jesus, it all comes down to our belief in what He says about Himself. Do we believe He is the Christ? Do we believe He is God incarnate? Do we believe He is Our sinless sacrifice? Do we believe He is the Lord of all? If you do, thank Him for enabling this belief in your heart. But if you don’t, why not pray and ask Him to give you the ability to believe so that you may see for yourself? You’ll be glad you did.
Scott Smith
Care Pastor