John 8:21

21 Again He said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for Me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.”

John 8:21 Meaning and Commentary

John 8:21

Then said Jesus again unto them
It may be, immediately after he had said the above words; or rather some time after, it may be on the same day:

I go my way;
meaning, the way of all flesh, or that he should die: the way of speaking shows, that his death was certain, a determined thing; which must be, and yet was voluntary: he was not driven, nor forced, but went freely; this being the path, the way, through which he must enter into his kingdom and glory:

and ye shall seek me;
that is, shall seek the Messiah, as their deliverer and Saviour, when in distress; and whom he calls himself, because he was the true Messiah, and the only Saviour and Redeemer of his people, in a spiritual sense; otherwise they would not, nor did they seek Jesus of Nazareth:

and shall die in your sins;
or "in your sin"; so it is in the Greek text, and in the Vulgate Latin, and Persic versions: meaning, in their sin of unbelief, and rejection of him the true Messiah: the sense is, that in the midst of their calamities, which should come upon them, for their sin against him, they should in vain seek for the Messiah, as a temporal deliverer of them; for their nation, city, and temple, and they therein should utterly perish, for their iniquity; and their ruin would not only be temporal, but eternal: since it follows,

whither I, go ye cannot come,
signifying, that whereas he was going to his Father, to heaven and glory; to enjoy eternal happiness at his Father's right hand, in the human nature; they should never come there, but whilst many sat down in the kingdom of heaven, with their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who should come from afar, they would be shut out, and not suffered to enter in.

John 8:21 In-Context

19 “Where is Your Father?” they asked Him. “You do not know Me or My Father,” Jesus answered. “If you knew Me, you would know My Father as well.”

20 He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts, near the treasury. Yet no one seized Him, because His hour had not yet come.

21 Again He said to them, “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 began to ask, “Will He kill Himself, since He says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?”

23 Then He told them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.