32 The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. 33 Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. 34 You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.” 35 The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? 36 What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?” (John 7:32-36 – English Standard Version)
“You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.” In other part of the Bible, didn’t Jesus say, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you?” (Luke 11:9) Isn’t Jesus contradicting himself? Why would some people be able to find Jesus while others can not? I believe we would be able to seek Jesus only if we have a genuine heart to seek Him. The chief priests and Pharisees chased after Jesus because they wanted to arrest and kill Him. They sought Jesus to fulfill their personal agenda. I am certain that we do not hate Jesus and we would not put Him in a bad situation. However, sometimes we do seek Jesus to fulfill our selfish wants and needs. We do not have a genuine heart in seeking Him. We find Him with an expectation of Jesus fulfilling our hidden agenda. If our goal of seeking Jesus is to have our problem resolved and to have our needs met, we would never be able to find Jesus.
