John routinely presents Jesus speaking over the heads of his hearers, as if he is in on a joke no one else in the narrative gets. Yet, all the while, John seems to expect that we are in on the joke, understand its background, and laugh at its punchline. Here, that routine occurrence happens again in Jesus’ enigmatic statement that he will be leaving, and we will neither find him nor are able to follow him. Today, we will try to unpack this statement, to see in it many warnings against unbelief. Much like an inside joke, we can also see the layers of this statement, and see how it means different thing to different groups.
