You will look for me, and you will die in your sin.

John 8:21 Once more Jesus said to them, "I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come."

As I was reading my Bible today, this verse seemed to jump off the page at me.  I was struck by it because I always thought if someone was looking for Jesus He would be found by them.

But I got to thinking about who Jesus was addressing here.  He was addressing the Scribes and Pharisees who didn't like Jesus as He is.  They were seeking a Christ of their own making and imagination.  They didn't want a Christ who would point out their sin.  They didn't want a Christ who claimed equality with and was equal with God.  They didn't want a Christ who had no formal education or training teaching them or the people in the temple. They didn't want a Christ who violated their man-made religious rules.  They didn't want a Christ who proved them to be hypocrites.

They wanted a Christ who would fit into their prescribed mold and would do what they wanted and expected Him to do.  Jesus Christ did not fit that mold and so they wanted to kill Him.

How many people are there today who are looking for Jesus Christ, but refuse to accept Jesus Christ as He is revealed in the Bible?    They don't want to accept that He is God.  No, they want a Jesus Christ who is a god, one of many.  But John 5:18 says,  "For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God."  The Pharisees were well aware of what He claimed.

How many are looking for a God that is all love and no anger or wrath?  Yet, the God of the Bible has both.
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:36 "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."

These people, sadly, are seeking a Jesus Christ and God of their own making and imagination.  I pray that one day, they will see the light of the truth of God's Word.