John 13:36 Commentary and Bible Study

And here we see something of the inadequacies and imperfections in the understanding of the disciples. Simon Peter represents them all when he asks this question. He still does not understand that Christ is about to die, even less, that he is about to die as the ultimate sacrifice for sin.As we go through the Gospel record, Christ has told them three times very clearly, even before they went to Jerusalem this final time; he has said to them, ‘I shall be arrested and taken by wicked hands and crucified and slain, and then I shall rise again from the dead.’ He has said this at least three times, and if we understand Gospel record perfectly, we would say four, and some say even five times. But certainly on three different occasions he has explained these events to them.But they did not take it in. They so loved him, and they had it so firmly fixed in their minds that he was going to be an earthly deliverer and set up an earthly Israelite empire, and they were going to be the supreme nation, and he was going to be king and ruler. That was what was mistakenly taught by the Jewish leaders at that time, quite out of line with all the prophecies and teaching of the Old Testament. However, that is what was fixed in their heads, and they were not going to surrender it easily.Maybe Simon Peter thought that with all the opposition, Christ would leave Judea and Galilee and go maybe to the Gentile lands and speak to them. Jesus answered him in a rather veiled way: ‘Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now.’ In other words, I am going to suffer and to die, and it is not time for you to follow me yet. The church has to be established. The apostles have a long ministry before them as Christ’s representative. But Peter will follow him, he will suffer crucifixion just as Christ suffered crucifixion. He will be a martyr; he will suffer at the hands of the Romans ultimately. ‘Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now.’ And Peter did not realise what he was telling him. ‘But thou shalt follow me afterwards,’ later.